"The armament of domestically-produced tanks is based on a 125-mm smoothbore gun. Over the past 40 years, this piece of hardware has undergone a number of changes as part of modernization aimed at boosting its tactical and technical characteristics. Currently, the work on developing a gun with increased energy efficiency for prospective tank Armata is underway,” the Missile-Technical and Artillery-Technical Support of the Russian Armed Forces-2018 bulletin said.
In late December, the Defence Ministry announced that state trials of Russia's T-14 Armata battle tank were scheduled to begin in 2019.
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At the fourth Army-2018 international defense forum in August, the ministry signed a deal on purchasing 132 next generation T-14 battle tanks and T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicles based on the Armata military tracked vehicle platform. The deal is expected to be fully implemented by late 2021.