Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 652 Battle of Tanks

"The war has been won. At least for the foreseeable ten years, no new large-scale war will occur. With the vast Pacific advantage and far away from mainland disputes, I can't think of any country that will threaten Australia's mainland through transoceanic expeditions. In a sense, studying these expensive and useless weapons is a great waste, at least not a current priority."

"It is short-sighted. Tanks played an irreplaceable and decisive role in the war. They were the key assault force to win the Battle of the Consby Plateau. They are the first priority item in the army's combat readiness sequence. The War Department will never allow such self-defeating martial arts. Lift."

  "Then your Department of the Army can also raise funds for research and development. This time the Civil War has captured a lot of money. Don't tell me you have no money."

"You don't need the idea of ​​this money. The war seizures have been distributed to the officers and soldiers in accordance with the regulations, and the part of the handover has been included in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the gold mines of Ballarat are occupied by your government, but we have not caught anything. "

  "Keep your eyes open and tell nonsense, which of you high-level generals has made hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe more, it is enough for the Corps' small vault to leak casually, why bother to use our poor financial funds."

   "Fart, squirting blood..."

   Seeing that the two sides were arguing again, Li Fushou, who seemed to be distracted, couldn't help frowning.

  Don’t look at the fierce competition between the civil and military ministers below. In fact, the eyes are fixed on His Majesty the King’s every move, and the voice immediately eased when he saw this scene.

The   Tank project is an army’s ace weapon in terms of importance. Persistent research is absolutely necessary. This will keep the Australian tank project at the forefront of the world, so that the Army’s combat effectiveness will skyrocket and become a trump card for resolving disputes.

The   Wild Wolf light tank is no secret now. It’s just that the agricultural crawler tractor is covered with an iron shell. The method is simple and rude, and the actual application effect is very good.

  Most European and American countries understand this, because they are arrogant or incompatible with the traditional theory of army warfare, they have not yet shown a keen interest.

  Think about it too;

  The traditional European powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary have always been above the top, relying on line infantry tactics to fight all over the world invincible. This has become the glory and tradition of infantry. How can it be easily changed?

The real secret of the War Department of the Ocean Kingdom is the Panther-type medium tank under development. This is a cross-epoch killer. The main power uses the immature 4.2-liter high-horsepower diesel engine. The chassis walking mechanism has many innovations. Because of the involvement of new materials, new processes and new concepts, many years of meticulous research and development are required, and substantial investment in capital and breakthroughs in material technology are required.

Li Fushou has been paying attention to this project. What disappointed him is that... the leopard tank research project team still uses the design of a large iron shell, which is almost equivalent to an enlarged version of the wolf light tank, which looks like a tall and large steel. monster.

  There are two light artillery pieces on it, five heavy machine guns, and shooting holes on both sides of the tank, so the driving speed is less than 8 kilometers per hour, which is a bit nondescript.

  It seems that the designer has not jumped out of the old framework of the original design, only knows that blindly increasing the power, increasing the armor, increasing the firepower, this kind of scientific research direction is completely wrong, and will definitely enter a dead end.

  Science and technology innovation is like this. The window paper has been groping in the dark until the window paper is broken. If you see an example, you will realize it; oh... so it is!

   Plagiarism is very simple, and it is very difficult to truly create a path of independent innovation, especially to be the first in the world to make countless attempts...

  So, Li Fushou didn't mind letting the tank research team bump into a nail, and only pierced this layer of window paper at the right time.

  It is very early to the First World War, and he has no plans to equip tank divisions on a large scale. The current research and development are all for the purpose of making technical reserves, so that mature products can be quickly produced at that time.

  Now...sneak into the village, don’t shoot.

  He knows that the tank has a turret. It is not clear how to design it. The mechanical design of the inside is completely unknown, but this is undoubtedly the right direction.

  If it were placed a few years ago, Li Fushou would definitely wave his hand and say;

  So, everyone is happy.

  This is not the case for Li Fushou now. A tank project does not cost much, so what about other R&D projects?

  In modern times, after Dr. Nobel invented nitroglycerin explosives and plastic explosives, they quickly replaced traditional black powder and led a new round of military revolution.

The main influence is reflected in the field of naval artillery. The shells using new explosives are more powerful, have a longer range, and have stronger penetrability. They have put forward higher requirements for traditional artillery manufacturing technology, which involves more demanding performance requirements. Gun barrel steel material.

  Take the 280mm caliber gun as an example;

  The shells filled with black powder can have a life span of more than 200 rounds. The shells filled with new explosives basically grind the barrel bald after 30 to 40 rounds, and an expensive barrel is scrapped.

  Because the shells filled with the new yellow explosives are more powerful and have higher chamber pressure, serious accidents such as blasting often occur, so the design of the new artillery is imminent.

