2A46 125 mm gun

2A46 125 mm gun
2A46M1 in Motovilikha Plants museum
Type	Smoothbore tank gun
Place of origin	USSR
Specifications
Caliber	125 mm
Effective firing range	12km (12,000m) with HEF, 8km (8,000m) with GM, 3km (3,000m) with APDS & HEAT

The 2A46 (also called D-81T) is a 125mm/L48 smoothbore cannon of Soviet origin used in several main battle tanks.

It was developed by the Spetstekhnika Design Bureau in Ekaterinburg in the 1960s originally for the T-64A tank. They were subsequently manufactured at Artillery Plant No.9 in Ekaterinburg and Motovilikha in Perm. Versions include 2A46, 2A46M, 2A46M-1, 2A46M-2, 2A46M-4, 2A46M-5 and the Ukrainian KBA-3.

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 version of the 2A46 suffered from a short barrel life, but this was subsequently rectified on the 2A46M version.

The Ukrainian KBA guns are derived from the 2A46 gun.

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