Tanker here ! Real tanks have something called the ready rack . That ammunition in the wine rack up next to the driver ? You can ' t reach it from the turret . Instead , there are a bunch of rounds stored somewhere near the loader in modern tanks , they are in a bunker in the bustle reached via a sliding door . Once the ready rack is depleted , you have to break contact and shuffle rounds out of hull storage and refill the ready rack . Different nations ' TTPs differ , but generally , the commander commands the ammo type as part of the fire order . Depending on the nation and gun , if the round up the spout is not of the commanded type , you either open the breach and swap , or you fire whatever is in there and the next round is the commanded ammo consumable case rounds like 120 mm NATO don ' t like to be unloaded and can come apart , filling the turret with propellantAs the loader , you keep loading whatever was commanded until the engagement is over or you run out of that ammo type then you load whatever is next best depending on what you have in the rack and what the target is . So that might sound likeCommander Sabot lase tank on ! Loader Sabot loaded ! Gunner Two five hundred on ! Commander Fire ! Gunner Firing now ! Gunner Drop ! he missed highLoader HEAT loaded ! ! we are out of sabotGunner Firing Now ! Gunner Target ! he hit itLoader HE Loaded ! we are out of HEATGunner Firing Now ! Gunner Target ! Commander Target stop ! target destroyedAll this to say the loader can load ammo not commanded if the ammo commanded isn ' t there .