It is worth highlighting the accents right away: in its current state, the Armata tank will not be able to take on board a 152 mm gun. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the length of the BPS of a larger caliber significantly exceeds the length of a similar projectile of 125 mm caliber, and the T-14 hull is designed just for the height of the traditional ammunition. The vertically located ammunition rack in the automatic loader of the new Russian tank will not be able to receive a projectile and a propellant charge of 152 mm caliber. It becomes necessary to either increase the height of the hull (and this is already a fundamental restructuring of the machine), or the need to introduce a horizontal automatic loader. Such work was carried out within the framework of the design of the T-95, and the loading mechanism of the CAO 2S19 "Msta-S" was taken as the basis. But natural problems arose: the significant dimensions of such an automatic loader had a negative effect on the layout of the vehicle, and the location of a part of the ammunition load behind the turret inevitably caused an imbalance in the design.
Automatic loader of horizontal type on the machine "Object 640". Source: "Equipment and weapons"
Secondly, for the 152-mm cannon, new sighting systems are needed using an all-weather radar channel, which the T-14 does not yet have (no matter what uninformed experts say). The fact is that such a serious caliber on a tank allows it to behave on the battlefield like the "Tigers" in World War II. That is, due to the outstanding weapon, direct fire at enemy tanks out of the reach of their guns, and with a guaranteed defeat from the first shot. And such ranges of work require just the use of an all-weather radar sight. And talk about the supposedly excessive power of a large-caliber tank projectile has no foundation: 100% defeat of any tank in the world in a frontal projection is confirmation of this. Now the T-14, even if it has the world's best tank gun, the 2A82-1M, but in a duel in NATO vehicles, it will have an advantage mainly due to more effective protection of the frontal part, coupled with the KAZ. That is, there is no decisive advantage in firepower yet, especially since the Germans are already working on the Rh120L55A1, which will be on a par with the main caliber of the "Armata". And of course, the promising development of Rheinmetall Defense Rh130L51 in 130 mm caliber, which in the future may well become a serious problem for our equipment on the battlefield. It is not the first day in the West that they have been working on the problem of a large caliber for the main tank.
Experienced "Leopard 2" with a 140-mm cannon. Source: aw.my.com
The Germans even tested the 140-mm NPzK-140 gun on the second Leopard, but they did not send it into production because of the significant recoil, which the tank tolerated very poorly. By the beginning of the 90s, the British prepared two 140-mm guns at once from the Defense Research Agency and the Royal Ordnance company, the tests of which showed fundamental fire superiority in battle over any enemy equipment. But the Soviet Union collapsed, and work in this direction was curtailed. Everyone decided that 120 mm would be enough for local wars. Later, the Americans considered the modernization of the Abrams under the Block III program, equipped with a 140-mm cannon, with a muzzle energy twice that of the existing one. And then suddenly "Armata" with 125 millimeters … There is a version of the existing "status quo" in tank armament, when the approximate parity in capabilities suits everyone. And any "upstart" with a caliber of 152 or 140 mm will only accelerate the next round of the tank arms race, because NATO has something to respond to the increase in the Russian caliber. It's a pity only time and money. Everything was ready for the "Armata-152" in Russia. We have no problems with radars for the new weapon: the prototype Object 195 had a T05-CE1 surveillance radar from the St. Petersburg Design Bureau “Sistema”, and the Chrysanthemum anti-tank complex was equipped with a radar sight from the Tula NPO Strela. This technique could have taken place in the T-14, but for some reason this did not happen. Our military-industrial complex also has rich competencies in the issue of tank guns with a caliber of over 125 mm. This was one of the directions in the work of the tank design bureaus of the USSR, aimed at promising guns in 130, 140 and 152 mm. Were created and armored vehicles for such weapons - "Object 225", "Object 226", "Object 785", "Object 477", "Object 299" and "Object 195" (T-95).
