The T-90M does not have a gun from the "Armata", and it is unlikely that it will
Our latest Tanks T-90M and before quite often shone in the news, but with the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, they began to be mentioned in the media with enviable regularity. Either they talk about combat effectiveness, or they talk about new batches of vehicles transferred to the troops. Sometimes, however, tanks become heroes of sad news - for example, when one of the T-90Ms was abandoned during the September events. News is news. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. As a matter of fact, it's not really about them.
The bottom line is that almost every second or third message repeats the same mantra about the fact that the T-90M is equipped with a 125-mm 2A82-1M smoothbore gun from the T-14 Armata tank. It is difficult to say where this topic originally came from, and it is not necessary. We can only note that this information should not be trusted - the gun on the machine is quite standard 2A46M-5, which, for example, is installed on the T-72B3 mod. 2016. Those who are interested in some of the reasons why the new "smoothbore" on the tank will not be registered, as well as what this gun was intended for - you are welcome to read this material.
T-90 was supposed to get a new gun
As you know, tanks evolve not only from generation to generation, but also within the same platform. They adopted the tank, painted its life cycle and other predictable things, put it into mass production. And then, after a while, follows a thorny path for its modernization, which over and over again increases its combat effectiveness and performance - development, in short.
This concerns not only such obvious parameters as armor, engines, sights, etc., but also guns. They also become obsolete and require modernization over time, although the need for it is not as acute as with new shells. As we know, all our main tanks are equipped with a 125 mm D-81 (2A46) cannon of various modifications. However, modifications are modifications, but the basis is one, the Soviet one.
The gun is solid, good, and today its entire resource has not yet been exhausted. But proposals for its replacement or a radical improvement in ballistic characteristics were put forward back in the USSR, since the growth in the booking of promising NATO tanks caused a number of concerns.
In modern Russia, the idea to increase the firepower of tanks was not abandoned, so back in the 90s, Design Bureau No. 9 in Yekaterinburg launched a program to create two new guns of 125-mm and 152-mm caliber. Why just two? The answer is quite simple: the 152-mm cannon, which received the index 2A83, was planned to be installed in the promising Object 195 tank (also known as the T-95), which we usually call the “progenitor of the Armata” and other epithets in the spirit of “what We lost".
Landfill installation with a gun 2A82. Source: Gur Khan Attacks Zen Channel
But the 125-mm gun under the index 2A82 was already intended for existing tanks such as the T-80 and T-72. Unlike the standard 2A46, this gun with an auto-bonded and partially chrome-plated barrel provided higher muzzle energy: 15,3 MJ versus 10,2 MJ for the standard one. You can find information that high ballistic performance is achieved solely due to the increased barrel length, but this, of course, is not so. Pipe 2A82 is only 15 centimeters longer than that of 2A46 - 6,15 meters versus 6 meters, respectively.
In fact, a large role in this is played by the volume of the chamber increased to 13,2 liters, which allows the use of powder propellant charges weighted by 3 kilograms. At the same time, the chamber did not become wider in the “caliber” - it was simply lengthened by inserting a conical section. Therefore, the 2A82 can be fired with both regular and specially designed ammunition for it, including feathered Vacuum sub-caliber projectiles with a length of up to 900 mm.
Comparison of 2A82 with analogues, including standard 2A46M. Source: alternathistory.com
During the creation of this gun, the developers had to solve a lot of problems, including setting up the production of high-quality durable steel for the new barrel and breech, working out technologies for auto-fastening the barrel and chrome-plating its internal surfaces. The quality control of the products has also been significantly strengthened, since chrome plating literally requires a perfectly flat and clean surface, and the huge pressure when firing can damage the barrel if there are any defects in it.
In 1995, the 2A82 gun was recommended for installation on T-90 tanks, but the test of this gun was scheduled only for 2003, for which one 2A82 mock-up and several spare barrels were made for it. Then the arsenal of testers was replenished with two more experimental guns of this type. By the fall of 2006, the trio had fired about 2 shots. In general, the gun has proven itself to be a reliable and quite suitable system for replacing regular 000A2s in existing tanks.
T-14 "Armata" - so far the only conditionally serial carrier 2A82. Source: warfiles.ru
However, in 2010 priorities changed. The Ministry of Defense abandoned the Object 195 tank, and work on the Armata tracked platform, and in particular on the T-14 tank, became a promising area. He became the owner of the 2A82 gun instead of the originally planned T-72, T-80 and T-90. At the same time, the gun had to be modified: it was adapted for a new automatic loader and an uninhabited fighting compartment, after which it received the index 2A82-1M.
2A82 on the T-90M is unlikely to see - too expensive
Indeed, even before the start of mass production of the T-90M, there were reports that a cannon from the Armata could be put on this tank, they say, the car had already been adapted for it, and the production facilities were ready. But the fact remained a fact - the "ninetieth" 2A82 was never registered. There are several reasons for this. Naturally, we do not have access to the secrets of the Ministry of Defense, but we can discuss some facts, since the change of priorities on the T-14 is far from everything.
