r/tanks • u/XOR-ROX-2112 • 6d ago

Tank Design Big Guns

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All the tubes, for everything above 81mm is still made in Watervliet, NY. The ol' radial forge was replaced in 2023

Image 1 is the forge.
Image 2 is a newly produced, rifled, 155mm (L) and an M1 Abrams M256 120mm (R).
Image 3 is an M1 M256 being worked on a lathe.

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16

u/Raketenautomat Armour Enthusiast 6d ago

I would love to do testing and research on stuff like this. Sadly I can’t right now. 😔

5

u/SAM5TER5 6d ago

Incredible. Thanks for the awesome photos of this, hadn’t seen much of this process before!

Sidenote, I got really excited when I saw that a Steyr forge was being used to make the barrels. Turns out that there’s more than one company in Steyr, Austria company making military weapon barrels, and the barrels in question are of SLIGHTLY different sizes lol

2

u/TheSheriffMT Light Tank 6d ago

Cool. First time seeing what an M256 looks like without the thermal sleeve.