The design and characteristics of tank guns are equal. Both 120-mm gun RhL44, and 125-mm 2A46M are shielded against heat, have quick-coupled joints between the barrel and breech, symmetric recoil brake and semi-wedge breech-locks. Maximum muzzle energy is also the same: 2A46M - 93,16 MJ and RhL44 - 92.18 MJ respectively, which provides them with a comparable muzzle velocity of the shell.
Armour-piercing projectiles (APPs) are respectively 1715 m / sec and 1600 m / sec. Penetration power of the German APP, type DM43 is about 450 mm to 2000 meters, but Russia's new export APP type BM32 punches up to 500 mm at 2000 m.
There are equally good sighting systems: both EMES15 in "Leopard-2 and 1G46T in 80U have similar characteristics. At 12-fold magnification, the field of view is widened 5 times and "is stabilized in 2 dimensions, and laser range finders provide a quick and qualitative measurement of the target range on the real battlefield distances with an accuracy of +10 m.
Moreover, in terms of firepower, the T-80U has a number of advantages - it is a wide range of munitions used as well as the guided weapons system. As we know, all attempts in the West to create an acceptable guided missile system for a tank have so far failed. The guided missile system as part of T-80U’s ammunition significantly enhances its ability to combat especially small-sized targets at a distance of 5000 m. There are, however, nuances that relate to continuously improving tank protection. Contact missiles with shaped-charge warhead of about 700 mm armour penetration is not so dangerous to modern tanks any more. There is the active defence system soon to be introduced, that can effectively destroy the slow flying guided missiles. At the same time, severe restrictions on the calibre and length of the missile make it difficult to improve.
Finally, the T-80U has the automatic loader (AL) with 28 rounds in the pipeline, which provides a rate of around 7-8 rounds per minute. "Leopard-2, despite the long-running works in that direction, doesn’t have AL yet, and ammunition of the first line, located in the rear niche of the turret is in total only 15 shots. And this again demonstrates a different approach to the creation of combat vehicles. Recognizing the benefits of AL, Western experts, however, point to certain shortcomings AL with a conveyor in the casing. First, such a placement of ammunition does no good to ergonomic conditions for a crew that should correspond to Western standards, and secondly, despite the deployment of ammunition in the least vulnerable area, it, however, can not be isolated from the crew as is done in the "Leopard 2". And here we come close to the issue of security, to the tangle of interconnected problems, even more eloquently, describing the difference in approaches to tank-construiction in the USSR (Russia) and in the West.