The Future of TANKS!

(Panzerhaubitze 2000, not a tank)

The company that developed and produced the multipurpose 88 mm (anti-aircraft and anti-tank) gun during World War II is now working on a multifunctional gun to equip armored vehicles operating in urban environments.

Rheinmetall's multifunctional gun concept is for a weapon capable of both indirect and direct fire. The rifled gun would have a caliber between 90 and 105 mm with a length of L42, L45 or L50 and range of up to 17 kilometers (indirect fire high explosive) but able to hit a target less than a kilometer away (kinetic energy).

Hat Tip Ares.

Back in the late 90s when I was doing my stint as a chunk of meat in the defense contractor body shops, one of the things that I worked on was part of the console for the Crusader artillery system (now canceled, this was just prior to going off to work at HELSTF). A lot of people were tauting how the Crusader could stop, fire, and then go back on the move quite quickly. Being young and naive, I simply asked why they didn't just make it able to fire on the move. When it cropped up in some of the simulations that we had, why they didn't make it able to do direct fire. The answer to both was the barrel stabilizing problems that came up when the -arty-tank I was proposing was bouncing around with its 155mm cannon were at least at that time insurmountable. Or so sayeth the sources I had.

When I looked at the PzH 2000 built by the Germans, though, the idea just wouldn't go away. It seems that the Germans agree and have their new weapon, but to get around the stabilization issue, they're going with a smaller calibre, only up to 105mm.

Think of the beauty of the potential! The idea that every tank is an artillery piece. An American brigade could have as many as 180 (+/-) artillery shells on target in a single salvo PFQ. Any battalion could "convert" from tank role to supporting as an artillery role. An artillery overwatch, so to speak. This also means less platforms and less equipment to maintain instead of at least two (SPA and MBT) there is now.

This isn't the only possible future tank - I'm more partial to the cavalry tank concept, personally - but this has a lot of potential. I'm glad that the gallop to "medium forces" hasn't precluded thinking outside the box some.

At some point, probably after the LLC wraps up for this year, I'll crank out some of the militaria related posts I've wanted to do: future tanks, medium division-heavy regiment, etc. It'll have to go on the list. *sighs*