The Rheinmetall 120 mm gun is a smoothbore tank gun designed and produced by the German Rheinmetall-DeTec AG company. It was developed in response to Soviet advances in armor technology and development of new armored threats. With production beginning in 1974, the first version of the gun, known as the L/44, was used on the German Leopard 2, and was soon license produced to be used on tanks such as the American M1A1 Abrams tanks. The American version, the M256, is simplified, however, by using a coilspring recoil system instead of a hydraulic system. It has also been exported to South Korea and Japan, as well as nations which have procured the Leopard 2 and the M1 Abrams. Rheinmetall's 120-millimeter (4.7 in) L/44 tank gun has a length of 5.28 meters (5.77 yd), while the gun system weighs approximately 3,317 kilograms (7,310 lb). However, by 1990 the L/44 was not considered powerful enough to deal with modernized Soviet armor, such as the T-80B, which stimulated an effort by Rheinmetall to develop a better main armament. This first revolved around a 140-millimeter (5.5 in) tank gun, but later turned into a compromise which led to the development of an advanced 120-millimeter (4.7 in) gun.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1100:
Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_I_of_England
1388:
Scottish forces defeated the English during a border skirmish near Otterburn, Northumberland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Otterburn
1583:
Explorer Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s%2C_Newfoundland_and_Labrador
1772:
Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Austria began the First Partition of Poland to help restore the regional balance of power in Eastern Europe among those three countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Partition_of_Poland
1858:
American businessman and financier Cyrus West Field and his colleagues completed the first transatlantic telegraph cable, crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Valentia Island in Ireland to Heart's Content in Newfoundland, Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/transatlantic_telegraph_cable
1962:
Actress and model Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, an event that has become the center of one of the most debated conspiracy theories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe
2003:
A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, Indonesia, killing twelve people and injuring 150. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Marriott_Hotel_bombing
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
mantle (n): 1. A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak. 2. (zoology) The body wall of a mollusc from which the shell is secreted. 3. (geology) The layer between the Earth's core and crust. 4. A fireplace shelf http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mantle
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise of gentleness, or elegant because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am a man crude as any, gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full of fits and furies. That I may have spoken well
at times, is not natural. A wonder is what it is. --Wendell Berry http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry