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120mm CHARM round?
- Thread starter pkm594
- Start date
120mm L27A1 APFSDS
There seems to be very little information about the CHARM projectile. I managed to get this little bit of information from Janes.
"L27A1 APFSDS projectile This is known as the CHARM 3 APFSDS, with a greater DU penetrator length-to-diameter ratio than earlier models, and is thus "significantly more effective". Integration development of the CHARM 3 round began during the early 1990s but was delayed from 1997 onwards by a lack of ranges suitable for firing trials within the UK. Even so, the L27A1 APFSDS became available for service with British Army Challenger 2 MBT regiments during 1999, ahead of the planned schedule. The L27A1 is fired using the L16A1 CCC.
By the end of 2001, the British Army was said to have acquired its full warstock of L27 rounds and associated L16/L17 (desertised) charges. Further production seems unlikely, since the propellant was manufactured by RO's Bishopton facility (since closed) and the penetrators were machined (from US-supplied blanks) by RO Speciality Metals (scheduled to close in the near future). The propellant charges will shelf-life expire about 2015.
A competition to provide a CHARM 3 training round (C3TR) for the L27 was won by RO Defence at the end of 1999. The 120 mm C3TR consists of a charge and a saboted projectile assembly and, following development, is manufactured at Birtley and Glascoed"
Hope this is of some use to you,
Cheers
There seems to be very little information about the CHARM projectile. I managed to get this little bit of information from Janes.
"L27A1 APFSDS projectile This is known as the CHARM 3 APFSDS, with a greater DU penetrator length-to-diameter ratio than earlier models, and is thus "significantly more effective". Integration development of the CHARM 3 round began during the early 1990s but was delayed from 1997 onwards by a lack of ranges suitable for firing trials within the UK. Even so, the L27A1 APFSDS became available for service with British Army Challenger 2 MBT regiments during 1999, ahead of the planned schedule. The L27A1 is fired using the L16A1 CCC.
By the end of 2001, the British Army was said to have acquired its full warstock of L27 rounds and associated L16/L17 (desertised) charges. Further production seems unlikely, since the propellant was manufactured by RO's Bishopton facility (since closed) and the penetrators were machined (from US-supplied blanks) by RO Speciality Metals (scheduled to close in the near future). The propellant charges will shelf-life expire about 2015.
A competition to provide a CHARM 3 training round (C3TR) for the L27 was won by RO Defence at the end of 1999. The 120 mm C3TR consists of a charge and a saboted projectile assembly and, following development, is manufactured at Birtley and Glascoed"
Hope this is of some use to you,
Cheers
Attachments
It refers to the 120mm Tank cartridge used in the UK Challenger tank. I can't recal what CHARM stands for but it is a seperate loading cartridge as opposed to the 120mm Tank cartridge that is used by most of the rest of the world which is a fixed cartridge with combustable cartridge case. The UK tank gun is also rifled v smoothbore for most of the rest of the 120mm systems. The most common gub system is the Rheinmental gunwhich is used in Leopard 2 and the US Abrams. The reason why, as I understand it, is to do whith the "munitions Philosophy" of different countries. You can fire a APFSDS-T projectile from a smooth bore and a rifled (smooth bore more efficient) but you cannot fire secondary ammunition such as HESH or conventional HE from a smooth bore cannon and it is this requirement that has driven the decision by the UK to go rifled. The US use a dual purpose HE cartridge and a HEAT as secondary ammunition which are not as effective in some situations as HESH. One could argue that having seperate loading ammunition is more efficent from a packing desnity perspective inside a Tank but can make reloading more difficult as there are three components required to be loaded and not just one.
CHARM stands for CHallenger ARMament.
CHARM stands for CHallenger ARMament.
Charm
Here's a couple of pictures of a CHARM round as per my post on DU.
Pic 1 - Before
Pic 2 - After
Here's a couple of pictures of a CHARM round as per my post on DU.
Pic 1 - Before
Pic 2 - After
I had the pleasure of going to Tankfest 2017 today at Bovington and took the opportunity to take a few photos of the 120mm rounds that a few of the Army displays had available for viewing.
These on one of the displays.
These on one of the others.
The 2 x black projectiles appear to be slightly different with differing methods for fixing the front of the petals together.
Dave.
These on one of the displays.
These on one of the others.
The 2 x black projectiles appear to be slightly different with differing methods for fixing the front of the petals together.
Dave.
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