Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
Soooo...
At the height of the Cold War who fielded the best tank cannon?
For NATO I'd have to say the 105mm cannon L7A1/M68 series was the best of the lot. Decent engagement envelope, effective out to 2,500m, excellent rate of fire, officially 7rpm, but a first class loader pulling vacuum loads could crank 12-15rpm and sheer number of platforms it was deployed on: Upgraded Centurion, M-48A5, M-60, M-60A1, M-60A3, M-1, IPM-1, Leopard I.
For the Soviets, without a doubt the 115mm smootbore U-5TS mounted on the T-62 series was the best gun, unlike the NATO designs the Soviets went for short-range accuracy, Soviet doctrine held that tanks did not engage until 1,500m, but Israeli tests showed the 115mm was suprisingly accurate out to 2,500m. Its biggest fault is the poor quality of Soviet fire control equipment, when refitted with laser rangefinders and Western ballistic computers, well, the Israelis chose not to replace the 115mm on their captured T-62s. Rate of fire is excellent, capable of 7rpm, although there are reports that the accuracy of the U-5TS fell off during sustained combat due to the effects of a hot barrel and fouling due to the incomplete combustion of the propellent (quality control issues).
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Makes perfect sense. The L7A1 is still more than good enough in my opinion with the newer ammo types out there, and the 115 wasn't a slouch either.
The fact that you brought up barrel fouling is a case in point with the biggest issue with large calibre russian/soviet ammo: it isn't as good as the west. Chemistry, materials, who knows, just ounce for ounce their boomenstuff just isn't that good. Its why the L11 76mm gun that served on the original T34 was only the equal to the 5cm KwK of the Panzer 3's, and that is the reason that to equal the performance of the 7.5cm L48 KwK they had to go all the way to the 85mm D5T and all the way to a 122mm to equal the 7.5cm L70 KwK. Russian gun design, awesome. Ammo? not so much.