120×570mm NATO

120×570mm NATO tank ammunition (4.7 inch), also known as 120×570mmR, is a common, NATO-standard (STANAG 4385), tank gun semi-combustible cartridge used by 120mm smoothbore guns, superseding the earlier 105×617mmR cartridge used in NATO-standard rifled tank guns.

History
The 120×570R cartridge was originally intended for the German Rh-120 smoothbore gun but an interoperability agreement signed between West Germany and France in April1979, followed in September1981 by a project to install the M256 120 mm smoothbore gun on future M1A1 Abrams tanks made it a NATO standard.

Characteristics
The 120×570mm are one-piece ammunition with semi-combustible cartridge cases. These incorporate a short, metallic stub case with an elastomeric sealing ring which allows the use of a normal sliding wedge type of breech and at the same time significantly reduces the weight of the rounds. Thus, a round of 120 mm Rheinmetall APFSDS ammunition has a mass of 19.8 kg, which is little more than the 18 kg mass of a typical 105 mm APFSDS round with the traditional metallic cartridge case.

Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS)
There are different ways to measure APFSDS penetration value. NATO uses the 50% (This means that 50% of the shell had to go through the plate), while the Soviet/Russian standard is higher (80% had to go through).

Weapon platforms

 * Rh-120 L44 (🇩🇪 Germany), used on the Leopard 2 and Type 90 MBTs
 * Rh-120 L55 (🇩🇪 Germany), used on later Leopard 2 variants including the Leopard 2E
 * Rh-120 L55A1 (🇩🇪 Germany), foreseen for the Challenger 3
 * M256 (🇺🇸 United States), used on the M1 Abrams and M60-2000
 * M256E1 (🇺🇸 United States)
 * XM360 (🇺🇸 United States)
 * XM360E1 (🇺🇸 United States)
 * CN120-25 (🇫🇷 France), used on the AMX-32, AMX-40, and EE-T1 Osório
 * CN120-26 (🇫🇷 France), used on the Leclerc
 * 120 FER (🇫🇷 France), tested on the VEXTRA POLE prototype
 * MG251 (🇮🇱 Israel), used on the Merkava III
 * MG251-LR (🇮🇱 Israel) used on the Merkava IV
 * MG253 (🇮🇱 Israel) used on the M60 Sabra
 * OTO Melara-Breda 120/44 (🇮🇹 Italy), used on the C1 Ariete
 * OTO Melara-Breda 120/45 (🇮🇹 Italy), used on the B2 Centauro
 * CTG (🇨🇭 Switzerland), used on the CV90120 and WPB Anders
 * CN03 (🇰🇷 South Korea), used on the K1A2
 * CN08 (🇰🇷 South Korea), used on the K2 Black Panther
 * MKE 120 mm tank gun (🇹🇷 Turkey), used on the Altay (main battle tank)
 * Type 10 (🇯🇵 Japan), used on the Type 10