In an interview with the Russian news network Zvezda, military expert Sergey Suvorov said that it is too early to speak of a new German tank gun's shell being able to pierce the armor of the sophisticated Russian T-14 tank, part of the Armata family of armored combat vehicles.
The interview came after the German military giant Rheinmetall Defense unveiled the prototype of a powerful 130mm smoothbore tank gun which its maker claims is powerful enough to counter the T-14 tank, according to Britain's Jane's Defense Weekly. Field trials of the new gun are slated for later this year.
Inside the T14 Armata Tank: https://t.co/0AFGX08Zk9
— ab (@Abc11Ab) 26 мая 2016 г.
"It's unclear how they are going to fire this gun during the upcoming trials, given that the gun has yet to be installed on a tank," Suvorov said, also citing the gun's manual loading and its "longer and heavier shots" which he said will damage the gun's rate of fire.
130mmL/51tank gun at the Rheinmetall stand at Eurosatory pic.twitter.com/Cwgptj2gOP
— JPW_FIDES (@JPW_FIDES) 13 июня 2016 г.
Zvezda concludes that the German engineers had decided to benefit from a topical subject related to the T-14 rather than produce anything capable of taking out the Armata Tank.
