Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Tanks are used for offense, and their primary target is enemy tanks. Therefore, the performance of armor-piercing rounds is the first thing to compare for tank guns. The performance of armor-piercing rounds is greatly related to the range. The farther the range, the smaller the velocity of the armor-piercing round, and the lower the armor-piercing capability.

For a long time, the tactical doctrine of domestic tank units was almost always to charge within 500 meters to fire. On the one hand, it was inaccurate at longer distances due to poor fire control systems. On the other hand, the power decreased rapidly at longer distances, and hitting the target was like tickling, with no practical significance.

This situation only started to change after the introduction of the NATO standard L7 tank gun. However, that only extended the distance from 500 meters to 1,000 meters.

Now, hearing Qin Yang mention 2,000 meters, everyone became interested.

"General Qin, can your tank gun hit targets 2,000 meters away?"

"Yes, the engagement range of third-generation tanks is generally very long. The British Chieftain tank's 120mm rifled gun once had a record of destroying enemies 4,000 meters away. Our smoothbore gun's accuracy isn't as good as a rifled gun, but the accuracy at a range of 2,000 meters is still guaranteed."

"Of course, we know that. I'm saying, have you debugged this tank gun with the fire control system?"

"No, we haven't had time for that," Qin Yang said. "Forget about moving shots. We're just doing static-to-static, calculating the distance and wind speed in advance. Anyway, we're comparing power now, not fire control."

"Okay, then let's compare at a distance of 2,000 meters first, to see how strong the armor-piercing capabilities of these two domestic tank guns really are," said Old Huang.

"Reporting, we have already calculated everything for the 120mm gun and are ready to fire at any time. If we use a full charge, maximizing the chamber pressure, we are confident that we can penetrate 430mm of homogeneous armor at this distance!"

430mm! This data shocked everyone again.

You should know that before the introduction of the L7 tank gun, the armor-piercing capability of the old domestic 59 tank's 100mm gun was less than 150mm. It couldn't penetrate the armor of potential enemies head-on and could only rely on a fearless spirit to charge forward, flanking the enemy or attacking from the rear to have a chance.

The introduction of the L7 increased the armor-piercing capability to more than 200mm, which was a temporary solution. Later, Qin Yang developed advanced armor-piercing rounds, using liquid-phase sintering technology to create the penetrator rod, successfully increasing the penetration depth of the armor-piercing rounds to 300mm!

Even the British were shocked and obtained this liquid-phase sintering technology through technology exchange.

Now, our self-developed 120mm tank gun has increased the penetration depth by a large margin, reaching 430mm. This is simply like launching a satellite!

"That's amazing, isn't it?"

"Factory 447's tank gun is indeed powerful!"

The crowd continued to exclaim, and Zhuang Shuren regained his confidence: "Reporting, the range is 2,000 meters, and the maximum penetration depth test for the armor-piercing round is about to begin. Please advise!"

"Be careful!"

"Yes!"

On this side, the technicians from Factory 447 quickly prepared. Two strong men lifted an armor-piercing round from a wooden box. The golden shell, the black penetrator rod, and the saddle-shaped sabot looked so magnificent.

However, Old Huang frowned. This shell is not small!

A 105mm unitary armor-piercing round weighs about 18 kilograms. A 120mm armor-piercing round varies in weight depending on the model. For example, the German DM53 weighs about 22 kilograms, and the American M839 weighs about 25 kilograms. The 120mm armor-piercing round in front of him must weigh more than 30 kilograms.

Even if one person can lift it, it is difficult to load it into the chamber. Without an automatic loader, it would definitely be a tragedy. If the tank bumps, it would be a small matter if this thing hit the loader's foot, but what if it exploded...

While he was thinking, the shell had already been loaded into the chamber, and various commands were constantly sounded.

"Crosswind one, adjust one mil to the left!"

"The target has been erected, distance calibrated, two thousand and thirty-eight meters!"

...

"Ready, request to fire!"

"Fire!"

Boom!

A ball of hot fire burst out of the muzzle of the 120mm tank gun, rapidly expanding to more than two meters in diameter, almost occupying the entire space in front of the tank! The surrounding air was pushed by high pressure, rapidly spreading around, stimulating everyone's eardrums. The black smoke rising slowly above the fireball formed a small mushroom cloud.

The 16.1-liter large chamber is no joke! After the first 155mm gun revolution in the 1970s, the "Four-Nation Ballistics Agreement" stipulated that the maximum chamber volume of the largest Western 155mm howitzer was no more than 18.85 liters, and the maximum chamber volume of the Old Maozi's 152mm self-propelled artillery did not exceed 19 liters. Although the caliber is only 120mm now, the amount of propellant is quite heaven-defying!

Everyone was paying attention to the movement here. On the other side of the gun mount, Old Zhu watched the magnificent scene from afar and asked Qin Yang, "Are you confident that you can surpass the power of their tank gun?"

Qin Yang shook his head directly: "No."

"In the future, we can destroy enemy tanks head-on from 2,000 meters away!"

Everyone was excited. Old Huang looked to the other side: "Next, let's go see the performance of the 125mm gun over there."

In a comparative experiment, of course, one side fires a shot, and the other side fires another shot.

"Engineer Qin, are you ready?"

"We? We can start at any time," Qin Yang said, climbing back onto the tank, intending to crawl in from the top of the turret.

"Engineer Qin, are you the only one?"

"Yes, it's just shooting at a fixed target, I'm enough alone," Qin Yang said, continuing to crawl in.

Old Huang became interested: "Wait, I'll go in too!"

Qin Yang was sitting in the gunner's seat, and Old Huang could only sit on the commander's side. He didn't need to command the target and focused his attention completely on the inside.

Between the two was the position of the automatic loader, almost identical to that of the T-72. Qin Yang reminded, "Old Huang, please sit down and don't move. Now, I'm going to load the shell!"

The turntable under his feet started to rotate. Old Huang looked down and then heard the clattering of the chain. The hoist lifted the warhead and propellant up. Then, with two swishing sounds, the rammer pushed the warhead and propellant in. The speed was very fast, and he didn't even see it clearly!

"Now, direct aiming, correct the trajectory, be careful, sit tight!"

Boom!

A ball of fire burst out of the muzzle of the 125mm tank gun. The saddle-shaped sabot fell off, and the slender penetrator rod flew out.

Zhuang Shuren looked at the firing of the tank gun and murmured, "Looking at the flame, the power of the propellant is definitely not as great as ours, and the penetration depth should not be as deep as ours."

"Penetration depth of 420mm!" Sure enough, the target reporter sent the report.

The people from Factory 447 instantly cheered. We won, we won!

Public data of the first phase of foreign trade ammunition