Rheinmetall in Germany developed an automatic 20 mm in the 1920s and Oerlikon in Switzerland had acquired the patent to an automatic 20 mm gun designed in Germany during World War I. Germany introduced the rapid-fire 2 cm FlaK 30 and later in the decade it was redesigned by Mauser-Werke and became the 2 cm FlaK 38.

A mass-produced version of the LKA was designed by a collaborative team from Daimler-Benz, Henschel, Krupp, MAN, and Rheinmetall, exchanging the casemate for a rotating turret.

The Rheinmetall RMK30 was designed to use 30x250mm caseless rounds.

With the exception of the 120 mm smoothbore gun, which is made under licence from Rheinmetall of Germany, the Type 90 and its subsystems are all designed and built in Japan, leading to higher per unit costs for comparable models from NATO countries such as the M1 Abrams and the Challenger 2.

The MG 15 was developed from the MG 30 which was designed by Rheinmetall using the locking system invented by Louis Stange in the mid to late 1920s.

The Austrian Steyr MP34 was created by a team of technicians led by Louis Stange who designed a submachine gun for Rheinmetall in 1919 and used Bergmann's MG15 to design the MG 30.

" Karl-Gerät " ( 040 / 041 ) ( German literally " Karl-device "), also known as Thor and Mörser Karl, was a World War II German self-propelled siege mortar ( Mörser ) designed and built by Rheinmetall.

The Rheinmetall 120 mm gun is a smoothbore tank gun designed and produced by the West German Rheinmetall-DeTec AG company, developed in response to Soviet advances in armor technology and development of new armored threats.

The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (" Armoured howitzer 2000 "), abbreviated PzH 2000, is a German 155 mm self-propelled howitzer developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann ( KMW ) and Rheinmetall for the German Army.

Even the elongation of current gun tubes, such as the new German 120 mm L / 55, which was introduced by Rheinmetall is considered only an interim solution as it doesn't offer the dynamic increase in muzzle velocity required for the future combat system.

* 2 × 7. 62 mm Rheinmetall MG3 ( German Army and German Luftwaffe )

The Challenger Lethality Improvement Programme ( CLIP ) was a programme to replace the current L30A1 rifled gun with the 120 mm Rheinmetall L55 smoothbore gun currently used in the Leopard 2A6.

The Germans were planning to use the MBT-70 in combination with the Keiler, a tank built on the MBT-70 chassis equipped with a Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun, therefore some MBT-70 prototypes were tested with the 120 mm gun.

| armament1 = 2 × fixed, forward-firing 30 mm ( 1. 18 in ) Rheinmetall Borsig MK 108 cannon ( 35 rpg )

* LMG M / 62 7. 62 mm ( Rheinmetall MG 3 )

Even as the Leopard 1 was entering service in 1965, an up-gunned version with the new Rheinmetall L44 120 mm gun was being considered to keep pace with newer Soviet designs, but this was cancelled in favour of the MBT-70 " super-tank " project developed jointly with the United States.

PT-14 used the 120 mm Rheinmetall gun ( as eventually did the U. S. Abrams ).

After this, two new prototype hulls and three turrets were ordered, one ( PT-20 ) mounting the original L7A3 105 mm gun and a Hughes fire control system, a second ( PT-19 ) with the same fire control system but able to " swap out " the gun for the 120 mm Rheinmetall design ( it was indeed so changed by the Americans ), and one more ( PT-21 ) mounting the Hughes-Krupp Atlas Elektronik EMES 13 fire control system, with the 120 mm gun.

After the comparative test the Leopard 2 hulls were returned to Germany for further evaluation, but turret 19 remained and was fitted to the hull of prototype seven, whilst its gun was changed for the 120 mm Rheinmetall.

The primary armament for production versions of the Leopard 2 is the Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun, in either the L44 variant ( found on all production Leopard 2s until the A5 ), or the L55 variant ( as found on the Leopard 2A6 and subsequent models ).

Includes the addition of the Rheinmetall 120 mm L55 smoothbore gun and a number of other changes.

As the 1990s began, Rheinmetall began developing a 140 mm smoothbore cannon as a future tank cannon.

The KWS III was not adopted then, but development continued on the 140 mm weapon system, with Rheinmetall coordinating with Royal Ordnance from the UK and GIAT from France.

The BW120K is fitted with an indigenously developed 120 mm smoothbore gun comparable in general performance to the Rheinmetall 120 mm gun used on the German Leopard 2, American M1A1 / A2 Abrams, and other current western main battle tanks.

These were armed with the Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun also fitted to the German Leopard 2 and, in a modified version, in the US M1A1 / M1A2 Abrams MBT.

The Type 90 mounts a licensed copy of the German Rheinmetall L44 120 mm smoothbore cannon product by Japan Steel Works Limited.

* 120 mm L44 Tank Gun at Rheinmetall AG

For these reasons the British Challenger 2 is being trialled with a Rheinmetall 120mm smoothbore gun.

* Rheinmetall MG3 medium machine gun

In 2006, a figure of £ 386 million was estimated to fit all Challengers in the British Army with the Rheinmetall gun.

Development of the gun began in 1927, by Rheinmetall.

The MG 42, with small modifications, resulted in the Beretta MG 42 / 59 — still used by the Italian Army — and Rheinmetall MG 3, which is the primary general-purpose machine gun of the modern German armed forces ( Bundeswehr ).

Rheinmetall has developed an upgrade for Leopard 2 tanks to give them the ability to fire the LAHAT anti-tank guided missile through the main gun ; the missile can engage targets out to a range of.

Rheinmetall has also developed remote controlled naval versions, the MN 27 GS and the MLG 27 fully automatic naval guns, which are installed on many ships of the German Navy.

In 1993 Rheinmetall acquired Mauser AG and in 1996 and 1999 the majority share-holdings of STN Atlas and Oerlikon Contraves, all of which are major European defense companies.

* Rheinmetall 120mm Gun: both the L44 and L55 versions which arm the Leopard 2, M1A1 and A2 and Type 90 MBT

File: Leopard 2 A6M. JPG | Leopard 2A6, which is equipped with the Rheinmetall 120 mm gun

The French government decided that it could not procure a new tank until 1965, while the Germans refused to adopt the Franco-German tank gun, in lieu of the British Royal Ordnance L7, of which they had already ordered 1500 in the autumn of 1962, their plan having failed for Rheinmetall to produce in Germany a common type of munition of sufficient quality.

Primary armament is the 20 mm Rheinmetall MK 20 Rh202 autocannon mounted in the small two-man turret which can fire either armour-piercing or HE rounds.

The German company Rheinmetall developed a more conventional 120 mm smoothbore tank gun which does not fire missiles, adopted for the Leopard 2, and later the U. S. M1 Abrams.

which was acquired by the cannon manufacturer Rheinmetall.

By 1990 the L / 44 was not considered powerful enough to deal with the future Soviet armor, which stimulated an effort by Rheinmetall to develop a better main armament.