Italian Leonardo has unveiled the future armament for its tanks and fire support vehicles as a 120 mm L55 smoothbore gun and 120 mm VULCANO guided shell.
Rivista Italiana Difesa reported Leonardo’s reveal of the future armament to be deployed on the Italian version of KF51 Panther MBT, upgraded Ariete C2 MBT, and Centauro II fire support vehicle.
The new L55 smoothbore gun will offer higher muzzle velocity and operating pressure compared to the current L45 gun, which is in use with Centauro II.
However, the bigger card between the two weapons is the 120 mm VULCANO guided ammunition, which will allow long-range engagements by cannon standards. The ammunition will have a range of 30 km with non-line-of-sight engagement capability against structures and vehicles. Against armoured targets, much due to the limited penetration, 120 mm VULCANO will serve as a function killer by damaging sensors and other onboard sensors via blast-fragmentation effect.
As to how VULCANO 120 mm will hit vehicles, it will likely use a seeker which might be laser or an imaging type (TV or IIR) in addition to GPS guidance.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi
