§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence what relative advantages are held by a rifled bore tank gun rather than a smooth bore gun which have led to the United Kingdom developing a new 120 mm rifled gun; and what effect he estimates this will have on the prospect of overseas sales for the British weapon.
§ Dr. GilbertThe main advantage of rifled guns is that they can fire the complete range of fin and spin stabilised tank gun ammunition, whereas a smoothbore gun is confined to fin-stabilised rounds. Tank guns of British design have 599W achieved substantial sales, and we believe that a new rifled gun would also sell well.