XM35 (105 mm)

Description

The 105 mm Gun XM35, originally designated as the 105 mm Gun EX35 and later type-classified as the 105 mm Gun M35, was a rifled low recoil tank gun developed in the 1980’s by the Watervliet Arsenal’s Benet Laboratory for the US Army. It was a low recoil variant of the tried and true M68 series, used on American tanks since its first testing by the US in 1958 and production in 1959. It was designed to be used on light armored vehicles rather than full size tanks.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• XM8

General info

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Available ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M456	HEATFS	400	400	400	400	400	400
M393A2	HESH	127	127	127	127	127	127
C76A1	APFSDS	334	330	323	314	306	297
M735	APFSDS	353	350	342	333	322	312

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M456	HEATFS	1,173	10.5	0.05	0.1	1,270	65°	72°	77°
M393A2	HESH	732	14.85	0.05	0.1	4,310	73°	77°	80°
C76A1	APFSDS	1,509	3.6	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°
M735	APFSDS	1,501	3.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	76°	77°	80°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
M416	730	11.4	20	5	25	50

Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

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History

Development

The EX35 began development at the Watervliet Arsenal’s Benet Laboratories in 1983 to meet a United States Army requirement for a low recoil 105 mm rifled gun. The requirements were for a gun that had a lower weight and lower recoil, allow for compatibility with an automatic loading system and all current 105 mm ammunition, and finally it had to maintain the accuracy of the M68.

The first prototype of the new gun, based on the 105 mm Gun M68, was completed and test fired after only eleven months of development. The new gun type, designated first as the 105 mm Gun EX35 and later the 105 mm Gun XM35, was fitted in both the General Motors and Cadillac Gage LAV-105 fire support vehicle as well as the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) 105 mm Armored Gun System XM8 light tank. The gun was type-classified as the 105 mm Gun M35 but neither the LAV-105 nor XM8 AGS entered production and neither did the M35. The M35 though has been used in more modern variants of the XM8 such as that delivered to the US Army in 2020 for testing as part of the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) competition.

Design

Though based on the 105 mm M68 gun, the XM35 was significantly different. It retained a barrel length of 5.46 meters (L/52) as on the M68 but featured a newly designed and reinforced breech which allowed it to fire modern APFSDS rounds like the M68A1 could (see ammunition section below). The breech was a multi lug type which supposedly allowed for weight reduction. It used recoil and recuperator cylinders of a small diameter, each recuperator cylinder with a bayonet fitting to allow for easy replacement in the field. An integrated muzzle break with thirty-five percent efficiency was included.

During testing of the first prototype XM35, it was proven that it reduced recoil impulse by twenty-two percent compared to the M68. It weighed only 1,270 kilograms.

The XM35 guns mounted in the LAV-105 all featured a downward opening breech mechanism for use with an automatic loading system designed by the UK based Fairey Hydraulics Limited (FHL). This automatic loading system had a nominal loading time of 7.5 seconds. When fitted in the LAV-105 the gun had a 559 mm recoil length.

When mounted in the XM8 AGS the XM35 had a horizontal opening breech mechanism and also featured an automatic loading system but it was one developed by the American company United Defense, Armament Systems Division. This automatic loading system could maintain a nominal 5 second reloading time. When fitted in the XM8 the gun had a 762 mm recoil length.

Ammunition

The 105 mm XM35 was designed to have the capability to fire all the then available 105 mm ammunition types, including those limited to the M68A1 and not capable of being fired out of the original M68. Nine types of ammunition were evaluated on the XM8 AGS. These included two training munitions, M490A1 TP-T and M724A1 TPDS-T. Special purpose rounds included M393A1 HEP-T, M393A2 HEP-T, M416 WP-T, and M456A2 APERS-T. Primary anti-tank ammunition included M456A2 HEAT-T, M833 APFSDS-T, and M900 APFSDS-T. It was stated that the gun was compatible with all NATO standard 105 mm ammunition but the above list is all the ammunition stated to have been tested on the XM8 AGS platform.

One thing worthy of note is that the M900 APFSDS-T round was incapable of being fired out of the M68 and could only be fired from the M68A1 which had a reinforced breech. Despite being based on the M68 the XM35 did have a reinforced breech and could and did fire the M900 round as listed above.

Media

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See also

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• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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USA tank cannons
20 mm	M139
25 mm	LW25 · M242
37 mm	M3 · M5 · M6
57 mm	M1
75 mm	M2 · M2 Howitzer · M3 · M6 · M1897A4 · XM274
76 mm	M1 · M7 · M32 · T185E1
90 mm	M3 · M3A1 · M36 · M41 · M54 · T15E1 · T15E2 · T54 · T208E9
105 mm	M4 · M68 · M68A1 · M68A1E8 · T5E1 · T5E2 · T140E2 · T140E3 · XM35
106 mm	M40A1C
120 mm	M58 · M256 · T53
152 mm	M81 · M162 · XM150E5
155 mm	M185 · T7
165 mm	M135
	Foreign:
20 mm	Rh202 (Germany)
57 mm	6pdr OQF Mk.III (Britain) · ZIS-2 (USSR)
105 mm	Sharir (Israel)
120 mm	IMI MG251 (Israel)