Chapter 168: A Trip to the Grassland [2] (4k)

Then he raised another question that concerned him: "Director Zhendong, since we are using digital circuits, we can't continue to use analog circuits to build the control core. How do we solve this problem now?"

The two of them met early, and he was still used to calling him "Director Zhendong."

Gao Zhendong thought for a while and said, "I suggest that you connect the prototype to DJS-59 for testing first, and use DJS-59 as the control computer. You can also connect not only the artillery bistable but also the fire control related to it to DJS-59."

When Mr. He heard this, he thought, this is a good idea.

Numbers, numbers, what is the best at processing numbers? Of course, it is computers.

Moreover, in this way, the gun stabilization and fire control can be linked to form an integrated fire control system. These two things are naturally one family, and it couldn't be better to link them together. It can greatly improve the firepower response speed and accuracy, reduce the number of operations of the crew, and simplify the observation, aiming and firing processes.

"Okay, let's do it! But..."

Gao Zhendong smiled: "But what?"

"But isn't the DJS-59 a bit too big? And it's not cheap either. The production may not be able to keep up. Once the tank is finalized, it won't be a matter of a few hundred, but tens of thousands."

In fact, the production volume of all improved versions of 5DL is as high as more than 1 vehicles, which is obviously inappropriate considering the current size and price of DJS-59.

Gao Zhendong smiled mysteriously: "You can study it this way first, there is still a lot of time."

After that, he proposed a suggestion for bistable: "Mr. He, regarding the selection of bistable configuration, my suggestion is to walk on two legs in the preliminary research stage."

"Walking on two legs?"

"Yes, we can do both full-liquid and full-electric. Full-liquid has many disadvantages, but it is simple, has a very high degree of certainty, has low technical risks, and is relatively inexpensive. It is not too difficult to produce and can be used as a backup. Full-electric has many advantages, but the technology is not mature now and the technical risks are high. It can be used as a target system for research. If managed properly, the comprehensive cost of walking on two legs is not much higher than that of just doing full-electric."

"Besides, it is not a waste to produce all the fluids, and they have the potential value of being converted to civilian use. As for electro-fluids, if you want to get involved in both, but end up with neither, I don't recommend it."

This suggestion actually came from the situation of aircraft carrier catapults that Gao Zhendong saw in his previous life. At that time, both steam and electromagnetic were being used. Electromagnetic was the target and steam was the backup. In other words, electromagnetic was just a possibility to strive for, and steam was the realistic choice.

But everyone knows what happened later. Our "King of Magnetoelectricity" made a breakthrough and put the electromagnetic catapult technology into practical use in one fell swoop, and the electromagnetic catapult was finally installed on the ship.

Mr. He thought for a moment and said, "Well, Director Zhendong, you make sense. We can bring this matter up for discussion. You are the deputy chief engineer and I am the chief engineer. If we bring this up together, it should be brought up at the meeting soon."

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Well, this is fine."

After talking about this, Gao Zhendong thought of digital circuits and started promoting his own book.

"Mr. He, regarding the basics of digital circuits, you can ask someone in Beijing to find a book called "Logical Operations and Digital Circuit Design", published by Jigong Press. It contains a relatively complete set of basic knowledge on digital circuits. You can learn it first."

When Mr. He heard that there were basic books on digital circuits available for purchase, he was very happy and immediately agreed to ask someone to arrange it.

While asking someone to arrange it, he smiled and said, "Hey, Director Zhendong, why didn't you tell me earlier that you had this book, or bring it to me last time, so that I wouldn't be laughed at by Lao Luo."

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "This is a book that I compiled from the training content I learned while doing computer design at the Institute of Computing. I always feel a little embarrassed to recommend my own book to others."

When Mr. He heard that this book was also written by Gao Zhendong, he didn't know how to praise it for a moment. He opened his mouth and just laughed with Gao Zhendong.

