Why Don’t Modern Tanks Use Muzzle Brakes Anymore?

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]If we look at the tanks from World War II, in the middle and late stages of the conflict, we'll see that almost all models had a huge muzzle break on their cannons. It was very necessary for these huge cannons, [music] and by the end of the war, they were completely ubiquitous on large tanks. However, nowadays, no MBT has them. Well, maybe some strange tank from some country still has a muzzle break, but if we look at the most popular tanks, we'll never see a muzzle break on their cannons. Why did tanks stop requiring muzzle breaks? The disappearance of this device is not just a modern whim. If we look closely, as soon as the Cold War began, these suddenly started to disappear and never came back, at least on tanks.

[00:00:43]To see why these ever-present features disappeared, we should first look at why they appeared in the first place. During the early part of World War II, tanks had cannons that, by today's standards, were of low caliber. No matter if the tank was light, medium, or heavy, even many of the most powerful tanks [music] only had 76.2 mm cannons, which seemed a bit odd. They were huge tanks, but with guns the infantry used for support. But, when Operation Barbarossa began, things started to change quite a bit. The Panzer III had 37-mm cannons, a fairly manageable caliber, which was enough at that time. But, on the way to Moscow, the German armored vehicles ran into a thorn in their side, the early models of the T-34 had 76.2 mm cannons. Its 45-mm armor wasn't much, but it was sloped. That was a real revolution for the time.

[00:01:39]The 37-mm and short 50-mm cannons of the Panzer III would see their rounds bounce off in frontal attacks, and the Panzer IVs had low-velocity cannons, which simply couldn't deal with the armor of the T-34s. That was a big problem.

[00:01:55]Likewise, the Germans had to make a change, and that change was the Panzer 4.

[00:02:00]The problem with the T-34s could only be solved in one way, by having a tank with a more powerful cannon than what they had, since the chassis of the Panzer 3 had reached its limit. And they couldn't increase the size of its cannon due to the small size of its turret ring, so the engineers turned their attention to the Panzer 4. This one had a 75-mm KwK 37 L/24 low-velocity cannon. It was perfect for supporting the infantry, and in fact, that's exactly what it was designed for. It couldn't do anything against the T-34s, but this armored vehicle had something important, a more modern chassis, and more importantly, a larger turret ring with a more spacious turret. So, the engineers took a Panzer 4, fitted it with a Pak 40 artillery cannon, and created the Panzer 4 F2. The base model of one of the most produced German vehicles throughout the conflict made the Panzer 4 the main battle tank during that short period.

[00:02:56]Fitting such a large cannon into such a small chassis was only possible thanks to the muzzle brake of the KwK 40, which greatly reduced the recoil, allowing for a smaller hydraulic system. The Germans did not immediately realize the impact of this new invention. Even though muzzle brakes were common in artillery, this was the first time they were used on a tank, solving the technological bottleneck that prevented mounting huge cannons on medium tanks. Before this time, increasing the size of the cannon also meant proportionally increasing the chassis and the turret. Not only to support the cannon, the hydraulic system required for such a large cannon, making the tank inherently bigger, slower, and more [music] expensive. That's why tanks were stuck at 76 mm, but now there were no more limits. And this small piece of metal would start the era of tank destroyers and heavy giants that would give us the most epic armored battles of the Astoria.

[00:04:04]But why did this small piece cause this whole revolution? Muzzle brakes reduced recoil by up to 50% in certain cases and each piece was designed to reduce recoil according to the needs of the vehicle.

[00:04:15]The point was to make the recoil force redirect forward and not backward.

[00:04:21]And they did this by redirecting the gases from the shot at the muzzle into angled side cavities.

[00:04:30]With this technology, German engineers discovered they could make massive tanks with huge cannons and that's how the Tiger 1 came about. At first, when this huge armored vehicle appeared, the Germans hid the muzzle break in propaganda materials because they wanted to prevent the allies from noticing how they managed to make a tank with such a huge cannon.

