Thousands of sparks

Chapter 104 The Major General's Suggestion

The real experimental tank is still in a highly confidential stage, and Polina is working hard with other great technicians in the depot.Judging from what can be observed on the training ground, it is not difficult for General Horn to construct a tank image of an "armed truck" in his mind.

Such an armed truck must have a towering front cab, and the main firearms will be placed on the loading platform behind the cab.In order to take into account the load and platform mobility, this armed truck called a tank should have an infantry gun and about three rapid-fire guns.

The firepower is strong, but the defense is too weak.This is the judgment of General Horn.A high degree of mobility and firepower is taken into account, but the price must be a lack of defense.This kind of firepower will be very useful when breaking through the defense of the position, but at the same time it is extremely fragile-as long as an infantry cannon can fall within eight yoles around it, the shock wave alone can kill all the enemies on the platform outside the vehicle. Soldier.

Walking to the angry Dusande, General Horn's first words made Dusande's face look better, "Tanks have great potential for development."

"I think so too." Dusand agreed happily at first, and then he realized that he was angry, "General Horn, you have really caused us a lot of trouble."

"You will thank me soon." Horn winked at Dusand, and then said solemnly, "Placing the artillery behind the truck is a genius idea. But, Mr. Lord... I must Mind you, the survivability of such a vehicle that focuses entirely on firepower and mobility on the battlefield would be a downright nightmare."

In order to take care of the emotions of this young genius inventor, General Horn deliberately started with a compliment, and then expressed his concern, "Of course, this arrangement has many advantages. For example, the vehicle only needs to turn around after entering the position. Shooting, like being able to evacuate quickly after firing ... but that doesn't hide the fact that it lacks basic protection."

"When this highly maneuverable vehicle is in combat, it is unlikely that infantry can keep up with it. But there are steam knights among the enemies it faces." Major General Horn said about the "Steam Knight" At the time of the two words, the expression obviously had a toothache. "The short-distance sprint speed of the steam knight is higher than that of the loaded vehicle. If it is attacked by the enemy steam knight when it enters the position and starts shooting, the damage will be very heavy."

The four words "very serious" are said in a polite way.It only takes tens of seconds for the Steam Knight to sprint two kilometers, and these humanoid monsters can also pass through barbed wire fences, ditches and other areas that trucks can't drive through very efficiently—even if Dusand called a truck called a tank With the addition of tracks, it still has many places that cannot be driven.

Imagine if there were steam knights on enemy positions.Then these steaming humanoid monsters will appear around these tanks in a few tens of seconds, and the three-inch shotguns in their hands will completely smash the unprotected soldiers behind the tanks into a pulp.

"Such a tank is very innovative, but it will definitely not be adopted by us." After finishing his judgment, Major General Horn said to Dusand, "But I think these designs can be improved..."

After quietly listening to General Horn's "suggestions for improvement", Du Sande gave the old man an angry look, and then led him directly to the office.

Along the way, General Horn was still muttering something like "Firepower is very important, mobility is also very important, but protection must not be ignored", and at the same time he was still using the history of the evolution of capital ships among the Navy's active ships. Supporting his suggestion, "Let's not talk about the era of sailing battleships. Since the interstellar era, the capital ships of the Empire only focused on firepower at the beginning, and the resulting ships were vulnerable. When fighting the alliance, these old ships were beaten seven times." It was scattered. Later, I started to focus on firepower and defense, and as a result, I didn’t suffer on the frontal battlefield, but I was always beaten on the strategic level.”

Du Sande walked along with neither a good face nor a good voice. He led General Horn to the design room, entered a long series of complicated passwords, and pushed open the door.

"The 'tank' outside is an experimental machine, the purpose is to let the operator become familiar with the operation of the tank as soon as possible." Dusand pointed to the blueprint hanging in the center of the room and said, "This is the one that is really ready to be manufactured."

A blueprint of a Type 59 tank suddenly appeared on General Horn's retina.He looked at the blueprint in front of him in some surprise, and then his eyes gradually became soft and... a little fanatical.

"It's so beautiful." Horn raised his left hand, wanting to touch the lines drawn on the blueprint, and then withdrew his hand abruptly.

He said to Dusand anxiously, "You made this design?"

Without waiting for Dusand's answer, Horn was convinced of the answer, "It must be your design—this turret is really beautiful."

He squinted his eyes and looked at the three views, and then suddenly said in surprise, "This turret looks like an eggshell. Is this design designed to resist the direct firepower of the allies?"

As a veteran, General Horne has a lot of experience in shooting.He was well aware of the degree of ricochet that those spherical boulders would cause - a spherical hard target was never an ideal target for shooting.

Of course, if the enemy is hiding behind a bunker, and there is such an unsatisfactory target on the side of the enemy... In the absence of sufficient curved firepower, shooting that stone is also an option.

