Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 5, 2010

The Rheinmetall 120 mm gun is a smoothbore tank gun designed and produced by the German Rheinmetall-DeTec AG company. It was developed in response to Soviet advances in armor technology and development of new armored threats. With production beginning in 1974, the first version of the gun, known as the L/44, was used on the German Leopard 2, and was soon produced under license for the American M1A1 Abrams and other tanks. The American version, the M256, is simplified, however, by using a coilspring recoil system instead of a hydraulic system. It has also been exported to South Korea and Japan, as well as nations which have procured the Leopard 2 and the M1 Abrams. Rheinmetall's 120 mm L/44 tank gun has a length of 5.28 m, while the gun system weighs approximately 3317 kg. However, by 1990 the L/44 was not considered powerful enough to deal with modernized Soviet armor, such as the T-80B, which stimulated an effort by Rheinmetall to develop a better main armament. This first revolved around a 140 mm tank gun, but later turned into a compromise which led to the development of an advanced 120 mm gun. (more...)

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