The 2A46 (also called D-81TM) is a 125 mm/L48 smoothbore cannon of Soviet origin used in several main battle tanks. It was designed by OKB-9 (Artillery Plant No. 9) in Yekaterinburg.

Description

It was developed by the Spetstekhnika Design Bureau in Ekaterinburg in the 1960s originally for the T-64 tank. They were subsequently manufactured at Artillery Plant No. 9 in Ekaterinburg and Motovilikha in Perm. Other variations include 2A46M, 2A46M-1, 2A46M-2, 2A46M-4, 2A46M-5, and Ukrainian KBA-3 and Chinese ZPT-98. The 2A46 can fire armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) and high-explosive fragmentation (HEF) 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 rectified on the 2A46M-1 version. Depending on the version it offers 510.0 MPa or from the 2A46M-1 650.0 MPa Pmax chamber pressure. The Ukrainian KBA-3 guns are based on the 2A46 gun. In addition, the Chinese ZPT-98 is based on 2A46M imported from Russia's T-72 or T-80.

Projectiles

Variants

Soviet Union and Russia

Source:

China

Ukraine

Tanks using the 2A46

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

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

Sources