The two of them, together with other researchers on artillery bistable technology, held a meeting that lasted until the evening, and they all had dinner in the conference room.

After final discussion, a research plan for the bistability of artillery was formed.

Mr. He looked at the densely packed meeting minutes and smiled, "We have gained a lot today. Director Zhendong, I will ask the boys to sort out today's meeting minutes and form a preliminary plan. Tomorrow I will take you to see our current actual situation. By the time you finish reading it, I guess the boys will have a rough draft of the plan. You can revise this plan based on the results of the inspection, and then we will bring it to the meeting."

The work arrangement was tight and well-organized, so Gao Zhendong agreed.

So the people who had been busy for most of the day finally separated, and Mr. He personally sent Gao Zhendong to the guesthouse of the Grassland Tractor Factory before going back.

The next day, Mr. He took Gao Zhendong to inspect the Grassland Tractor Factory. When they arrived at the shooting range and saw people preparing to do armor-related tests, Gao Zhendong's eyes lit up. A man's romance is an explosion.

He turned around and smiled at Mr. He, "Well, Mr. He, if it's convenient, can you let me fire a few shots during the test? Hehe, I've fired a lot of guns on the battlefield, but I've never fired a cannon before."

When Mr. He heard this, he burst out laughing. At this time, Gao Zhendong made him feel like a real young man.

"Haha, of course no problem. These armors and bullets are essentially your achievements. It would be perfect for you to test them yourself."

So Gao Zhendong spent half an hour and had a great time. Well, this was to familiarize himself with the operation of the equipment, which was also part of the inspection.

After spending a day, Gao Zhendong basically understood the Grassland Tractor Factory and its related technical conditions. Then, he did not rush to revise the materials for the meeting. Instead, he and General He gathered all the comrades who were working on double stability, took his own manuscript on artillery stabilization, and gave lessons to the comrades.

Although time is limited, the content and core key points can still be explained to comrades, especially the large number of formulas and theories in it, which really need Gao Zhendong to explain.

This book starts from the bottom up with mathematical modeling, methods and theories to guide design, which is a completely new field for the research group that currently relies mainly on experience for design. This is also thanks to Gao Zhendong's good brain. In the process of copying the book, he first integrated the whole book and learned it himself. Otherwise, he would never be able to explain it now.

Overall, everyone’s feeling is: very professional, difficult, but very rewarding.

Unlike previous designs which were relatively confusing and relied heavily on guesswork, where problems arose before the designer began to address the issues at the root. This theory at least starts with the most basic mechanical analysis and establishes a complete set of mathematical models based on physical knowledge.

To put it bluntly, we used to rely on copying, and in the process of copying, we would see if we could make some changes to come up with something suitable.

The development of a lot of early equipment was like this. If there was a prototype, it could basically be made. After all, our scientific and technological personnel were very hard-working and diligent, and not stupid. But if there was no prototype, it would probably take a long time.

For a company as important as Big Mushroom, it can gather the top bosses from all over the country, and of course the effect is also very good.

But now all industries are waiting to be developed. With so many projects, where will all the top experts come from to employ them? We still have to rely on grassroots scientific and technological workers, and what grassroots workers lack most is theoretical guidance.

Now, for bistable designers, they can first calculate, figure out the theory, build a model, and then start the actual design.

According to the design parameters and related indicators, the model is first established, and then the working parameters and related equipment selection are determined based on the model results. If any problems are encountered during the design process, a certain degree of guidance can also be obtained based on the model.
In the past, we could not even “know why” it happened, but through this theory, we can “know why” it happened to a certain extent. This is undoubtedly a huge leap forward for the design of bistable systems.

For Mr. He, he doesn't care for now whether to choose all-liquid or all-electric. He has to understand this set of things thoroughly first. After all, whether it is all-liquid or all-electric, it will be much easier if he can get the support of this theory first.

