Having appeared once on the battlefield, the tank became the infantryman’s nightmare for a long time. The first of these machines were practically invulnerable, and only fought them by digging anti-tank ditches and creating barrage trenches.
Then came the anti-tank rifles, whose power by today's standards is simply ridiculous. Even at that time, tanks, having again increased their armor, could no longer fear most of these weapons. And then the anti-tank guns entered the scene. They were imperfect and slow, but the tankers immediately began to respect them.
Do you need anti-tank guns today?
Many inhabitants believe that this "archaic" weapon is no longer in the modern battlefield: they say that the armor of today's tanks is far from always penetrating even with cumulative ammunition, what can we expect from some guns there! But this point of view is not entirely true. There are such samples of them that are capable of delivering many problems to even very "sophisticated" machines. For example, the anti-tank gun "Rapier" of the Soviet still production.
The weapon is so interesting that you should talk about it separately. What will we do now.
Background of creation
Around the middle of the 50s of the last century, it became clear that the main anti-tank weapons needed an urgent increase in combat power. The reason was the appearance in the Americans of their own projects of heavy tanks. At that time, the D-10T and BS-3 gun was in service with the SA (both 100 mm). Technicians rightly assumed that their technical characteristics might not be enough.
The easiest way was to increase the caliber … but such a path led to the creation of huge, heavy and slow guns. And then the Soviet engineers decided to return to the smooth-bore artillery, which has not been used in Russia since 1860! What made them make such a decision?
And the thing is at great speed, to which the armor-piercing projectile in the barrel should be accelerated. Any error in the manufacture of the latter leads not only to a catastrophic drop in accuracy, but also to an increase in the risk of destruction of the entire tool. With a smooth barrel, the situation is completely opposite. Its main advantage is uniform wear.
Difficulty choosing
But what replacement can be found for rifling? After all, it is at their expense that the projectile maintains exchange rate stability, allowing it to conduct effective fire over long distances! And again, the solution was found in the archives of the gunners. It turned out that for smooth-bore artillery, feathered shells can be used. Modern (at that time) technologies made it possible not only to calibrate (coinciding with the internal diameter of the gun), but also to reveal it. Simply put, a shell opened its blades after leaving the barrel (like an RPG-7 grenade launcher).
The first experiments and the first sample
The very first experiments showed that for a sure hit of promising enemy tanks, a minimum of 105-mm gun would be required. At the same time, intelligence received a report that the British were designing a cannon of a similar caliber with unprecedented characteristics. The chief designer of the project - V. Ya. Afanasyev - was obliged to “catch up and overtake” competitors as soon as possible. The most talented designer not only met the allotted time for this, but also provided for the possibility of installing a new gun in domestic tanks. To do this, he slightly sacrificed ballistics, shortening the projectile to exactly 1000 mm.
So was born the "Rapier" - anti-tank gun, a photo of which is repeatedly given in this article.
What was used to create it?
To speed up the work, they took the gun carriage from the D-48 gun, slightly changing its design. But field trials immediately showed that he was too flimsy for a new gun. I had to redo this item from scratch. The gun withstood the new tests with flying colors and was put into service. It is known as the T-12 105 mm caliber gun. The "rapier" of the modern sample is significantly different from it.
The barrel of the new gun was made in a monoblock scheme. Length - 6510 mm. Designers preferred the use of an active-reactive version of the muzzle brake. The breech is equipped with a vertical wedge shutter. Shooting was carried out directly from the wheels, additional fixation (due to suspension suspension) was not required.
In order to better imagine what the Rapier cannon is capable of, the characteristics of which we have briefly described, we suggest that you look at the table.
|
Caliber |
105 mm |
|
The number of staff (calculation of tools) |
Six persons |
|
Weight |
3280 kg |
|
Total gun length |
9980 mm |
|
Projectile weight (depending on characteristics), kg |
5.21 / 11.4 / 19.5 |
|
Firing range maximum |
8700 m |
Note that this is not a modern Rapier cannon. The characteristics of its latest modifications are much more serious.
Ammunition Characteristics
For an anti-tank gun, ammunition is the first thing to do. Even a phenomenally long-range and reliable gun turns into a "pumpkin" if outdated, low-quality shells are used for it. And the Rapira gun, the performance characteristics of which are given by us above, is the best confirmation of this.
The ammunition for the new weapons was also a lot of trouble, as they had to be re-developed. The main type is sub-caliber and cumulative. To defeat enemy manpower, a standard high-explosive fragmentation type of shot is used. Calculation training is carried out using training subcaliber shells. The plumage of the latter caused a lot of problems, since there was simply no experience in creating something like this, and the smooth-bore 100-mm gun itself was not yet properly mastered by the domestic industry.
The difficulty was that the projectile with unexploded blades had to be firmly enough to adhere to the trunk channel without forming backlashes. Dozens of concepts were accepted and immediately discarded, but not one met all the requirements of the designers. Oddly enough, but the solution turned out to be working, which was proposed at the very beginning and rejected "because of primitiveness." This once again confirmed that the simplest is often the most reliable.
New solution
In this case, the core was proposed to be made of high-quality maraging steel. The tip-dissector of the projectile is from the most common stamped sheet steel, from which some parts of the tail stabilizer were made. The plumage of the “boom” was cast from a special aluminum alloy, and subsequently it became clear that aluminum was additionally anodized. The tracer is pressed into the tail and additionally fixed to the threaded connection and core.
There was a lot of work with the lead belt of the projectile: in the end, we settled on the triple version, the elements of which were connected by a sealed copper ring. As soon as the projectile leaves the barrel, aerodynamic forces simply tear this belt, and the "arrow", revealing the plumage, rushes to the tanks. At a range of up to 750 meters, the deviation is not more than 2.5 degrees along the horizontal line of sight.
Features of other types of shots
The cumulative and standard high-explosive fragmentation rounds had a similar design. In their case, the shell of the projectile was also rigidly connected to the tail sleeve, on which the plumage was mounted. The difference was the absence of an obturating belt and the diameter, which coincided with that for the trunk. For cumulative shells, a sleeve with five plumage blades was used, and in the case of a high-explosive fragmentation shot, with six.
Cumulative and high-explosive high-explosive shots made not so high demands on the cartridge case, and therefore it was made of ordinary (varnished) steel. The shells of the sub-caliber type were equipped exclusively in a high-quality brass sleeve, which did not wear out the weapons so much. "Rapier" - a gun at that time is very expensive, but because specialists were looking for any ways to increase its operational life.
Refinement of shells
But with the adoption of various types of shots, the problems have only just begun, since all of them required serious revision. In particular, sub-caliber shells perfectly pierced vertically arranged layers of armor, but they were far from convincing with inclined shells. The shell either went into the armor at some inconceivable angle, or simply ricocheted. At the training grounds, dozens of decommissioned tanks were destroyed, while specialists found a solution that suits everyone.
New design elements
It was just required to add an extra core of a particularly strong alloy to the "boom" design. As soon as this part (weighing only 800 g) made of tungsten carbide was introduced, the firing immediately showed fantastic results: penetration of inclined armor improved immediately by 60%!
Soon, all these characteristics were tested in practice. Rapier cannon, the combat use of which began during the incident in the Golan Heights, showed excellent penetration results.
Further development of the project
Very soon, Soviet tankers also paid attention to the new gun. They were impressed by the power and low return of a smoothbore gun and its low weight. The first samples were hastily collected, which immediately made an indelible impression on the military.
Being mounted on the chassis of the T-54 tank, the new 100-mm Rapira cannon pierced training targets (decommissioned hulls of the same T-54) right through, and from beyond the limit. From the lambs, which played the role of the crew, there was practically nothing left.
In 1960, the Rapira gun, modified to the required state, began to be mounted on experimental chassis (based on the T-55 tank). Soon after, all the tests of the D54 were completely completed, as the new smoothbore gun showed its absolute superiority. The difference from the “infantry” modification is that there is no muzzle brake on the tank gun of this series. Only six months later, the Rapira tank gun (a photo of which can be seen in this material) was adopted under the 2A20 Stiletto index.
The fact is that with a caliber of 100 mm it was not particularly needed. Considering the fact that Soviet tanks never differed in exorbitant dimensions and weight, and the muzzle brake greatly increases returns, its installation in domestic tank building was practiced only in those cases when all other methods of extinguishing were already tried and did not give the desired result.
New modifications
In the early 1970s, the Rapier gun was modified again. The result of the work of scientists and engineers was the gun T-12A (2A29). Metallurgists and chemists have found a way to make more durable barrels, which automatically gave the groundwork for testing new, reinforced ammunition.
Once again, the carriage was completely redesigned, as a result of which it was possible to almost completely get rid of vibration when shooting, the practical rate of fire increased by almost a half times. A sight for night shooting, as well as a radar system, designed for both night and daytime, subject to poor visibility (dust storms, for example), was developed and adopted. Outwardly, this modification is very simple to distinguish, since the muzzle brake of a gun looks very much like a salt shaker.
Simultaneously with the modification 2A29 they adopted a completely new sub-caliber projectile with a working part made of a single piece of a tungsten alloy. Ammunition mass increased slightly, but the firing range increased by approximately 30%. Next came a new edition of instructions for the combat crew of the gun. It stated that firing with improved ammunition from the old Rapira 2A19 was strictly prohibited, as a barrel rupture was possible.
Since 1971, the updated tank Rapier under the T-12A - 2A20M1 Stiletto index went into series.
