On July 31, 2020, German defense company Rheinmetall has released a video on the company's official twitter account showing a new 130mm smoothbore gun. The news release said, "Rheinmetall's 130mm smoothbore technology for MBTs embodies a significant lethality leap in times of increasing threats. Combined with a state-of-the-art auto-loader, this system is the latest evolvement in Rheinmetall's MBT Advanced Technologies competence."

Rheinmetall unveiled the first prototype of its next-generation 130mm L/51 gun at Eurosatory 2016 in Paris, stating that the development of the 130mm technical demonstrator (TD) launched in 2015 by the Group's Weapons and Ammunition division to address the emerging necessity of gaining significant performance enhancements against modern armored vehicles.