  Among the full range of caliber artillery, the small and medium caliber artillery has relatively low requirements for barrel steel due to the small charge of the shell. Therefore, the new type of small and medium caliber rapid-fire guns took the lead in achieving success.

The 152mm secondary gun on the armored battleship was originally a supporting role. Now with the emergence of barrel artillery technology and new gunpowder technology, some leading international weapons companies have successively launched 152mm rapid-fire guns, which are more and more in the firepower of naval battleships. Important position.

  In the comparison test of the new artillery organized by the Admiralty, the Azure Weapon Company’s 152mm rapid-fire gun with new explosives showed a huge advantage.

  Compared with the 45-pound shell used by the 120mm rapid-fire gun, the 152mm rapid-fire shell weighs up to 100 pounds, which is 45.4 kg.

  The theoretical rate of fire has not dropped much, and it can still reach six rounds per minute.

  This way

  In terms of theoretical projected ammunition, the 120mm rapid-fire gun projected 360 pounds per minute with six rounds. The 152mm rapid-fire gun can shoot 600 pounds with six rounds per minute.

  In terms of charge, a 152mm grenade has a maximum charge of 6.01kg, which is almost twice that of a 120mm grenade.

  The firepower of a 152 rapid-fire gun is about equal to two 120 rapid-fire guns, not to mention the super penetration power of a larger-caliber armor-piercing projectile.

Therefore, after the emergence of the 6-inch rapid-fire gun, it was generally loved by officials of the Ministry of the Navy and quickly became the main firepower output of the Ocean Kingdom naval battleship. Cannon use.

  The retrofitted artillery can be used as the main gun of the offshore cruise ship. The Chinese have always been very knowledgeable in terms of saving lives.

  The navy has stocked a large number of 152 mm caliber shells filled with black powder. These shells can be used by the next-level offshore frigates, and there will be no need to buy new shells for at least ten years.

  Compared with the armored battleship’s main gun, which can only fire one round every two minutes, the bullet rain of a group of dozens of 152mm rapid-fire guns on both sides to wash the deck is the most terrifying.

  The dense 152mm caliber rapid-fire guns are amazingly destructive under the power of new explosives. The 6-inch rapid-fire guns are the main firepower output of the reputable fleet.

Nowadays, in order to meet the challenges of new explosive technology, Azure Weapon Company is improving the design of the entire series of artillery, especially the large-caliber heavy artillery involves many scientific and technological problems. The barrel steel is one aspect, involving the cutting-edge hydraulic forging equipment of 10,000 tons. Is thinking of ways to buy from Britain, Germany and other countries.

  The barrel self-tightening technology is another aspect. There are also high-end processing equipment such as barrel boring, milling, and cutting. At the very least, the cutter head of the boring machine is a difficult problem that cannot be overcome, which in turn involves cutting-edge materials science.

The same is true for the tank project. The effect of copying the bulletproof steel on the armored battleship is not good, because the Hammer steel used in the armored battleship is high-hardness carburized steel with extremely high surface hardness. It can be 400 or even 500 mm on the armored battleship. , It can only be 35mm thick when used on the tank, and it won’t be able to move even if it is heavy.

With such a thin, high-hardness carburized steel, a 1.65-inch shell of the French Haqikais can crack it, and it is far from meeting the defense requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to develop high-strength and high-toughness tank armor steel, which again involves cutting-edge. Material science.

  There are too many types of science and technology projects. Even if Li Fushou has money, he can't carry the entire country's science and technology research and development projects on his shoulders. What is that?

"Don't mention the seizures in the war. The officers and soldiers have forgotten their lives in the battle, and they should get some rewards and seizures. That is their hard work, so the cabinet should not worry about it." Li Fushou opened his mouth. , The argument all quieted down.

  The so-called thief is like a comb, and a soldier is like a bar.

  The feudal army can not kill the local people even if it is strictly disciplined. If the feudal army can not kill the local people, it can only be regarded as drizzle. During the Civil War in Citigroup, the city was still slaughtered.

  He thought about it a little and said; “The tank research and development project is indeed very important, but according to the research and development trends reported earlier, the current tank research and development project has become nondescript, and it has become another expensive version of the armored fighting vehicle.

  Eight or nine combat personnel are crammed into a tank, and the speed is as slow as a tortoise crawl. Is such a tank really capable of surviving on the battlefield?

  Your Department of the Army organizes a simulated confrontation experiment to simulate the real battlefield environment, conduct a scientific evaluation of the survivability of the new tank, and then talk about the following things. "

  Fighting with Ximu's 50 boards again, the civil and military ministers did not get the results they wanted. His Majesty the King has already spoken, and they can only respectfully lead their orders.

  (End of this chapter)