Amata or transformer thermochemical gun

Amata or transformer thermochemical gun

Since the Cold War, the United States has basically led the Soviet Union in the air force, while the Soviet Union has taken a big step ahead of NATO in the ground armored force. Today, this "tradition" seems to have continued. At present, the most powerful main battle tank in the world should be the Russian T- 14 Amata. Although the T- 14 main battle tank is only a "frequent military parade" in Russia, it has not installed Russian troops in large quantities, and it has not achieved much success in the Syrian battlefield. The media even reported that the T- 14 main battle tank driven by the Syrian crew was injured by the opponent. Nevertheless, the design of T- 14 main battle tank still represents the latest concept in the field of armor, which may be more suitable for the frontal confrontation of armored clusters than Syria's close combat.

Amata's main battle tank currently uses 125mm2-82m1model125mm smoothbore gun, which is far more powerful than the original 2A46 series guns of Russian army. Even so, Russia planned the 2A83 152mm anti-tank gun for it early, and the sub-caliber armor-piercing projectile launched by 2A83 can easily penetrate 1000. After all, the main battle tank needs to penetrate the front armor of the opponent tank as much as possible, and it is the easiest way to continuously improve the caliber of the artillery. After all, "caliber is justice", large-caliber tank guns can effectively improve the armor-piercing and damage capabilities of main battle tanks, which is undoubtedly more convenient for Amata with unmanned turrets.

However, just before the152mm artillery was officially settled in Amata, the industrious Russian military industry organization had a new plan. According to the news released by the Red Star newspaper citing the Russian defense industrial complex, the T- 14 main battle tank may be equipped with electrothermal chemical guns to replace traditional artillery.

The electrothermal chemical gun converts electric energy into heat energy, impacts the propellant with plasma jet, and then uses the generated high-temperature and high-pressure gas to push the projectile to launch. At present, the performance of high-performance charging and discharging device is still unstable, and the electromagnetic gun is still in the foreseeable future. The electrothermal chemical gun should be the gun that best meets the current operational needs. It is understood that the muzzle velocity of the electrothermal chemical gun can reach 3-4 km/s, while the maximum muzzle velocity of the 120 mm smooth-bore gun manufactured by the famous Rheinmetall Company is only 1750 m/s, and the L30 linear-bore gun applied on Challenger is only1500 km/s. The electrothermal chemical gun can greatly improve the kinetic energy penetration of the gun. Considering this performance, the penetration ability of 152 mm electrothermal chemical gun projectile is equivalent to that of 1200 mm rolled steel plate, so there should be no suspense.

With the current level of science and technology, it is difficult to further improve the muzzle velocity of the 120- 125 mm traditional tank gun, but it is still possible for the tank to improve its armor-piercing ability by replacing it with a more advanced main gun. It is reported that some countries have been actively researching and developing traditional guns such as Rheinmetall 130, leclerc 140 and Japanese 135 mm to solve the problem, while the United States, Russia and China are mainly tackling the problem of electrothermal chemical guns. Generally speaking, electrothermal chemical gun is the best armor-piercing gun when electromagnetic gun can't be miniaturized.

Some experts also pointed out that it is a waste to replace the electrothermal chemical gun for Amata main battle tank. At present, it seems that the confrontation between the two armored clusters on the battlefield has become less and less. Even in the Iran-Iraq war with low technical and tactical level, the opponents of armored forces gradually changed from main battle tanks to anti-tank shrapnel fired by long-range rockets and anti-tank missiles on armed helicopters. There may be no confrontation between large-scale armored forces in the future. In this case, the main battle tank is likely to develop in the direction of lower armored defense level and higher traffic capacity on complex roads, just like China's 15 light tank. As for Amata and the electrothermal chemical gun specially used to penetrate the opponent's frontal armor, whether it is suitable for modern ground battlefield needs to be questioned.