page_title: Royal Ordnance L7
section_title: US models
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Ordnance L7 / Variants / US models
caption_attribution_description: English: Autoloader system designed for M1128 Stryker MGS
context_page_description: The Royal Ordnance L7, officially designated Gun, 105 mm, Tank, L7, is the basic model of the United Kingdom's most successful tank gun. The L7 is a 105 mm L/52 rifled design by the Royal Ordnance Factories intended for use in armoured fighting vehicles, replacing the earlier 20-pounder tank gun mounted on the Centurion tank. The successful L7 gun has been fitted on many armored vehicles including the British Centurion, the German Leopard 1 and early variants of the US M1 Abrams.
  The L7 is a popular weapon and continued in use even after it was superseded by the L11 series 120 mm rifled tank gun, for some Centurion tanks operating as Artillery Forward Observation and Armoured Vehicle, Royal Engineers vehicles. The L7, and adaptations of it, can be found as standard or retrofitted equipment on a wide variety of tanks developed during the Cold War.
context_section_description: T254E1
  US designation for the L7A1. It had the same horizontal sliding breach block as the L7 and used British X15/L52 tubes with a concentric bore evacuator on the barrel.
  T254E2
  United States variant of the T254. It had a vertical sliding breach block with the X15E8 tube and a concentric bore evacuator. Standardized as the M68. Used in M60 Patton prototype vehicles.
  T254E3
  US variant designed in 1975. Same as the T254E2/M68 but with chrome plated bores. Only two built. 
  M68
  Initial production variant. Used on the original variant of the M60 tank and the M116 gun mount. Retrofitted to the M48A5.
  M68E1
  US variant used on the M60A1 and M60A3 tanks in mount M140. They were fitted with a fiberglass thermal shroud in 1973. It was also used as a place holder on early XM1 developmental prototypes while the preferred gun, the L11/M256, was in development.
  M68A1
  US variant built in 1980 for use on the M1 and IPM1 versions of the M1 Abrams MBT fitted with a 1.5 ft (460 mm) longer (total length 236.5 inches) XM24E4/L55 gun tube and re-enforced breach for use with M900 depleted uranium cartridge. The guns were fitted with an aluminium thermal shroud and a muzzle reference sensor on the barrel.
   
  M68A1E4
  Variant of the US M68A1 designed for use on the M1128 Mobile Gun System (Stryker MGS), it features an Ares Incorporated long stroke low impulse recoil mechanism and a modified M68A1 breech.
caption: M68A1E4 autoloader System
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