France's ASCALON cannon set to redefine tank warfare
France has conducted further tests of the ASCALON tank cannon. The development program for this weapon is achieving successive milestones, transforming ASCALON from an experimental weapon into a cannon that will give French tanks an advantage on the battlefield.
ASCALON (Autoloaded and SCAlabLe Outperforming guN) is a French next-generation cannon that allows for the selection of the caliber of ammunition used thanks to its interchangeable barrel capability. Beyond the Western standard caliber of 120 mm, the ASCALON cannon is also being tested in a 140 mm version. In this variant, it is the most powerful tank cannon in the world.
ASCALON is an evolution of a project developed in the late 1980s under the NATO Future Tank Main Armament program. Although the end of the Cold War led to the termination of the project, a quarter of a century later, France revived it, seeking a weapon for a next-generation tank, which is being developed jointly with Germany under the MGCS program.
In the 140 mm variant, ASCALON fires new telescopic armor-piercing ammunition. To shorten the overall length of the cartridge, the projectile is recessed into the casing, which, at a length of about 4 feet, facilitates the use of an automatic loader (by comparison, penetrators for modern 120 mm armor-piercing ammunition are approximately 31 inches long).
ASCALON - 140 mm tank cannon
Developed by Nexter, the ASCALON cannon has already undergone a series of tests at a fixed test site. The next stage of work will involve testing it after mounting it in a demonstrator of the new, unmanned turret, which will be placed on the chassis of a Leopard 2 or Leclerc XLR tank.
Firing tests from a stationary vehicle are planned for October 2025. In 2026, ASCALON is expected to be tested during movement firing.
The advantage of ASCALON is its very high kinetic energy of the projectile, reaching 10-13 MJ at a distance of 1.2 miles, allowing for the effective destruction of any tank. Alongside sub-caliber armor-piercing ammunition, ASCALON will also fire PELTASTE guided missiles, which are designed to be impossible to destroy with active defense systems.
Next-generation tank cannons
ASCALON is not the only proposal for a European next-generation tank. Alongside the French cannon, Germany has also developed its weapon for a future tank - the 130 mm Rh-130 cannon designed by Rheinmetall.
In the past, Russians also worked on tank cannons larger than the current standard caliber. In the USSR, during the 1980s, a 152 mm tank cannon was developed for the Black Eagle tank, among other tanks.
Over the years, the idea of using a large-caliber tank cannon was revisited during the work on the T-14 Armata tank, but integrating the T-14 with a new weapon was not realized.
