2A46 125 mm gun

2A46 125 mm gun

2A46M1 in Motovilikha Plants museum
Type Smoothbore tank gun
Place of origin USSR
Specifications
Caliber 125 mm

The 2A46 (also called D-81T) is a 125mm/L48 smoothbore cannon of Soviet origin used in several main battle tanks.

Description

It was developed by the Spetstekhnika Design Bureau in Ekaterinburg in the 1960s originally for the T-64A tank. They were then manufactured at Artillery Plant No.9 in Ekaterinburg and Motovilikha in Perm. Versions 2A46, 2A46M, 2A46M-1 2A46M-2 2A46M-4 2A46M-5 and the KBA-3(Ukrainian).

The 2A46 can fire armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) and high-explosive fragmentation (HEF) projectiles. The ammunition for the 2A46 gun is 2-piece, in that the projectile is loaded first, followed by a separate propellant charge.

The early version of the 2A46 suffered from a short barrel life, but this was subsequently rectified on the 2A46M version.

The Ukrainian KBA guns are derived from the 2A46 gun.

Tanks using the 2A46

Map with 2A46 operators in blue with former operators in red

The 2A46 has been used in numerous tanks, though these are almost exclusively Soviet/Russian designs or foreign derivatives thereof.

See also

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

Sources

References

    External links

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