My Italy

The newly launched Dauntless is now the Navy's hope for a future large-scale decisive battleship, but the specific situation will not be known until the selenium installation is completed and sea trials are carried out.

Carlo left Venice after attending the launching ceremony of the Intrepid. Although the Navy tried its best to retain him and looked at other warships, such as the new destroyers and cruisers that had just been commissioned, it still failed to retain His Majesty the King.

After leaving Venice by car, Carlo diverted to Brescia, because a new weapon was successfully developed here, and Carlo came here to take a look.

Speaking of Brescia, the industry here has a long history, especially the metallurgical industry and machinery industry, which are famous throughout the Kingdom of Italy. Among them, Brescia is most famous for its weapons manufacturing. Beretta Arms Company, which ranks among the top three in Italy, is the most famous company in the city.

Today at the weapons testing site of Beretta Weapons Company, a unique weapons test is going on.

"Da... da da... da da da..."

A weapons test sergeant was conducting weapons testing while operating a strange-looking machine gun on his shoulder. Short burst, long burst, and continuous shooting. In this shooting mode, the target in the distance was riddled with holes, demonstrating the power of the gun.

To say that it is strange is also for today's machine guns. Take the currently famous Maxim machine gun. The thick barrel, thick gun box, and fixed support frame all show the aura of a cold killing machine. .

Compared with it, this gun can be described as small and exquisite. In addition, the magazine inserted upside down on the gun case can be described as quite strange.

As for whether it was strange or not, it didn't matter to everyone watching at the proving ground. How the gun performed was what they were most concerned about.

In this regard, the gun is currently performing well. After firing two magazines in a row, the shooting is still very accurate.

Among the visitors were not only the Chief of General Staff, General Simeone, but also Carlo. Of course, there were also many senior army officials. In such a large formation, Pietro Beretta, general manager of Beretta Arms Company, and Baron Hiram Stevens Maxim, chief firearms designer, were also present. In front of them, a slightly younger middle-aged man was introducing this weird machine gun to the big guys present.

"Your Majesty, General, the total length of this gun is 1,193 mm, the total weight of the empty gun is 8.79KG, the total length of the barrel is 5, the theoretical rate of fire is 450 rounds per minute, and the muzzle velocity is 881 meters per second. The gun uses a long-stroke guide Gas piston, tilt lock. The sight adopts wheel sight and mechanical sight. In addition, the gun..."

This middle-aged man is the chief designer of the gun, Nicolai Reveri. Faced with many big names, the designer stumbled a bit when he spoke.

However, although what the firearms designer said was a bit unfavorable, no one present cared about it. Instead, they all looked at him with a smile.

Fortunately, someone quickly rescued him. At this time, after finishing three consecutive magazines, the sergeant testing the machine gun came over.

"Tell us how it feels for you."

Admiral Simeone asked the test sergeant.

"Report to the general, the gun fires smoothly, there is no jamming, and the rise is not high. It is a good continuous fire weapon."

The test sergeant's praise put smiles on the faces of everyone at Beretta Weapons Company, but they were happy too early and saw the sergeant continue to speak.

"As for the shortcomings, I am a little uncomfortable with the side sight. In addition, I feel like the bullets are floating when shooting at distant targets. Moreover, the bullet capacity is too small, the rate of fire is low, and it only has a capacity of 20 rounds. It makes me feel that it has no suppressive effect at all.”

The targets he shot later also confirmed his statement. The distribution of bullet points on targets from 200 meters to 600 meters was pretty good. However, after the 800-meter target was brought over, the expressions of several people from Beretta Weapons Company were not so good. Looks good.

Because there was only one bullet hole in such a large target, it was a burst shot. In addition, the test sergeant's skills were pretty good, which was even more unsatisfactory.

Faced with this situation, Baron Maxim felt that he needed to stand up and say something.

"Your Majesty, General, for this light machine gun, the Army had very high weight requirements at that time, so when designing the gun, our priority was the weight, which is enough for a soldier to carry the gun and keep up with the team's attack. Speed. In addition, the gun needs to use the same 6.5mm caliber as the rifle, and the bullet is lighter than the 7.92mm machine gun currently equipped by me. This also causes it to stall more seriously at long distances. The accuracy is poor. If the caliber of the gun is changed to 7.92 mm, it will be much better. Of course, there is another reason, because the test sergeant uses the bipod that comes with the gun when shooting. Or a tripod, the long-distance accuracy will be higher.”

After Baron Maxim's explanation, everyone present finally accepted his explanation.

"If the caliber of 7.92 mm is used, how much more accurate will the gun be at long distances?" an officer asked at this time.

Maxim secretly praised this officer, what a good assist.

"If this is the case, according to our tests, the accuracy of the gun at a distance of 800 meters is guaranteed." The main designer Nicolai Revery answered this question. "Actually, we have used a 7.92mm barrel before, and it feels like it is more accurate at long distances than a 6.5mm barrel."

Well, this designer has exposed all his secrets.

After hearing this answer, Simeone looked at Carlo. "Your Majesty, what do you think?"

Facing Simeone giving him the choice, Carlo almost laughed. This man is really naughty.

"I think it's better to do this. The Army will first purchase some of the two calibers, 6.5mm and 7.92mm, and give them to the troops for testing. Whichever one is easier to use will be chosen."

Carlo's suggestion is really good. As for the good points, you can feel them by yourself. If you can't feel the good things, it means you don't have enough understanding.

Faced with Carlo's conciliatory idea, Admiral Simeone said it immediately without much thought. "Let's do this. Each of you will produce one hundred light machine guns of 6.5mm and 7.92mm calibers. Let's see which one the troops like."

Faced with General Simeone's decision to let the troops conduct testing, how could Pietro Beretta, the general manager of Beretta Arms Company, disagree. This was a precursor to large-scale military equipment. . As long as it does not cause complaints from the troops, it means that this light machine gun is a great success.

"By the way, what is the purchase price of this gun?"

At this time, General Simeone asked about the price again. These years of hard work for the Army have made him very sensitive to price, not to mention that this kind of weapon for infantry is famous for its large quantity, so it needs to be considered even more. price factor. Every lira of the Italian Army is very precious and cannot be wasted.

"Your Excellency, since you only purchased 200 guns, the price will not be too cheap. 2,400 lire per gun is the best price."

Pietro Beretta's words made all the army bosses take a breath. The price must be too expensive. These 200 new light machine guns cost 480,000 liras, which is really not cheap.

"The purchase price of your company's Maxim heavy machine gun for our army is only 4,500 liras. Your price is too high."

At this time, the price of Maxim machine guns was already very cheap. If you only know how to equip it, the price of each Maxim machine gun is as high as 8,000 liras.

Moreover, apart from its weight, this light machine gun is incomparable with the Maxim machine gun in terms of performance.

Faced with the fact that the Army was too expensive, Pietro Beretta was even more desperate to cry out. "I didn't include the research and development costs of this machine gun. These are all manufacturing costs."

Although this is the truth, the price makes many people in the Army somewhat dissatisfied.

But fortunately, General Simeone, as the head of the army, was very sober and saw him speak. "Then at the price you mentioned, we will deliver two hundred troops to our army."

Guess which gun this is based on?