Within the scope of the requirements of the Turkish Land Forces Command for 120 mm HE-T Tank Gun Ammunition, which can be effective against open and sight defilade targets, the unique 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunition was developed and produced in a short period of one year within the scope of the program of the MKE Institution, launched with its own resources.

Following the production of prototypes, the first test and demonstration firings of the ammunition were performed through M60 Tank on April 03, 2018 under the supervision of MSB Firing Range Test and Evaluation Group Command.

National Defense Minister Mr.Nurettin Canikli: “120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunition was produced locally and nationally with all its sub-components”

National Defense Minister Mr. Nurettin Canikli made a statement to the public after the test firings about the features of 120 mm HE-T tank ammunition: “In our country, 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunition, which has not been produced before, has started to be produced by the MKE Institution. The 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunition, which is very effective against open and sight defilade targets and which can be used by the tanks in urban operations especially known as proxy wars, was achieved as a result of an R&D project conducted by the MKE’s own resources. Since the tank gun is used against armored targets according to the conventional operation concept before today’s proxy wars, MKE has been producing armor piercing tank ammunition for this purpose until now. It developed 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunitions during a period that could be considered very short in such studies, with the R&D project conducted by MKE against the changing target concept in Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch. With this project, MKE has gained the ability to produce 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunitions together with all its sub-components locally and nationally. Following the production phase of prototypes, the design activities of which were completed in a short period of time, the firing tests were performed successfully. The certification and firing table preparation studies of the newly developed tank gun ammunitions are still ongoing. For the 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunition, serial production will begin in the second half of 2018 and three thousand units will be delivered to the TAF this year. With this production to be made for the first time, 120 mm HE-T tank gun ammunition, which our army requests during operations but is difficult to import from abroad, will be provided domestically.”

Following the first firing tests of the ammunition, high and low temperature tests (+520C,-440C), design strength, wall drilling and fuse effectiveness tests conducted at the Konya / Karapınar MSB Firing Test Range and Evaluation Group Command were also successfully accomplished. Following this process, the qualification tests will take place.

For the 120 mm HE-T Tank Gun Ammunition, the aim is to start serial production in the second half of 2018 and three thousand units are scheduled to be delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces in the first phase.

The 120 mm HE-T Tank Gun Ammunition, which can be used in smoothbore weapon systems of a total length of 945 mm, a full thrust weight of about 27 kg, a muzzle velocity of up to 1050 m/s and an effective range of 4000 m in 120 mm tank gun munitions, can be used with 44 caliber M60T and Leopard 2A4 gun barrels.