ice73 said: Of considerable penetrative power, even.
Actually, the KwK 37 wasn't all that effective against Allied armor from 1941 and after. It was primarily meant for anti-fortification, and while effective against early-war tanks, it fell short against the mid-war tanks. The KwK 40 is longer and allowed much more penetrative power.
After seeing so many pictures of the Abrams, I keep forgetting that real countries rifle their barrels. EDIT: Operation "take attention away from the porn" is a success. \/
UK's HESH rounds don't work on modern tanks, everyone else had to go to APFSDS with the armor improvements of the 70s/80s.
APFSDS aren't spin stabilized so there's no reason to do it, and you can get a stronger barrel if you don't do it.
If the UK wanted to take out a competitive tank like an Abrams of Leopard II, it'd have to use APFSDS, but the UK APFSDS is inferior (marginally, mostly it's just more expensive) to the US/German one because it has to have an anti-spin sleeve integrated in to the sabot.
The only benefit they get from the rifled barrel is accuracy against buildings or lightly armored targets, where they do get a range bump with HESH rounds.
Germany, US, Russia, China all have smoothbore MBTs now, UK is in the middle of an upgrade program to improve lethality by procuring a smoothbore gun.
