German company Rheinmetall has successfully completed the qualification readiness of its latest generation 120mm enhanced armour-piercing kinetic energy (KE) ammunition.

The new KE2020Neo or enhanced Kinetic Energy (eKE) ammunition is designed to counter advance protection technologies.

As a result, the Germany armed forces Bundeswehr and the British Army have commissioned Rheinmetall to produce qualification samples of KE2020Neo.

The qualification samples are reportedly part of a collaborative project between Germany and the UK focused on enhancing Leopard 2 and Challenger 3 main battle tanks with advanced kinetic energy ammunition.

It follows a contract signed by the Federal Office for the Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support of the Bundeswehr and the management of Rheinmetall Waffe Munition in September 2020.

The new 120mm x 570 KE2020Neo kinetic energy ammunition features new technologies that enables its high-strength tungsten penetrator to breach the latest armour protection technologies.

It continues Rheinmetall's legacy in kinetic energy projectiles development. The DM13 was the first in this lineage to be used, followed by DM23 in the mid-1980s, and later the DM33.

The company noted that the upgrade of Leopard 2 to the A6 version saw the development of the performance enhanced DM53 and DM63, which are predecessors to the Bundeswehr's current DM73, an advanced version used with the L55A1 high-pressure weapon.

Rheinmetall's 120mm smoothbore technology, including the Rh120 guns and associated ammunition family, is a NATO and western hemisphere standard. It is equipped on tanks like the Leopard 2, M1 Abrams, and the British Challenger 3.

Challenger 3 is being produced by Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) under an £800m ($1bn) contract.