Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 861 T-2 Tank Good News

   Seeing Major General Bian Chunsong jumping out of the cabin, tidying up his leather jacket, and striding over, all the senior officers couldn't help laughing and talking about it;

   "Yo hoo... Is this... flying to work?"

   "Of course it doesn't matter, General Bian is a well-known wealth management expert, and he manages the Xingxing Lake Ranch with Rijin Doujin!"

   "You can govern the army when you get on a horse, and you can settle down when you get off your horse. That's a real skill!"

   "The main reason is that the plane is really convenient and fast, but this new thing looks mysterious, we can't enjoy it."

   "Hahaha... That's right."

  Bian Chunsong strode over, stopped in front of him on Mo Rufeng, and folded his legs and slapped one who stood at attention and saluted; "Report to Junzuo, the first red division, Bian Chunsong, arrived on time, please instruct."

   "Take a break."

"Yes."

   After the ceremony, Admiral Mo Rufeng looked at the crowd and said, "Okay, our armored experts are also in place. Next, let's ask Professor Strauss to show us the T-2."

   "It's my honor, sirs, please come with me." Professor Strauss made a gesture of "please", then walked to the testing ground first, followed by a large group of senior officers.

   Inside the experimental site

The three mighty T-2 tanks parked quietly on the gravel ground in front of the maintenance workshop, exuding an icy luster under the sunlight, like steel beasts ready to go, making people feel that their bodies contain of great power.

   Next to the three T2 tanks, a cheetah medium tank and a wolf light tank were quietly placed as a comparison, and the three were high and low at a glance.

If the latter two are like a cheetah and a wolf, then the T-2 tank is a bull, and its volume and weight far exceed the former. The long 32-times caliber 60mm and howitzer barrels represent ferocious strike firepower. In a few minutes, the small physiques of the first two can be abused into slag.

   Although the cheetah tank bears the title of medium tank, its own weight is more than 10 tons. The weight of the T2 tank prototype has reached 27.2 tons, which is twice and a half that of the cheetah tank. The visual shock is quite strong in comparison.

  According to the introduction of Professor Strauss;

   At present, the design of the T2 tank is basically finalized. After the previous test, dozens of design defects have been collected, and will be improved in the next step.

  The design of the tank turret has not changed much. It basically follows the original T-1 tank design concept. This is also the brightest part of the T-1 tank design. It has been completely preserved and further innovated. The biggest technological innovation comes from casting the turret.

In the Cheetah medium tank project, the tank turret was welded with rivets, and several pieces of armored steel were riveted together to form an armored turret. In the subsequent turret damage test, the 12.7mm machine gun, 20mm rapid-fire gun, 40mm field gun , The 57mm mountain artillery took turns to attack, the cheetah heavy tank turret was beaten with holes, the internal rivets were scattered, and even fell apart.

   experiments show that;

The 33mm superhard alloy armor on the front of the cheetah tank turret is inclined at 15 degrees, which can defend the frontal attack of 12.7mm machine guns and 20mm rapid-fire guns, but it will be broken in the frontal bombardment of 40mm field guns, and the armor rivets will be destroyed in the explosion. Lasing out, causing secondary damage to personnel.

   Therefore, the cheetah tank is suitable for combat scenarios lacking heavy weapons, with rapid attack and fire suppression as the main means, and try to avoid the dangerous situation of heavy fire bombardment.

   When His Majesty visited the tank base in person, he pointed out the drawbacks exposed by the riveted turret; then use a cast turret. Without rivets, there will be no secondary damage, and the casting process is much simpler.

This greatly inspired the tank project designers, and Professor Strauss developed a new cast turret shape based on this, which increased the internal space by 17% compared with the original T-1 tank design, and could easily accommodate a 32-fold Caliber 60mm plus howitzer, and a 6.72mm coaxial machine gun was added.

  The gunner can either operate the 60mm artillery to bombard the enemy, or operate the coaxial machine gun to fire, which greatly enhances the self-defense capability of the tank.

   But in order to produce the cast turret, it has gone through a lot of technological breakthroughs, and there are many obstacles to be solved, of which there are two biggest problems.

   The first one is a super large cutting machine;

The T-2 tank turret is a typical irregular body. The front part is semi-circular, like a log that has been broken in half. The two sides of the turret have an inclination angle of 18 degrees, and the rear is right angle. to balance the weight in front of the turret.

   The volume of the entire turret is 2.2 meters x 2.78 meters. Such a huge volume requires a large cutting machine tool to process, and the Ocean Empire does not have such a large cutting machine production capacity at all, and there is no such large cutting machine production capacity in the world.

  The existing three prototype car turrets are machined in sections using a 1.5-meter-class cutting machine, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the accuracy is unsatisfactory.

   Therefore, the tank research and development project team is entrusting Hongshan Heavy Industry to tackle the 2.8-meter super-large cutting machine. Before this equipment came out, the T-2 tank could not be mass-produced.

