Russia is ready to build the world's largest super tank carrying the largest gun

"We have enough resources to create a tank with a 152 mm gun based on the Armata combat platform. The decision to proceed with the project will depend on the Russian Defense Ministry,"TASSquoted a representative of the Russian armored vehicle manufacturing corporation Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) yesterday.

The main weapon on the current T-14 Armata super tank is the 125 mm 2A82-1M smoothbore gun, replacing the 125 mm 2A46M5 model on the T-90A tank. The muzzle velocity of the 2A82-1M is 20% higher than that of Germany's state-of-the-art Rheinmetall 120 mm L/55 gun, which is considered the best tank gun in the world. The T-14's armor-piercing shell can penetrate armor equivalent to 900 mm of rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) from a distance of two kilometers.

UVZ once proposed a solution to replace the 2A82-1M main gun with the 152 mm 2A83 model to increase the firepower of the T-14 Armata. The 2A83 smoothbore gun was developed in the 2000s for the T-95 tank prototype, capable of firing armor-piercing subcaliber shells stabilized by tail fins (APFSDS) with a muzzle velocity of nearly 1,980 m/s and only drops to 1,900 m/s at a distance of two kilometers.

Equipping the 152mm caliber gun also helps the T-14 Armata super tank achieve power equivalent to the 2S19 Msta-S and 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled artillery systems, easily destroying fortified targets such as enemy bunkers. However, some Russian experts believe that improving the 125mm artillery shell will bring more practical results than increasing the caliber.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko revealed yesterday that the Russian army has signed an agreement to receive 132 T-14 super tanks and T-15 infantry fighting vehicles with UVZ at the Army-2018 military technical exhibition. The first batch of 9 vehicles will be delivered this year, the contract is expected to be completed before 2021.