GT-3 (105 mm)

This page is about the South African GT-3 (105 mm) cannon. For variants, see L7 (105 mm) (Family).

Description

The Denel GT-3 cannon is an South African cannon developed in their efforts to upgrade existing Centurion with a more powerful cannon. Due to international embargo imposed on the South African state, the South African government must outsource their parts elsewhere.

This cannon uses a modified 105mm barrel while retaining the original 20pdr OQF Mk.I (84 mm) gun breech from their Centurions. The resulting gun could fire NATO compatible ammunitions.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• Class 3 (P)
• Olifant Mk.1A
• TTD

General info

The Denel GT-3 cannon has a very similar performance to the powerful L7A3 (105 mm) cannon found on most Leopards and the Japanese Type 74s. More specifically, it has access to all ammunitions found in the Leopard 1A5 with the same characteristics, plus an M416 smoke round and the DM63 for the TTD.

Available ammunition

Basically, most of the South African shells are literal copies of German shells. Every single shell has the same exact characteristics and their German counterparts. Here are the shell types available for the Denel GT-3. The shells listed in brackets are their original German shells that the South African shells are based upon.

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
M152 (DM12)	HEAT-FS	400	400	400	400	400	400
M156 (DM502)	HESH	127	127	127	127	127	127
M111 (DM23)	APFSDS	337	335	330	322	314	306
DM33	APFSDS	408	405	398	389	379	370
DM63	APFSDS	436	434	426	416	406	396

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%
M152 (DM12)	HEATFS	1,173	10.5	0.05	0.1	1,270	65°	72°	77°
M156 (DM502)	HESH	732	14.85	0.1	4	4,310	73°	77°	80°
M111 (DM23)	APFSDS	1,455	3.79	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°
DM33	APFSDS	1,455	3.79	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°
DM63	APFSDS	1,455	4.3	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°

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

A really important note. The M152, M156 and M111 shells are available to all tanks using the Denel GT-3 cannon. The M416 smoke round is available only for the Olifant Mk.1A, the DM33 is present only in the Class 3 (P), while the DM63 is used only in the TTD.

Usage in battles

Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.

Pros:

Cons:

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

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

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Britain tank cannons
30 mm	L21A1
40 mm	QF 2-pounder
47 mm	Ordnance QF 3-pounder
57 mm	6pdr OQF Mk.III · 6pdr OQF Mk.V
75 mm	OQF Mk.V
76 mm	OQF 3-inch Howitzer Mk I · OQF 3in 20cwt · QF 17-pounder
77 mm	OQF Mk.II
84 mm	20pdr OQF Mk.I
94 mm	28pdr OQF · 32pdr OQF · OQF Mk.II
95 mm	Howitzer, Tank No.1, Mk.I
105 mm	LRF · Royal Ordnance L7A1
120 mm	Ordnance QF Tk. L1A2 · Ordnance BL Tk. L11 · L11A5 · L30A1
165 mm	ORD BL 6.5in L9A1
183 mm	QF L4A1
	Foreign:
25 mm	M242 (USA)
37 mm	M5 (USA) · M6 (USA)
75 mm	M2 (USA) · M3 (USA)
84 mm	kan Strv 81 (Sweden)
105 mm	Sharir (Israel)
120 mm	Rh120 L/55 A1 (Germany)
125 mm	2A46M-5 (Russia)
155 mm	M185 (USA)
	South Africa
20 mm	GI-2
76 mm	GT-4
90 mm	GT-2
105 mm	GT-3 · GT-7 · GT-8
155 mm	G6 L/45