And this half-eggshell-shaped turret seems to easily cause ricochets no matter what angle it shoots from.There's no doubt that the shape was well thought out - it's extremely well protected and doesn't look like it would be too difficult to manufacture.

"Under the current circumstances, this turret may be a bit too advanced." Dusand actually did not expect that the Type 59 blueprint that he "designed" would hang here.At first, he thought that there should be Polina's improved design model hanging here.

In order to prove what he said was true, Dusand found out Polina's "improved" drawing from the file box on the side, and then explained to General Horn, "The model you see is a 'conceptual design. ’, which we are now ready to manufacture.”

The open-top rapid-fire turret with a zigzag structure is certainly more scientific than the design of the cannon mounted on the butt of a truck, but how can Horn, who has seen the Type 59, accept it?He frowned and looked at it for a long time, then shook his head at Du Sande and said, "This thing doesn't look aesthetically pleasing."

Du Sande blinked, and began to feel that he seemed to be a bit of a second party.

Killing weapons, what do you need aesthetics for?
"We have a saying in the Navy," Admiral Horne said to Dusand, "A good capital ship must look beautiful. If she looks snarky and top-heavy...that means that in her design There is a big problem. Maybe there is a problem with the position and layout of the artillery, maybe the overall stability is not good enough... In short, only a murder weapon with aesthetic feeling is an excellent murder weapon."

Dusande subconsciously prepared to refute this statement, but when he thought of the highest crystallization products of human materials science and engineering that he had seen in his previous life, Dusande suddenly felt... Horn's words seemed to be quite reasonable.

Most of the ugly and grinning weapons and equipment will not last long.They are more likely to be short-lived and then disappeared into the vast river of history.

"The tank you designed is very beautiful." General Horn turned his head to look at the Type 59 tank again, with unabashed love in his eyes. "I don't care about the demands of those in the Army—I want this beauty!"

He turned to Dusand, kicked his feet and said solemnly, "I understand that the Army must have the greatest demand for such weapons. If you want to place an order for the Navy Commando, this quantity may be very limited. And the financial During the year, it is unlikely that we can squeeze out enough budget for large-volume orders—at least it is impossible to sign orders for seven or eight thousand units in one go like trucks.”

Du Sande nodded helplessly. According to the accountants' initial calculations, if the Belford Automobile Factory produced the original Type 59, the cost of the first 1000 tanks might be as high as 3000 gold pounds each.

This comprehensive cost price only counts the new car body, track and artillery production line.Armor plates are calculated at the retail price of Olin Royal Iron Works.

If the compression ignition diesel engine is replaced later, the cost may continue to rise.

"3000 gold pounds? Sure enough, it is in line with her beautiful price." Unexpectedly, General Horn not only did not think this price was expensive, but even thought it was very reasonable. "This fiscal year, I still have two hundred vehicles in my mobile budget. I can sign this contract with you right now—but it must not be enough for you, right?"

Du Sande nodded and said, "For the purchase contract of [-] vehicles, after we get the advance payment, we can only build the car body production line at most. The price of the artillery production line is too expensive...but in the current imperial military industry system, it is suitable for tanks There are very few main guns on board."

The tank itself is as much a systematic project as a naval vessel.It is necessary for multiple subsystems to meet or even exceed the design indicators, so that this armored behemoth can show performance in line with its "identity".

Belford Automobile Works can complete the design and manufacture of car bodies, engines, transmissions and tracks.But the cast turret is not yet available.At the same time, the manufacture and design of the 4-inch high-pressure rifled gun is also difficult for the depot to complete independently.

"As for the artillery, I can help you get in touch." General Horn showed a sly smile, "Including the machine gun marked on it, I can also help you find a suitable manufacturer—don't worry, they will give Come up with a result you can be satisfied with."

"But?" Dusande looked at the old man's wicked smile, and immediately understood that the "General" might have other ideas.

"However, you must guarantee that I will produce at least 400 of these babies within six months." General Horn pointed to the blueprint of the Type 59 tank and said, "The Army will definitely have a large order. Definitely enough for you to start production line construction. But the first 400 tanks, have to be handed over to my commandos."

Du Sande said helplessly, "However, the army's requirements are different from this one..." As he spoke, he relayed the Imperial Army's requirements to General Horn, "What they need is a mobile bunker, a solid firepower point .I really can't guarantee that this tank will satisfy them."

"Oh, my good lord, they will agree." Horn laughed twice, "As long as you hand over the boys under Rosen to me for training—as long as the army's observation team arrives before Newsail , you can give me 50 real tanks, and I can guarantee that they will be amazed and forget that they are still men!"

　Pray for the passengers and their families on China Eastern Airlines MU5735, hoping for a miracle

　　
　
(End of this chapter)