GERMAN Leopald2-140mm

Chinese type-99 with 140mm
140mm can destroy even Ｍ1A2
But the AMMO is too heavy&big (about 40kg)to carry by third-generation Tank.
The reactionary is too large to shoot pinpointly.
BY some reason,At least 70~80class body is needed for 140mm.

Originally Posted by sandy

GERMAN Leopald2-140mm
140mm can destroy even Ｍ1A2

So can a 120mm

But the AMMO is too heavy&big (about 40kg)to carry by third-generation Tank.

Tests done on the Abrams and Leopard found they could carry 20 140 shells by lengthening the bustle

The reactionary is too large to shoot pinpointly.

I don't know what this means

BY some reason,At least 70~80class body is needed for 140mm.

You can fit a 140mm gun on a 60 ton tank. The Russians are going to put a 152mm gun on a 50 ton tank.

That is a huge gun.

Koz - on the 3rd part I think he was talking about how the barrel on large tank guns have a hard time staying stable?

That's very very close to the NATO standard for Self Propelled Artillery (155mm). Russian standard self propelled artillery is 152mm. Interesting. It does make it confusing if the Russians are putting in a 152mm MBT main gun, but hey, the barrels are already in production and would just need a bit of modification.

That's a big gun.

yep. definitely is a big boy!

Hey guys,you say about tyorunui oryornui(Black Eagle tank)
Russians like big cannons from era of Peter great.
This is a difference of the combat doctrine russia&western.
Russian tanks also destroy enemy by HEAT.
HEAT-MP of big cannon is effective to destroy non armored&armored target.
80%ammo of russian tank are also HEAT-MP
(Ｉ think they love HEAT,
Realistically russian APFSDS is bad because their machine tools are not accurate as westerners)
HEAT doesn,t have to be as fast as APFSDS.
So reshock is less.

fitting an mbt with a gun that equals size of standard artillery guns=bad idea. Im still in the opinion that increasing the main gun size for tanks doesn't give so much benefits, what needs to be done is work on the ammunition. I have mentioned the scramjet based tank cannon round some time ago, if that goes into active service then there wouldn't be any need for bigger gun for some time, armor protection development will have a huge gap to catch up
just my two cents.

The original 140mm was borne out of rumors that the Soviets were going to field a tank with equal internal volume to a T-80 but weighing 60 tons, giving it a massive amount of armor.

Tests done with the 1st 140mm APFSDS produced found it could penetrate 1000mm of RHA easily, enough to get through the today's M1A2SEP turrent front(remember this was in the 80s). I bet with further development a 140mm gun could penetrate 1500-2000mm of RHA.

140mm ammo is 5 feet long and weighs something like 100 pounds

the only reason for a big gun is that you can't make a good smaller one. 140 mm gun is speerate loading so that means a much lower rate of fire, if you use a auto loader, the thing is very complicated having two seperat actions. the recoil would require a very heavy tank. Ultra long range would only be good in the desert. Where else can you use a 5,000 meter direct fire weapon.
Besides, 20 rounds is a much too small a combat load.