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Is there anything new in AFV firepower in the recent two years?

Paul T. Weaver
mumfordlibrarian

I'm not aware of anything that directly answers that. Most modern western MBTs are now fitted with Rheinmetall 120mm smoothbores (even the Challenger looks like it will get one as a retrofit) so in MBTs the question probably comes down to what's the latest news from Rheinmetall:

www.rheinmetall.de/ind...660&lang=3
findarticles.com/p/art..._n28868921

Maybe some of the other guys here have some other suggestions.

Not exactly new, but a lot of AFVs are being kitted out for better crew protection in urban combat. Which is funny, because only 10 years ago there were a significant number of experts predicting the end-of-the-line for tanks! The sophistication of these urban combat kits is pretty high, and there are a lot interesting things being tried.

There is a lot of interest in active defense systems, to defeat increasingly sophisticated and powerful anti-armor weapons. The types of active defense systems under development range from mundane (chaff, shrapnel, etc.) to really exotic (lasers, directed energy, psychokinetics, etc.) space alien stuff. The next 20 years should see some interesting developments on this front...which no one will tell us about because they are so freakin' secret.

Lightweight armor is still a popular field. This is mainly driven by the need to develop lighter individual body armors, but will likely impact AFV armor too.

There are still some eggheads working on alternative gun systems: liquid propellants, rail-guns, and directed energy weapons are among the contenders.

There is still an ongoing effort to force wheeled AFVs to have all the capabilities of an MBT...but that's a whole other debate. This does seem to have ebbed for the moment, but it will be back soon enough.

Chuck

The 25mm Bushmaster gun on the LAV III has dramatically changed Canadian infantry tactics. Instead of a mostly exposed .50cal gunner in an M113 or the dinky little Cadillac Gage cupola on the Grizzly, the crews are able to support the dismounts very effectively. After OP MEDUSA in summer of '06, someone suggested the Canadian troops had fired off just about every 25mm round in Afghanistan, everything in nearby ready reserve and in war reserves in Canada. The log weenies had to go scrounging for resupply from every other country that we'd sold LAVs to! The next thing the infantry knew, the Leopards were shipped overseas to add even more wallop to the battle.