HVMS 60.

This is coolbert:

IMI and Oto Melara. HVMS 60. Direct-fire anti-tank gun. Towed carriage-mounted gun in the venerable manner but developed in the aftermath of the anti-tank guided-missile [ATGM]!

Consider this to be somewhat of a surprise to me. With the demonstrable efficacy of the ATGM during the 1973 war between the Israeli and the various Arab powers I would have thought weaponry such as the HVMS 60 so obsolescent as to be never again a consideration. Evidently that was not so.

There were advantages to the HVMS 60? Poorer nations seeking more modern weaponry might be in favor of such a weapon?

"Officially, the weapon is known as the 60 mm High-Velocity Medium Support (HVMS) Gun. It was a joint development started in the late 1970s between Israeli Military Industries (IMI) and OTO-Melara of Italy."

"The Towed HVMS 60 anti-tank gun is a towed version of the TAAS - Israel Industries 60 mm HyperVelocity Medium Support weapon (HVMS 60) designed for mounting in AFV turrets."

"Early prototypes of the 60 mm HVMS were mounted on converted ex-British six-pounder anti-tank gun carriages, but these mounts were for trials purposes only."

"The weapon was equipped with both High-Explosive (HE) and Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding-Sabot, Tracer (APFSDS-T) rounds. Both rounds were produced by OTO-Melara. In Israeli tests, the gun proved to be precise at over 2,500 m [1 1/2 miles]. The APFSDS projectile flew at an initial speed of 1,600 meters-per-second and was able to penetrate the side armor (15 – 79 mm thick) of two T-62’s [Soviet Cold War tanks], side-by-side, at 2,000 m."

"There may be some people who underestimate Italy as a country of great thinker, but not the GRU. The GRU [Soviet/Russian military intelligence] know that the Italians have very good brains, the brains of great inventors. Few people realize that before the Second World War Italy's technology was at an incredibly high level. The Italians were not especially brilliant in battle, and that obscured the extent of Italian achievement in military technology." - - Surorov, GRU intelligence officer and defector.

coolbert.