Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Within the realm of artillery, there are many specialized classifications. Some cannons are thick and short, while others are thin and long. The former, with its curved trajectory, belongs to the howitzer category, while the latter, with its flat trajectory, can be aimed and fired directly, belonging to the cannon category. Battalion Commander Li's Italian cannon is a field gun, which, according to this classification, is also a type of cannon.

Howitzers are trajectory weapons that can cover the enemy's entire position through cluster firing. Cannons are direct-fire weapons that aim directly at the enemy's key targets. Therefore, tank guns generally use cannons.

A thin and long barrel is difficult to manufacture and has many problems in use. For example, due to weight, its barrel will bend downwards. This bending is, of course, invisible to the naked eye and can only be detected by professional instruments with sufficient precision. This will cause the shell to miss. However, modern advanced fire control systems can fully consider this error and directly adjust it in the fire control system to compensate for the error caused by its influence.

However, another influence is not easy to adjust.

That is thermal expansion and contraction.

"Aren't you a gun maker? You even know about barrel thermal sleeves? Did you read some third-rate magazine? Those are inaccurate and just spout nonsense!" After a moment, Smith asked aggressively again.

"Of course, I know," Qin Yang continued, "When sunlight directly shines on the barrel, the sunny side will be hotter than the shady side. This uneven heating of the barrel will cause bending and deformation. Similarly, natural phenomena such as wind, frost, snow, and ice can also cause this effect."

Qin Yang glanced at Smith and continued, "Specifically, take your NATO standard 105mm tank gun as an example. When the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the barrel is five degrees Celsius, the error caused by the barrel bending is 1.3 mils. That is to say, if you shoot at a target one thousand meters away, the impact point will have a 1.3-meter error from the aiming point."

When Qin Yang said these words, everyone present was stunned.

What? An error of 1.3 mils? That's too big, isn't it? Especially when the range is increased, the error is magnified. If you only shoot five hundred meters, the shell can still land on the target. If you shoot at a target one thousand meters away, it will definitely fly past the target.

"Since the temperature difference is uncontrollable, we cannot temporarily correct it in the fire control system. The main method currently used is to add a thermal sleeve. If the thermal sleeve is unqualified, it will lead to missing the target when shooting at long distances. Mr. Smith, am I right?"

Smith was also shocked.

They handed over the L7 tank gun technology to the East, but for some reasons, they did not hand over all the technology. The error caused by the temperature difference in the barrel was not given specific values. How could this young gun maker know so clearly?

"How do you know?" He blurted out.

"Does what you said mean that you admit the defect of the thermal sleeve?" Qin Yang asked.

"No, no, the error you mentioned about the thermal sleeve is correct, but there is no problem with our thermal sleeve. The accuracy problem of the tank gun is still on the vehicle body!" Smith continued to insist.

"Okay, in that case, let's do an experiment to confirm whether it's a problem with the thermal sleeve."

"Engineer Qin, how do we do it?" At this time, Zhao Mancang had a premonition in his heart: They were about to find the real reason for the lack of accuracy.

"Drive the base's fire truck over and spray the barrel with the water gun for five minutes to fully cool the barrel, and then conduct a test firing."

Boom!

A ball of fire emerged from the muzzle, and the armor-piercing projectile flew out from the front of the fireball, shooting towards the opposite side.

The blast of air swept over, and Qin Yang stood tall, smelling the gunpowder in the air, with excitement on his face: "This smell is really intoxicating."

Reborn in Factory 960, he has been making guns all the time. This is the first time he has come into contact with artillery! And it's the tank gun with the highest chamber pressure!

"Hit the target!" The voice of the target reporter sounded: "A distance of one thousand meters, accurately hit the target!"

"It really is a problem with the thermal sleeve! The British are too bad. No wonder every test firing is delayed until noon!" A technician said: "They still want to rip us off for a sum of money!"

"That's right, foreigners are not good people!"

"Where's the translator? Let's go and question the foreigners together. How can they be so sinister?"

"Everyone, calm down!" Zhao Mancang said, "Now is not the time to pursue Smith's responsibility. Now that we have discovered that it is a problem with the thermal sleeve, we must now find a way to solve this problem! Once we have a conflict with Smith, it will only delay our equipment and will not have any positive significance."

"Yes, Engineer Zhao is right. Everyone, hurry up and get to work. The British have lost face this time, and they have to learn a lesson. They won't do anything to us in the future," Yang Zhenhua said.

Everyone put down the anger in their hearts and continued to think about what to do next.

The problem with the thermal sleeve! So, how to solve this problem?

They were all at a loss. Domestic barrels have never had such devices, and they don't understand them at all.

Everyone looked at me, and I looked at you. Finally, their eyes converged on one person again.

Qin Yang!

Although they didn't know how Qin Yang, a gun maker, was so familiar with tank guns, they knew that it was all thanks to Qin Yang today! Otherwise, they might really send the tank to the British, and they don't know how much money they would waste.

"Engineer Qin, how should we solve this problem?"

"There are three main types of materials for thermal sleeves," Of course, Qin Yang would not disappoint everyone and immediately introduced them: "One is thermal insulation material, such as various glass fibers, reinforced plastics, asbestos, etc. One is heat transfer material, such as metal aluminum, copper, or its alloys, etc. The third is to use the first two in layers, that is, to use thermal insulation material and heat transfer material in alternating composite layers."

"There are also three types of installation processes for thermal sleeves," Qin Yang continued to popularize science for everyone: "One is integral, directly wrapped around the barrel and not removable. One is assembled, pre-processed first, and then assembled. The other is bandage-type, where the thermal insulation material is directly bandaged on the barrel."

"Engineer Qin, which method should we use?"

"For us, of course, it is a combination of local and foreign methods."