Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

After World War II, most Western countries did not develop intermediate-power ammunition similar to that of the Soviet Union (Switzerland did it in World War II in the 1920s, Germany used 75x3, the Czech Republic did, and the United Kingdom used 7×43mm, but these did not become popular); NATO standards The bullets are 57x99mm; otherwise, they are all equipped by the country itself, such as American .45 (45mm) pistol bullets, German ammunition, etc.

43 bomb was developed in the late stages of World War II and was officially put into service after the end of World War II. At that time, mid-power rifle bullets were considered a trend. During World War II, Germany's Kurz bullets were also used in large quantities for the Stg44 assault rifle; however, only the 43 bullets were actually in service and widely popular after the war.

This is due to the overall reasonable design and better performance of the M43 rifle ammunition, as well as the huge influence of the Soviet Union after the war.

In the historical environment at that time, compared with various high-power rifle ammunition during World War II, and the NATO rifle ammunition that NATO still stubbornly insisted on, the full size and weight of the M43 intermediate-power rifle ammunition were significantly reduced, which was conducive to improving the carryability of ammunition. The recoil is significantly reduced when shooting, and the warhead power is sufficient for combat within a distance of 400m. The muzzle jump of the continuous shooting is smaller than that of an automatic rifle that fires high-power rifle bullets, which is conducive to the development of firepower at close range.

As for why NATO did not popularize intermediate-power bombs, we have to start after the end of World War II.

After the end of World War II, the Cold War between the East and the West soon entered. Western countries established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In order to save the cost of arms construction and standardize logistics materials during wartime, NATO proposed that a standard for light weapons ammunition should be formulated and a NATO standard rifle ammunition should be selected. , so a noisy big fight started.

As a long-established European imperialist, the United Kingdom has been severely weakened, but it has not fallen down. It strongly recommends its 280-inch (7×43mm) intermediate-power rifle cartridge. It should be said that the basic design of this bullet is still very good, the ballistic performance is better than the Soviet 43 rifle bullet, and the recoil, muzzle noise, and flame are relatively small.

However, the United States, as the leader of NATO, strongly opposes intermediate-power rifle ammunition.

In World War II, the U.S. military was fully equipped with M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles. The infantry unit's firepower was superior to the others at that time. Because it started early and took advantage of it, the United States had a very conservative attitude towards light weapons. It believed that the M1 Garand rifle was already perfect. It’s enough to add a 20-round magazine at most and a continuous-fire function; as for ammunition, 30-06 rifle ammunition is also very good. At most, the length of the cartridge case can be slightly shortened to make it lighter, and it will be fine!

For this reason, the United States directly produced a T44 experimental rifle and T65 rifle ammunition. The basic structure of the T44 is very similar to the M1 Garand. It can be seen as the M1 Garand with a shortened handguard, an additional 20-round magazine and a continuous fire function. It eventually developed into the M14 rifle we all know; and the T65 rifle cartridge The design is also very conservative. It is a shortened 30-06 rifle cartridge. The length of the cartridge case from the muzzle velocity is still 848m/s. It is still a traditional high-power rifle cartridge.

They argued for several years, and the final result was that the United States won by relying on its huge influence in Western countries. The T65 rifle cartridge was designated as the NATO standard rifle cartridge, that is, the NATO rifle cartridge; the British were stubborn for a while (mainly the Labor government) , but in the end, considering that the Western Allies were in step, they gave up the 280-inch rifle bullet and switched to NATO rifle bullets. As a result, NATO missed the historical opportunity of intermediate-power rifle bullets and continued to use traditional high-power rifle bullets in the 1950s.

At that time, the three mainstream rifles in NATO countries-the American M14 rifle, the Belgian FN FAL rifle, and the West German G3 rifle all used this caliber. The common problem was that the recoil was too large and it was difficult to control the continuous fire. Therefore, most of the M14 rifles in the United States simply The single-shot selection lever is replaced with a speed machine lock, which is locked in the single-shot state. The British L1A1 (FAL rifle produced in the United Kingdom) also cancels the burst and can only fire single shots.

The consequence of such trouble is that the firepower density of the infantry squad has not improved much compared with the World War II period (although the metric version of the FAL and the West German G3 retain the continuous fire function, due to the large recoil of the bullets, short bursts are difficult to control and very difficult to control). Not practical, and for the United States, replacing the M1 with the M14 locked in a semi-automatic state has almost no improvement), and the infantry unit's small arms system clearly lags behind the Soviet Union.

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the U.S. military used the M14 with full-power rifle ammunition but was outgunned by the AK with intermediate rifle ammunition in the jungle. They hurriedly replaced it with the M16 that was not fully ready, even though it received a series of bad reviews due to reliability issues at the beginning of the period. . However, after it was improved into the M16A1, the trend of small-caliber rifles instantly overwhelmed the intermediate rifle ammunition, and set off a wave of small-caliber rifles in the armies of various countries around the world.

Because all the advantages of the M43 intermediate-power rifle bullet are shared by small-caliber rifle bullets, they even surpass the M43 bullet.

1. In terms of weight and volume, small-caliber rifle ammunition is lighter in weight and smaller in size, and can carry a larger amount of ammunition.

2. In terms of recoil, the recoil of small-caliber rifle bullets is smaller, and the muzzle jump of continuous firing is smaller and more stable.

Moreover, small-caliber rifle bullets have many advantages that M43 rifle bullets do not have: their trajectories are flatter and lower than those of M43 intermediate-power rifle bullets, and their warheads have a greater danger zone; high-speed flying warheads are more likely to become unstable after hitting the human body. The warhead breaks or rolls, releasing energy more fully and causing stronger damage.

Yannick would also like to jump directly to small-caliber rifle ammunition, but the barrel length-to-diameter ratio of small-caliber rifles is large and requires high processing accuracy. The bullet has a high muzzle velocity and the bore wears quickly, which greatly improves the processing of the barrel. technical difficulties in terms of process and materials. There is no problem in manufacturing small-caliber guns and ammunition with the processing accuracy during World War II. The key is production under the wartime system. The manufacturing efficiency and manufacturing cost of small-caliber rifles are difficult to meet the needs of ultra-large production.

In addition, the emergence of small-caliber guns is because artillery firepower continues to increase, and the long-range shooting function of rifles is no longer needed; during World War II, artillery firepower was not strong, and the long-range shooting capabilities of rifles were still very much needed by the army; it was changed to small-caliber guns. caliber, the army's firepower is greatly weakened, and the defeat will only be worse.

Although small-caliber bullets have the advantages of light weight, high shooting accuracy, and high ammunition carrying capacity, they also have shortcomings such as insufficient penetration and a sharp decrease in lethality beyond the effective range. After many years, the military community has once again paid attention to the advantages of 62mm caliber bullets, and the armies of some countries have picked up 62mm rifles again.

For all these reasons, Yannick cannot give up the mid-power bomb. First, the German ammunition of World War II was used, and later it was changed to Maozi’s, which was finally determined to be the British 280-inch (7×43mm) intermediate-power rifle ammunition.