Installing 2A82 on a tank is, first of all, the possibility of using new, more powerful shells, without which this gun, in general, is not needed. Basically, we are talking about feathered armor-piercing sub-caliber projectiles, the length of which, using increased propellant charges, was brought to 900 mm. Such long "crowbars" cannot fit into a regular T-90M automatic loader. Its refinement is required, which, by the way, has already been carried out at one time when installed on T-90A and T-72B3 tanks. Only then did the loading system have to be upgraded for lead-type projectiles with a length of up to 740 mm.
In this case, it is required to find another 160 extra millimeters. And it's not just about changes in the conveyor ("drum") of the automatic loader, where the projectiles, along with propellant charges, are in a horizontal position. You need to somehow load this long projectile into the cannon.
The initial version of the automatic loader involves the vertical lifting of cassettes with shells and propellant charges (sleeves) to the level of the gun, followed by their sending into the breech. But a long projectile, when lifting, just hits this breech. To prevent this from happening, Tagil engineers proposed a new version of the bracket for the cassette lifting mechanism of a peculiar “concave” shape, as a result of which the projectile, as it were, goes around the breech of the gun when it is lifted.
The changes also affected the ramming mechanism, and the loading angle, to which the gun automatically switches after a shot, was increased to 12 degrees. Here, of course, it is not entirely clear whether they began to make improvements to the catcher of spent pallets (metal cups based on cardboard shells), since the design of the gun’s automation provides for the shutter to open only after rolling, so that the crew does not suffocate from gases as a result of using increased propellant charges of gunpowder . But the scope of innovation is clear.
In appearance, these are trifles, but in terms of finances - extra expenses, and not entirely insignificant. Rebuilding of production lines, expanded range of spare parts and structural elements. All this costs money.
But the automatic loader is not the only element that needs to be converted to fit the 2A82. The hull of the tank should also undergo changes. And here again, the increased length of the shells is to blame.
It is quite possible to fit new shells into the tank, as we said above, which was done on single copies of these combat vehicles. The question is different: how now to fit the automatic loader itself into the tank? Due to the long shells and the correspondingly increased diameter of the conveyor, although it is called both a “drum”, and sometimes a “carousel”, in which these same shells are laid, the contours of the automatic loader sweep have increased. This whole structure literally rests on the sides of the tank hull and does not fit into it.
Sweeping contours of standard and modernized automatic loader. Source: Gur Khan Attacks Zen Channel
In fact, the only way out of this situation are cutouts in the sides of the tank hull. Yes, yes, in the most literal sense - rectangular holes, thanks to which this entire design of the automatic loader can be placed inside the case. Out of bounds, so to speak. Of course, there will be nothing sticking out there, since the elements of the conveyor in the worst case will not reach the outer surface of the side armor. It was planned to cover this vulnerability with steel "patches" - armor strips that were welded over these cutouts.
This decision does not look like a "collective farm", and in principle it does not worsen the security of the sides, but this, again, leads to a change in the technological process of tank production. Extra movements - extra money, you can’t say better here.
But, perhaps, the most important deterrent that influenced the refusal to install 2A82 on the T-90M is the cost and the very possibility of mass production of this gun. According to the plans of the Ministry of Defense, the T-90M tanks should become the basis of the armored forces of Russia, which means that all this "booze" will not do with a conditionally small batch of produced units. Especially now, when the special operation in Ukraine is in full swing.
And this is hundreds of guns, as well as hundreds of additional barrels for replacement. And here, of course, there will be an extremely exaggerated example, but on the whole the situation is very characterizing. In production, regular 2A46, well, let's say 2A46M-5, which is installed on the T-90M, looks like a water pipe compared to 2A82. The novelty is expensive. Very expensive.
A barrel with chrome-plated inner surfaces, high-quality and hard steel for its manufacture, auto-bonding and other technological moments make the gun far from a mass-produced “Kalashnikov assault rifle”, but rather an elite rifle for an equally elite user. The gun in many ways surpasses even the most advanced solution from the German Rheinmetall in the face of the L55 gun for the modernized Leopards-2.
Of course, years later, 2A82 will become an analogue of 2A46 in mass production - all technological moments will be settled, materials for manufacturing will appear in the right amount. But for now, this weapon is distributed according to the elitist principle, the priority of which is just the T-14.
As for the T-90M, the installation of 2A46M-5 guns on these machines looks more appropriate.
Firstly, it will be cheaper in today's realities, and there will be no problems with the mass production of cars.
Secondly, the full potential of regular guns has not yet been used up.
Yes, then we will still come to 2A82, but for now, as they say, we are content with a tit in our hands.
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