[Official] Armata Discussion thread #6

If you look at the length comparison in those images the APFSDS rounds and their propellent booster charges look about 2.5 times longer than the standard propellant stub, but standard 125mm rounds are about the same size as the propellant stub... HE-FS and HEAT-FS and APFSDS...



So the long APFSDS rounds might reach the floor but traditionally a Russian tank only carries a small number of APFSDS rounds and the vast majority are HE Frag FS shells and HEAT-FS shells... which could have inert blocks positioned underneath them in this autoloader tube in case of a mine going off.

How does the crew access the autoloader to reload it, anyway? I can't picture it.

In a standard T series tank with an autoloader there is a guy on the ground who gets the rounds out of their wooden boxes and he runs them up to the tank and hands them to a guy sitting on the roof of the turret, who passes them into the turret to the guy in the turret who uses the autoloader to place the rounds and the propellant charges into the autoloader. Each round is identified as it is put in so the mechanism knows where each type of round is stored so when a round is selected the mechanism knows where the closest round of that type is stored in the autoloader and turns to that position for loading.

The autoloader for the Armata is more like the loading system for artillery where rounds and propellant charges are loaded separately into the side of the turret which uses the autoloader in reverse to position the rounds and propellant stubs into the autoloader carousel. The commander or gunner will be in the front hull position likely pushing a button to indicate what type of ammo is being loaded so the autoloader knows which type of round it is.

It is possible that the system might determine the type of round on its own by shape and weight like coin operated systems do.

That would allow all three crew to load and install fuses etc etc at once.