Steel Soviet Union

There are some things that Malashenko really cannot say clearly to Kogin now, because his identity as a future time traveler has too great an impact here.

In the existing history, the German army even developed an extremely primitive "Youth Edition" wire-guided anti-tank missile at the end of World War II. It’s just that at the last moment when the Third Reich was about to collapse, it was no longer possible to save the defeat. Together with a lot of Santoku black technology, it became the spoils of war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

As the saying goes, pressure is motivation. Malashenko knows that this is relative, and it is not only applicable to his own side. When pressure is turned into motivation under the blessing of the butterfly effect, it will have a greater effect on the German army.

Such huge anti-armor combat pressure on the Eastern Front has spawned a large number of German weapons that should not have appeared at this time. Even historical blueprint vehicles such as Black Panther 2 have now appeared. , appeared on the battlefield.

I can’t say that I am absolutely sure, but Malashenko estimates that there is at least a 70% chance that the German army, which is cheap and can be used as a life-saving weapon for infantry chemical anti-armor weapons, will continue to use this aspect. Put your foot on the accelerator and put your foot in the fuel tank, and desperately pursue vertical research and development to develop more, newer and stronger chemical anti-armor weapons.

If this is the case, the first-generation wire-guided anti-tank missile, which was only tested in the existing history without sufficient evidence to prove that it was put into the battlefield, is not only very likely to appear in the current timeline. It will be a more powerful version than the one in the existing history.

Referring to the reality that even blueprint cars like Black Panther 2 are now appearing, this kind of bloody plot is definitely very possible. Malashenko knows and is convinced of this very clearly.

The first-generation wire-guided anti-tank missiles developed by the German army did not need to be too powerful. They just used simple methods such as hard stacking of charges and increasing the diameter of the projectile to achieve an armor penetration depth of 400 mm. Then all the heavy tanks of the Red Army will enter a state of running naked, and a thick and heavy homogeneous steel armor will be useless, but will become a maneuvering burden.

This is what Malashenko really wants to prevent early on. The later it gets, the greater the probability of this happening.

It's like the classic condom principle: you'd rather wear it and never use it than not have it when you need to use it.

Even if the design of adding composite armor to IS7 proves to be redundant by the end of the war, Malashenko will never regret it and will still install it. Because you can't risk your own life and the vastly different battle damage of your troops on the enemy's inability to come up with some kind of weird weapon.

Malashenko did not want to be such a fool because he could have predicted that this situation might happen but failed to prepare in advance.

Kogin took a deep breath and found that Malashenko had changed so much when he came back from the battlefield this time, so much so that his thinking could hardly keep up with Malashenko's changes.

Malashenko is almost 100% certain about the future direction of the enemy's equipment development.

Although Malashenko did not say this or verbally expressed such words, this was indeed the feeling given to Kogin. Malashenko is almost certain that the Germans will achieve a very terrible research result in chemical anti-tank weapons and put this research result into actual combat application. It is necessary to prepare for this situation now.

"After talking for a long time, it seems that we have returned to the issue of armor protection."

Ke Jing, who took out the cigarette case and refilled himself, looked worried. There were too many issues that required Ke Jing to make a decision.

"So, your suggestion is to modify the protective design and use new composite armor if it is proven to be effective. Is that true?"

Malashenko knows that Kogin, who has paid more and more attention to mobility, is really unwilling to build dangerous large-tonnage monsters, so the IS7's armor configuration modification plan must make more specific choices. This is a must.

"We can limit the tonnage to 70 tons, take Shashmulin's sketch plan as an example."

"350mm equivalent armor protection, Comrade Kogin, you and I both know that even if we cut off another hundred millimeters of this armor protection, we will still be absolutely invincible against kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles on the battlefield. The Germans don't have any of them. Anti-tank guns can penetrate this kind of armored defense, and our armored protection is still laid out at an angle, not vertically, and it can’t be penetrated at a high angle.”

"So there is no need to cut too much, even if it means removing 20 to 30 millimeters of steel armor weight to allocate it to the newly added rubber interlayer. In this way, we can be immune to kinetic energy bombs and chemical energy bombs at the same time. Achieving true invincible protection on the battlefield is what I want to express.”

""

The issue of new composite armor has not yet been discussed. Malashenko has come up with the idea of ​​reducing the steel armor and allocating the weight of the armor to the newly added rubber sandwich. Kogin really couldn't figure out where Malashenko's wild ideas came from. Could it be that he thought about them and pondered them over and over again whenever he had free time on the front line?

I don’t know if I had to ask this kind of "Why?" I would have to wait until the end of the year. Ke Jing, who had no intention of breaking the casserole and asked the question, took two puffs of the cigarette, his mouth was like a big chimney, with a solemn expression on his face. Finally he spoke to Malashenko.

"Even if the new tank protection problem is solved according to the method you said, what are you going to do with the old tank protection on the front line? What if the Germans really have as powerful and a large number of new chemical anti-tank weapons as you said? If they are put into the battlefield one after another, wouldn’t all the old tanks that have been produced and delivered become useless?”

That Kogin would ask this question did not exceed Malashenko's expectations. In fact, Malashenko had already thought of a solution to this problem.

"This is very simple, a modular armor enhancement upgrade kit!"

"Remember that the Stalingrad Tractor Factory produced a batch of T34s with additional armor? This is actually a successful experience that can be used as a reference!"

"We produce corresponding protection upgrade kits according to the specifications of different tanks that have been delivered. These armor upgrade kits are a kind of external add-on armor that adopts a new composite armor design concept. They are divided into different parts such as the upper part of the nose, the lower part of the nose, and the turret. , an upgrade kit is composed of various parts of external armor.”

"Frontline troops can decide which part to install or remove a certain part based on actual combat needs, and make a balance between protection and mobility based on actual needs."

"If these external add-on armors are damaged, the modular design is also very easy to replace. For example, if the additional armor on the upper part of the car body is seriously damaged, then just remove the separate piece of armor on the front of the car body and replace it, because it is an external add-on. The additional armor makes it very easy to disassemble and can be completed under field conditions.”

"Simply producing armor upgrade kits is much simpler than building new tanks, and the output is absolutely guaranteed. But in essence, this is just an emergency plan that can forcibly upgrade old tanks to be able to withstand new enemy weapons. Old When the tank was designed and manufactured, it was not considered to add these additional armors, so mobility must be lost, which is a realistic trade-off. "

"So, not only do we have to produce these additional armor kits for emergency upgrades, they have to be given high priority and delivered to the front-line troops for use as soon as possible. We also have to integrate the concept of composite armor into the new tank design from the beginning, so that it can be used in protection. To strike a balance with mobility, we cannot always use emergency measures to deal with it. The upgrading of armor must be put on the agenda in the new design. "

"All the things I said have a common premise, that is, if this new type of rubber composite armor is really effective, then all the above solutions can be established."