[ bull’s eye strike ] At Eurosatory-2010 defense exhibition, State Design Bureau Luch of Kiev, Ukraine’s lead designer of ATGW missile systems, and Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie (CMI) of Belgium unveiled ATGW missile round Falarick 105 which can be launched from the Cockerill CTCV 105HP gun turret. The CTCV turret is armed with missile firing weapons. Designed for installation on all types of light armored platforms, it is being offered to manufacturers of armored military vehicles seeking to improve firepower capability of vehicles such as the 8x8 Patria, Piranha-3, Pandur-2, BTR-4 etc. In 2013, it became evident that the number of partners participating in the Ukrainian-Belgian tandem has increased to three. At the IDEX-2013 arms exhibition, CMI Defence of Belgium, Luch of Ukraine and Doosan DST of South Korea unveiled a new concept demonstrator medium tank with a 120/150mm gun turret. The newl tank is a combination of the K-21 infantry fighting vehicle chassis, mated with the newly-developed Cockerill XC-8 lightweight concept turret. The XC-8 turret is designed to accommodate a low-recoil gun in 120mm or 150mm calibers. The 120mm high pressure Cockerill gun, as claimed by its developers, provides excellent lethality against a wide range of targets. The gun can fire all of the 120-mm smoothbore NATO standard types of ammunition, as well as the Falarick 120 armor-piercing projectile which is fired from the bore of a gun to defeat heavy armored vehicles at distances of up to 5 kilometers.
30 / Ukrainian DEFENSE REVIEW / July-September 2013
Elevating to +42°, this weapon delivers exceptional engagement capability in complex terrain, an indirect-fire HE capability to 10km range, and the Gun Launched Anti Tank Guided Missile (GLATGM) permits heavy armor to be enagaged at extended ranges. As a matter of fact, the Falarick 120 projectile currently being promoted on the export market is a version of the 120mm Luch guided missile system ‘Konus’(ready-to-fire weight – 22.3 kg, armor piercing capability – 700mm of RHA behind ERA). The Cockerill 105 mm high pressure gun provides a wide choice of ammunition to suit the tactical situation; it fires all NATO-standard 105mm types and the Falarick 105 GLATGM (ready-to-fire weight – 25.2 kg, armor piercing capability – 550mm of RHA behind ERA).
The newly developed concept medium tank with a 120mm/105mm gun is a combination of the K-21 infantry fighting vehicle’s tracked chassis, mated with the newly-developed Cockerill XC-8 turret and Ukrainian missiles
Both guns are employed using a common high performance, digital, fully-stabilised, day/night weapon control system. Turret weight is kept low through the use of a bustle-mounted autoloader, which permits the turret crew to be reduced to two. The Cockerill XC-8 concept-turret draws on the proven modular technology of the Cockerill CT-CV 105HP turret. The turret was shown at IDEX integrated onto the South Korean Doosan K21 hull, which is already in production for the Republic of Korea Army in the infantry fighting vehicle configuration,