[00:04:52]Soon after, casemate tank destroyers appeared freeing themselves from the limitation of the turret and breaking the scale even further making the cannons advance and surpass 100 mm until the Soviets went crazy and created 152 mm monsters. Without the invention of muzzle brakes on tanks, armored fighting vehicles would have been stuck with the usual 76 mm and we wouldn't have seen the monsters we saw until many years later. Muzzle brakes were as varied as they were widespread but they can all be condensed into three main types. First, there was the active muzzle break.

[00:05:29]These had internal surfaces at 90° that deflected the gases toward large side openings. When the projectile passed through, the cavities caused the gases to push the barrel forward instead of backward counteracting the recoil. We can also see the reactive muzzle brakes.

[00:05:45]Instead of making the gases collide with angled structures to generate thrust, these allow the gases to escape through angled cavities toward the rear, generating forward thrust. Finally, we have the mixed or active reactive ones, which combine both methodologies to be even more effective. Collision of gases in angled structures combined with an angled rearward escape causing forward thrust. Now, if these parts were so beneficial, why are they no longer present? On this channel, we've seen many cases of technologies that were lost when transitioning from World War II to the Cold War, and there's always a specific reason, but in this case, there isn't any particular reason. Instead, it was a series of minor issues that gradually led engineers to set aside the muzzle brake in favor of using better technologies to handle recoil. Next, we will mention all of these problems.

[00:06:37][music] Muzzle brakes are extremely heavy. For example, the one on the Tiger I weighed up to 60 kg. Those 60 kilos were at the tip of the barrel, so the weight of a muzzle brake is always difficult to handle. Thinking, of course, about the gun stabilizer or the mechanisms that move it. In World War II, it wasn't much of a problem since stabilizers didn't exist or large tanks didn't even have a turret, but it's something to consider in more modern tanks because that's always been the case.

[00:07:09]Also, a muzzle brake lengthens the barrel, which creates issues when maneuvering the tank in cities. Also, if your tank is designed to operate alongside infantry, you definitely shouldn't have a muzzle brake. It's somewhat dangerous and disadvantageous.

[00:07:23]For starters, by redirecting the gases backward, you can injure the soldiers on the sides of the tank. Also, the dust generated by the blast of the shot, instead of going forward, goes backward.

[00:07:34]This makes the soldiers operate as if someone had thrown a gas grenade next to the tank. An even more The reason was the emergence of APFSDS sabot ammunition. These are similar to an arrow only made of tungsten and they are embedded in a casing that comes off once the projectile leaves the barrel. This separation process is extremely precise.

[00:07:55]Any unusual variation greatly reduces the accuracy of the final projectile.

[00:07:59]The muzzle brake is practically a source of variation which many tank designs simply decided to do without. Now, weren't muzzle brakes supposed to be essential for having a big gun? Well, yes, but that was during World War II.

[00:08:14]During the Cold War, the quality of tank suspensions, hydraulic systems, and also the materials used in the chassis improved tremendously. For example, one of the most important reasons to have a muzzle brake was to reduce the recoil distance of the gun.

[00:08:30]Well, this is no longer so necessary in modern tanks since they have more modern and compact hydraulic systems. The muzzle brake started to become increasingly unnecessary because you're not as limited in space as you were in World War II. The modernization of ammunition, the mechanisms for operating the cannon, as well as combat paradigms simply made it no longer so beneficial to have an extra 60 kilos at the tip of the cannon. As I said before, there wasn't a particular reason that caused it to disappear.

[00:08:59]But rather it tended to disappear as technology advanced. Since there were equally effective alternatives, little by little it stopped being so beneficial to have them considering their advantages and disadvantages. Now, many armored vehicles still have them like light vehicles and of course self-propelled artillery since these vehicles are lighter than MBTs, they still need muzzle brakes. Why did airplanes have a strange thought wire on the fuselage? In this video, you'll see the answer. Thanks for watching this and goodbye.