Domestic experienced tanks with high-power cannons. Source: "Equipment and weapons"
As the main weapon, it was supposed to use the LP-83 cannon (152, 4 mm) from the design bureau of the Kirov plant, or the 2A50 or LP-36 of 130 mm caliber. The LP-83 cannon was developed in the Nizhny Novgorod Central Research Institute "Petrel" and approached the issue very thoroughly - the chrome-plated barrel made it possible to withstand a pressure of insane 7000 kg / cm2, which ensured excellent ballistics and quite tolerable barrel survivability. At the test site in Rzhevsk, they worked with such a gun on a decommissioned T-72 - as a result, gaping gaps with completely destroyed internal equipment remained on the tower. However, on October 22, 2007 "Object 292" with an LP-83 cannon was sent to an eternal parking lot in Kubinka. Much earlier, at the very end of the 70s, they experimented with an anti-tank self-propelled gun under the code "Sprut-S" based on the T-72, which was supposed to be built in two versions.
Sketch of the experimental tank "Object 299". Source: "Equipment and weapons"
In the first case, a 125-mm 2A66 or D-91 high-power cannon was installed on the vehicle, and in the second, a powerful 152-mm smooth-bore cannon 2A58. One of the reasons for the closure of the project (in 1982) at the technical design stage was the lack of an acceptable radar sight. However, the developments on the project were taken for the Kharkov experimental tank "Object 477" with a 152-mm gun, and it was decided to install the cannon of increased power 2A66 on tanks during modernization. At the beginning of the 90s, the Improvement-88 project was formed in Nizhny Tagil, during which two 152-mm guns were proposed for the tank - 2A73 (2A73M) for the "Object 195" and 2A83 for the "Object-195". Armored vehicles under the index 195 were even built in duplicate and were tested, but the entire tank program, based on the 152-mm caliber, was closed by order of the then "Marshal" Serdyukov. Tests of the gun showed that with an impulse 1.5 times greater than that of a 125 mm, the recoil was approximately equal. This made it possible to put the gun on the base of any domestic main tank - all that remained was to resolve the issue with the automatic loader and the placement of ammunition. Later, the 2A83 cannon, developed at the Yekaterinburg plant number 9, showed a direct firing range of 5100 meters with armor penetration, obviously, of a cumulative projectile, of 1024 mm.
Tank "Object 292" with a 152, 4 mm cannon. Source: wikipedia.ru
A remarkable property was the initial flight speed of the 152 mm BPS, which was 1980 m / s, and at a distance of 2000 meters it decreased by only 80 m / s. Here, domestic engineers came close to the 2000 m / s line, which, according to Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin, is the "ceiling" for gunpowder artillery. The high degree of unification of the gun with a similar one in the Msta-S made it possible to fire with corrected ammunition, such as the Krasnopol, which significantly expanded the field of activity of the tank. Despite all this, in the end, the "Object 148" or, as it is known in wider circles, the T-14 "Armata", was supplied with the 2A82-1M gun, which undoubtedly occupies a leading place in the world of tank guns. Unfortunately, the modernization potential of tank calibers 120-125 mm is already approaching its logical end. It is for this reason that the media occasionally pop up statements by the functionaries of JSC "NPK" Uralvagonzavod "about the possibility of the appearance on" Armata "of guns with a caliber greater than the current one. But for the reasons described above, this is unlikely. So why wait? And, obviously, you will have to wait for the next "St. John's wort" with a 152 mm cannon based on the platform (and not the tank) of the T-14, the main tasks of which will be the destruction of fortified objects, as well as support for motorized infantry and tank formations. It will be a "long arm" weapon capable of striking the enemy at distances exceeding the capabilities of their main caliber. After the appearance of the T-14 "Armata", our defense department, obviously, tracked the reaction of the West, and he, as you know, responded with a build-up of caliber. It was necessary to remain silent, then there would be no statements about the creation of a Russian machine with a 152-mm cannon. In this case, even the German 140-mm gun will be one step behind the Armata-152 platform.
The conceptual foundations of the conduct of hostilities with NATO countries, if at all, have undergone changes, then to an insignificant extent. Ever since the days of the USSR, Western armies could not afford to quantitatively equate their fleet of armored vehicles with our tank armadas. Therefore, their armor is thicker, and the sighting systems are more perfect, and the guns were longer-range - all for the sake of actions, mainly in defense. We understood this perfectly, so they introduced ATGMs launched through the barrel, worked on increasing the muzzle velocity and increasing the caliber. Another round of the arms race on tanks is in full swing.
