It is designed to defeat both land armour and combat helicopters. The LAHAT, developed in Israel, is a gun-launched anti-tank guided missile which has received interest from Germany and other Leopard 2 users. Recent ammunition includes a range of anti-personnel rounds and demolition munitions. This includes a series of kinetic energy penetrators, such as the American M829 series, and high-explosive anti-tank warheads. It was tested on the British Challenger 2 as a potential replacement for its rifled 元0 120 mm cannon.Ī variety of ammunition has been developed for use by tanks with guns based on Rheinmetall's original L/44 design.
The L/55 gun was retrofitted into German and Dutch Leopard 2s, and chosen as the main gun of the Spanish Leopard 2E and the Greek Leopard 2HEL. As the L/55 retains the same barrel geometry, it can fire the same ammunition as the L/44. The L/55 is 1.32 metres (4.3 ft) longer, generating increased muzzle velocity for rounds fired through it. This first involved a 140-millimeter (5.5 in) tank gun named Neue Panzerkanone 140 ('new tank gun 140'), but later turned into a compromise which led to the development of an advanced 120 mm gun, the L/55, based on the same internal geometry as the L/44 and installed in the same breech and mount. The 120-millimetre (4.7 in) gun has a length of 5.28 metres (17.3 ft), and the gun system weighs approximately 3,317 kilograms (7,313 lb).īy 1990, the L/44 was not considered powerful enough to defeat future Soviet armour, which stimulated an effort by Rheinmetall to develop a better main armament. Production began in 1974, with the first version of the gun, known as the L/44 as it was 44 calibres long, used on the German Leopard 2 tank and soon produced under license for the American M1A1 Abrams and other tanks.
The Rheinmetall Rh-120 is a 120 mm smoothbore tank gun designed and produced in former West Germany by the Rheinmetal-DeTec AG company, it was developed in response to Soviet advances in armour technology and development of new armoured threats. Muzzle of a Rheinmetall 120 mm L/55 tank gun on a Spanish Leopard 2E
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