Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Michael and Steven were both stunned.

The Vickers CV-2 engine was an advanced tank engine. Whether this engine could be exported to China was still unknown and would definitely encounter some resistance. What would they do if they faced accusations?

In their country, some people had already come up with a plan: if the pressure was too great, they would simply say the engine fell into the sea, thus offending no one. If the Orientals still wanted a prototype, they would have to pay to buy it.

This action hadn't even been carried out yet, and the Orientals had already seen through it!

Michael awkwardly shook his head: "Of course not!"

"Gentlemen, our tractors are eagerly awaiting advanced engines. We hope your engines can arrive as soon as possible," Qin Yang said. "The order for three hundred units is just the basic number; our final demand may be even greater."

"May I ask, do you have sufficient funds for procurement?" Steven continued to ask.

The Orientals were poor! They had already purchased three hundred MTU diesel engines from Germany. Did they still have money for this tractor engine project?

"Gentlemen, even if we don't have foreign exchange reserves, we still have gold. Back then, we used 68 tons of gold to buy four destroyers, and we still have that confidence now."

What was foreign exchange? That was just paper! Gold was the real hard currency!

Hearing Qin Yang brag like this, the British finally felt relieved.

At the entrance of the office building, the group watched the British get into the car and leave. Zhu Lao breathed a sigh of relief.

"Zhu Lao, if there's nothing else, I'll go back first," Qin Yang said, walking towards his motorcycle.

"Engineer Qin, wait, what's the rush? You are a research and development member of our Third-Generation Tank project. Can't you stay here at Hualishu a little longer?"

"Zhu Lao, I'm also working on tank guns and automatic loaders at the factory. I'm also working on the research and development of our Third-Generation Tank."

"Wait!" Zhu Lao called out to him: "The tank gun and automatic loader are your factory's project, not part of our Third-Generation Tank! You also need to pay attention to the other parts of our tank. Come, come to the office with me!"

"The tank gun and engine are both progressing steadily, what other problems could there be?" Qin Yang muttered as he walked. "You're not talking about the armor, are you? I don't understand that either."

"Is there anything you don't know?" Zhu Lao turned his head and glanced at Qin Yang: "You guessed right. Currently, we have a rough idea of the basic layout of our tank. Firepower and mobility are being addressed, only protection is our weakness. This time you stay, and we have to discuss the issue of protection together."

The three major elements of a tank: firepower, mobility, and protection. Different combat missions have different trade-offs.

The British have always valued protection. Their Challenger tanks, in their initial models, reached a combat weight of 62.5 tons. Even with their 1200-horsepower diesel engine, their mobility was weak. Later, they had Chobham armor, and after installing it on the tank, the weight reached 73 tons, and later, eighty tons, reaching the level of heavy tanks during World War II.

The Germans have always valued mobility. Their Leopard 2 tank weighs 55 tons but uses a 1500-horsepower engine, accelerating from a standstill to 32 kilometers per hour in just 7 seconds. When they detect the enemy firing at them, they can also dodge half a car body in time, greatly reducing the probability of being hit.

What about our side?

Tank, firepower is king!

Mobility and protection are important, but a tank is a war machine, so the primary task is to attack the enemy. In the past, there was no way, and we had to endure weak firepower. Now we have advanced electroslag remelting steel and barrel self-tightening processes, etc. The 125mm tank gun created is definitely the world's leading firepower level.

Regardless of whether it can defend or dodge, as long as the enemy is blasted into slag, one's own safety is naturally not a problem!

Therefore, the domestic tank follows the principle of firepower first, but this does not mean that there is no need for protection.

The tanks used in the past were all made of rare earth steel produced on the grasslands. The entire tank was just a lump of iron. However, simply relying on steel for protection could no longer protect the safety of the tank. After all, 105mm armor-piercing projectiles could easily penetrate two or three hundred millimeters, and even if the tank used sloped armor, it was impossible to make a thickness of more than three hundred millimeters.

In the early days of the Cold War, all countries had no choice. The development of firepower had exceeded the development level of armor, so the tank could no longer defend against the armor-piercing projectiles fired by the other side, and could only wait for death once hit.

Until later, new materials were invented: composite armor!

Pure steel could not block it, so they tried other materials. Fiberglass, ceramics, aluminum plates, and even air began to be tried and used, forming various composite armors.

Among them, the most famous was of course the British Royal Armored Research Institute in Chobham Town, England. In 1976, they successfully developed Chobham armor, shocking the world. Given the British's fear of death, it was not surprising that they were the first to succeed.

Of course, domestic research was also underway, and the responsibility for research fell on the 201st Institute.

When Qin Yang walked into the conference room, some people were already sitting there.

One of the elderly men had a frustrated expression on his face: "Lao Zhu, the experiment has been completed. Our experimental results prove that placing the water tank and fuel tank in the front does not enhance the protection ability at all, and will have the opposite effect! You came back early and didn't see the situation at the time, alas!"

What?

"Zhu Lao, you're testing me again," Qin Yang said. "Currently, among the world's mainstream tanks, only the Israeli Merkava tank uses a front-engine layout. Their method is to increase armor protection, so you also plan to try placing the water tank and fuel tank in the front to see if it will increase protection, right?"

Israel has a small land area and frequent wars. In order to avoid being cut off from weapons sources during wars, they are working hard to seek independent weapons production.

The Merkava main battle tank began development in 1967, and the first prototype was made in 1974. The first batch of production Merkava Mk1 main battle tanks was delivered to the Israeli army in 1979. In the summer 1982 Lebanon War, Israel used the tank in combat for the first time.

Because of the small population, they pay special attention to protection, so they put the engine in the front, so that the engine can also resist a hit when it is hit.

Domestic tanks will definitely not use a front-engine layout, but they can put the fuel tank and water tank in the front, so they started thinking about this method.

"Actually, it's not entirely a reference to the Merkava tank, but also my previous combat experience during the war years," the old military industrialist said.