2A46 125 mm gun


The 2A46 is a 125 mm/L48 smoothbore cannon of Soviet origin used in several main battle tanks. It was designed by OKB-9 in Sverdlovsk.

Description

It was developed by the Spetstekhnika Design Bureau in Ekaterinburg in the 1960s originally for the T-64A tank. They were subsequently manufactured at Artillery Plant No. 9 in Ekaterinburg and Motovilikha in Perm. Versions include 2A46, 2A46M, 2A46M-1, 2A46M-2, 2A46M-4, 2A46M-5 and the Ukrainian KBA-3.
The 2A46 can fire armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot, high-explosive anti-tank and high-explosive fragmentation projectiles. The ammunition for the 2A46 gun is in two pieces: the projectile is loaded first, followed by a separate propellant charge.
The early versions of the 2A46 suffered from a relatively short barrel life, but this was subsequently rectified on the 2A46M-1 version. Depending on the version it offers or from the 2A46M-1 Pmax chamber pressure.
The Ukrainian KBA guns are unlicensed copies of the 2A46 gun.

Tanks using the 2A46

The 2A46 has been used in numerous tanks, almost exclusively Soviet/Russian designs or foreign derivatives: