Using Captured Vehicles

[Raellus]

I was thinking that maybe the W. German government, anticipating a relatively bloodless reunification by force, placed an order for a bunch of new 120mm with which to retrofit the T-72s they expected to capture/inherit.

But then, another thought struck me. The T-72 has an autoloader for its 125mm gun. It's turret is simply too cramped to accomodate a human loader. Developing an autoloader and its accompanying magazine for the 120mm Rheinmetal gun would be difficult to say the least, and retrofitting the entire system (gun and new autoloader/magazine) into the T-72's cramped turret would take a lot of time, if it was possible at all. Trying to operate the 120mm gun conventionally with a two person crew would slow the weapon's firing time dramatically and probably also negatively impact accuracy. The other option would be to develop an entirely new turret for the T-72 and that wouldn't be easy (or cheap, or fast).

With this in mind think the better (easier, cheaper, more effective) option would be to keep the T-72's original 125mm gun and start making ammo for it.