afterglow

Chapter 71 Hollow charge armor-piercing projectile

As for now, the small thing that Zhou Changfeng started to draw is actually the hollow-charge ammunition design.

This is a crucial type of ammunition that has been discovered in principle long ago, but has not yet been applied on a large scale.

In 1888 AD, American engineer Charles Monroe discovered an interesting phenomenon in the experiment of explosives - the products of explosive explosion basically flew outward along the normal line of the explosive surface.

Therefore, if the explosive is prefabricated into a concave shape, the energy after its explosion will be concentrated instead of spreading in all directions, so it can penetrate thicker objects. This is the Monroe effect, also known as the concentrated energy effect.

However, this discovery has not been paid attention to and applied for a long time, because of the lack of application objects-for strong reinforced concrete fortifications, this effect does not work very well.

However, the thin-skinned iron canned tanks during the European War were somewhat "overkill"-machine guns fired steel-core armor-piercing projectiles, and infantry threw cluster grenades to blow up steel plates that were generally only about one centimeter long. Why bother with new things?

Because of this, ammunition developed based on the Monroe effect will not be useful until the emergence of more heavily armored tanks.

In 1930, American scientist Wood made a new discovery based on the Monroe effect-if a metal cover is placed on the conical explosive cavity, the armor-piercing ability will be further improved.

The results of this discovery have attracted the attention of countries all over the world, and they have launched various experiments one after another to investigate such potential ammunition.

In Zhou Changfeng's impression, a small number of early hollow-charge ammunition had been put into use during the Spanish Civil War, such as rifle grenades dedicated to anti-tank.

However, these armor-piercing bombs are relatively primitive and not reasonable enough in design.

But despite this, the invention of armor-piercing bullets is still a subversive progress in the military.

In the past, to deal with armored targets, kinetic ammunition, that is, armor-piercing ammunition, was the most suitable. However, to launch it, it must have high chamber pressure and high muzzle velocity. Cannons that meet this requirement are often very bulky.

Therefore, it is impossible to accompany the infantry in time, and it is impossible to be on call, and the mobility is low, and it is often only possible to pre-set positions and wait for rabbits.

As for the lighter anti-tank guns, they are too weak, and they can only be relegated to the second line soon, and can be selectively ignored.

In this case, infantry units lack powerful means of resistance to armored targets. Molotov cocktails and cluster grenades can only be used at close range, and the accompanying infantry of enemy tanks is not here to travel.

The emergence of armor-piercing ammunition has changed the current situation of serious offensive and defensive imbalances, enabling front-line units to have more powerful means to fight against armored targets.

Due to the principle of hollow charge, its armor-piercing depth is only related to the amount of charge, type of explosive, powder cover, and explosion height, so it does not depend on speed like armor-piercing projectiles.

It can be launched by artillery, propelled by rockets, thrown out with bare hands, buried in the ground, etc. In short, after the condition of "speed" is omitted, the application of new anti-tank ammunition suddenly becomes wider.

Even though infantry units are still at a natural disadvantage in the face of incoming armored targets, they have powerful means of confrontation. Tanks no longer dare to do whatever they want, and they need to weigh it clearly before attacking.

However, due to the scarcity of technology accumulation and the rush of time, the designs of armor-piercing shells in various countries were not very reasonable throughout the war, which greatly affected the armor-piercing depth.

But in this respect, Zhou Changfeng has an extraordinary advantage.

For example, what shape and material is more reasonable for the drug-type cover?What is the appropriate angle for the conical charge?What is the best explosion height?
These conclusions that require a lot of experiments and data accumulation are just a few sentences summarized in textbooks in later generations.

As a national defense student at North China University, an old school of military engineering, although Zhou Changfeng is not a major in ammunition engineering, has he never eaten pork or seen a pig running?
The cone angle is less than 120 degrees, the explosion height is five times the diameter of the bottom surface, the material of the drug cover is high density but not too soft, the baffle behind the charge, the dislocation anti-rotation drug cover...

These are just small concepts that can be remembered at a glance, but each of them can significantly improve the performance of armor-piercing projectiles. How much time and resources can be saved if you can quickly master them?

"Write two at will... The material of the medicine-shaped cover is copper, hiss... Do you want to consider the lack of copper?"

After some enthusiastic efforts, Zhou Changfeng was not satisfied, so he changed another paper and redrawed.

He simply drew sketches of three infantry anti-tank weapons: anti-tank rifle grenade, anti-tank grenade, and recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher.

His original intention was to allow Daming's military industry department to avoid some detours and apply it first.

If war is inevitable, at least gain some upper hand.If you fight against the United States, you must do your best and go all out.

In fact, rockets are neither simple nor cheap. They are actually very expensive, and it is not easy to mass-produce them while ensuring the yield rate.

In contrast, the launch tube itself has no technical content. It does not bear the pressure of the chamber, and the materials and processing are very random.

The biggest technical difficulty of the rocket is its propellant, which can be said to be simple everywhere, but this is very difficult.

It must meet the basic performance requirements while additionally having the characteristics of fast burning.

Because it is best for the rocket to burn before it is fired, if this cannot be satisfied, the tail flame will continue to be sprayed after the chamber is fired, and the soldier's face and eyes will be burned.

This is why the German RPzB-54 "tank killer" rocket launcher has a large shield, otherwise you need to wear a gas mask to launch it.

The technical difficulties of propellants have not been solved even in Germany, which claims to be full of black technology.

整个大战期间，还是又只有美国解决了速燃且易加工两个问题——M9A1型“巴祖卡”的燃速可以达到30m/s，而RPzB-54型“坦克杀手”大约只有22m/s。

"It's all things that look easy but are troublesome to make..." Zhou Changfeng rubbed his sore neck, walked out of the room and looked into the distance, and said with emotion: "Why are everything made by the Americans!"

He was distracted for a moment, and suddenly thought of a question—whether he would be suspected of submitting the draft design of weapons and equipment to the Armament Bureau?

After struggling for a few seconds, he decided to put on a show.

Whether it's trying to cover up or pretending, if you are really asked at that time, you can't answer that you thought it up by patting your head, right?

So Zhou Changfeng took people to the armory to get some explosives, steel plates, wires and other blasting equipment, and then went to the engineer training ground of the mixed third brigade.

Holding a pocket knife in one hand and a TNT pill in the other, he casually cut a hole in it, then inserted the electric detonator, connected the wires, and finally buckled it on the steel plate.

"Commander, why are you doing this?"

"This is the energy-gathering effect, which can direct and concentrate the explosive power that spreads in all directions."

"Can it blow through this steel plate?"

"Probably not, because there is no metal medicine cover... Go, stay away."

Throughout the afternoon of this day, the sound of explosions from the engineer training ground continued intermittently until the sunset.

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【Monroe (Energy Gathering) Effect】

(End of this chapter)