   The second one is the sand casting process for super-large castings;

The weight of the T-2 tank turret alone is 6.16 tons, the size is 2.2 meters wide x 2.78 meters long x 1.47 meters high, and the thickness of the front of the turret is 67 mm. Such a huge super-large casting, and it is very difficult to use super-hard alloy casting. overall industrial capacity.

   Today, the overall mold cavity molding is used, and the segmented casting method temporarily solves the problem of whether it is present or not. If you want to cast molding at one time, the current process cannot be achieved for the time being, and it can only be left in the follow-up to gradually tackle key problems.

  After the turret casting is completed, it can only be regarded as a rough billet, and the turret parts can finally be formed after a series of processes such as cutting process, boring and milling, grinding, and welding.

   Every cutting-edge craftsmanship here has put forward high requirements for the overall processing industry of the empire, which has contributed to industrial progress, design innovation and ability improvement.

Therefore, the T-2 tank is not a product built behind closed doors, but requires the cooperation of hundreds of enterprises in the empire, from engines, gearboxes, motors, gear bearings, special rubber, special lubricants, special fuels (cold regions) ) and so on, to the weapons industry, the steel industry and the machine tool industry to cooperate and jointly forge a world-leading armored combat vehicle.

   Only casting the turret is the tank design concept of the unique world.

The R&D team led by Strauss devoted more energy to the design of the tank running mechanism. This is a new solution that completely overturned the design concept of the T-1 tank. It adopts a subversive 5-pair wheel design and an innovative torsion bar suspension design. , with great success.

  The entire design team has 137 technicians, and most of the energy is devoted to the chassis design, eliminating hundreds of technical problems. It took one year to finally reach the mature application stage.

   Such a cutting-edge scientific research project, without the strong support of the national will, the Ministry of War attaches great importance to it, a large number of scientific research funds are tilted, and many cooperative manufacturers fully support it.

  Speaking of this

  Professor Strauss' face glowed with a strange brilliance, looking at the miracle he created with his own hands, this is really the happiest moment of a scientific researcher.

   After this wonderful introduction, there was a pause for a few seconds, and the generals at the scene immediately burst into warm applause. This applause is given to scholars who have made outstanding contributions to the scientific research front and is the highest praise for their scientific research achievements.

"That's very good, Mr. Professor, everyone here should be grateful to be in a great era, to be fortunate to follow the footsteps of the great monarch, and to create a glorious glory that can be remembered in the annals of history." Admiral Mo Rufeng's eyes were bright at this moment. Afraid of people, after looking around the generals and technicians present, he continued in a firm tone;

   "Your Majesty taught us that technology is the highest productive force that drives human progress.

   Today’s world is undergoing drastic changes. The industrial wave represented by the second electrification is sweeping the world. Australia cannot be absent from this historical process. Not only the industrial field, but also the military field must keep up with the trend of the times.

  In the known history, the eternal truth is that if you fall behind, you will be beaten.

  In the forefront of military science and technology

Tanks, artillery, and new firearms will all be the areas of focus of the Ministry of the Army. The mortars that appeared in the Russo-Japanese War are light, compact and powerful. As an important means of battalion-level fire support, artillery vehicles are more mobile and flexible than field guns.

  The grenades and hand mines that were widely used in the Russo-Japanese War, the relevant project team of the Ministry of the Army is also conducting standardized research and development, and will be equipped with troops one after another.

There is no real threat to the Imperial Army today, but it is possible to use troops on a large scale in the Far East, North America and Europe in the future. Although it is not clear, any of these battlefields is a high-intensity large-scale war, the scale of which is no less than the Russo-Japanese War. .

   Therefore, take precautions and fight a high-intensity and large-scale war based on the future, in order to win the international status respected by the world and promote the country's prestige outside the foreign lands.

  This requires us to be ready at all times, waiting for His Majesty's call.

  The ability to fight and win the battle can live up to the ardent expectations of Your Majesty and the people.

   Hundreds of gallops are competing for success, and the true character of a hero is revealed. The world is not peaceful, and there are many opportunities to make achievements. It depends on whether everyone can seize it. "

   These impassioned words just fell, and there was thunderous applause once again. The generals and scientific researchers were full of blood, which was the pride of longing to make achievements.

   On the field test field

   In the eyes of many expectations, the three t2 tank prototypes started successively, and the engine roared with thick black smoke. After ten minutes of warm-up, the first item to be started is the lap run.

The running circle project covers complex settings such as one-way bridges, bumpy roads, muddy roads, trenches, low walls, wading roadblocks, etc. It is a project to test the comprehensive field passing ability of a tank, especially for the tank chassis. .

   "Prepare... to go." An order was given

   The three T-2 tank prototypes were like tigers emerging from the cage. The huge body shook violently, and they galloped away happily.

  (End of this chapter)