After the first day of class, Mr. He said to Gao Zhendong with emotion: "Director Gao, it would be great if you could stay in our factory permanently. This theory is still a bit difficult. We can't even master some mathematical tools in just these few days."

However, he also knew that Gao Zhendong had tried his best and that Gao Zhendong was very busy with his own work. It was impossible for him to stay in the Grassland Tractor Factory for this matter. The root of the problem was the weakness of the existing technical strength. Although they had advanced theories, they could not master them in a short period of time.

Gao Zhendong thought for a moment and said, "Mr. He, can I make a suggestion?"

Mr. He was delighted: "Okay, please go ahead, Vice President Gao." In his opinion, at this time, Gao Zhendong's identity was the deputy chief engineer of the tank research project.

"Can you pick a few people with excellent math skills and have them stay in Beijing for a while? They can live in our steel mill guesthouse and eat in our cafeteria. They usually study on their own, and I will take some time every week to answer their questions and solve their problems in their studies. Living and eating in our factory is not expensive and is close to me, so their learning progress will be faster."

Mr. He thought, that's right, if the mountain doesn't come, I will come, and if I come, the mountain won't come. "Oh, yes, Director Gao, why didn't I think of this idea? While they are learning, we can also learn here. At the same time, we can use our existing experience to conduct preliminary research on full-liquid. When everyone has digested it, the experience of full-liquid can be combined with this set of theories and the examples in it, and then we can go back to full-electric drive, which is just the right connection."

Gao Zhendong has been taking classes at Shuangwen for several days in a row, basically spending all his time in the conference room. Everyone is very tired, but also very passionate; learning makes them happy.

People from other subsystems also came to see Gao Zhendong, but seeing how busy he was, they didn't feel comfortable disturbing him. They all knew that Vice President Gao came here mainly for matters concerning the artillery team. Fortunately, they didn't have any urgent matters.

However, Mr. Luo refused to do it anymore. He had to work so non-stop. If anything happened to his health, he would not be able to explain to the National Defense Committee and the 12th Ministry of Machine Building. He could at least change his work direction, change his mind and relax.

So, General Manager Guan, who had been waiting for a long time, got the instruction from General Manager Luo, and came over to announce that he wanted Vice President Gao to change his mind and take a rest, and then he took Gao Zhendong and ran away. General Manager He didn't have any objection, as it was indeed not good for Gao Zhendong to focus on the same thing continuously.

They can also use this time to digest the knowledge they have learned and revise the preliminary plan for the bistable system to be submitted to the meeting.

General Guan is in charge of protection, and the core of protection, armor, has already reached or even exceeded the expected requirements of the next generation of tanks with the help of Gao Zhendong.

Therefore, now he is focusing on some soft protection and after-effect protection rather than armor, which makes him feel very comfortable.

So he just took Gao Zhendong around to look around, and it was obvious that he really wanted Gao Zhendong to have a rest.

However, Gao Zhendong couldn't sit still. Looking at these things, he suddenly asked, "Boss Guan, are our tanks equipped with smoke protection now?"

You are doing soft protection, that’s perfect, I’ll find something for you to do.

"Smoke protection? No, we rely on the artillery's smoke bombs during the assault."

At this point, he suddenly realized: "Boss Gao, do you mean that the tank has its own smoke bomb?"

Gao Zhendong really didn't expect that the current tanks were not equipped with smoke protection. In fact, what he didn't know was that our tanks were not equipped with these things until we sold both ends of the tanks to Iran and Iraq.

He nodded and said, "Yes, the support of artillery smoke bombs can only be coordinated in a planned manner. It is not easy to support during the battle."

Mr. Guan's eyes lit up: "Hey, that's an idea. This way, the flexibility of use will be much better."

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "It's not just about flexibility. I estimate that individual anti-tank weapons will be greatly developed in the future. On the battlefield, tanks need a way to conceal themselves at any time and interfere with the enemy. And weapons that use infrared principles for sighting and guidance may appear on the battlefield in large numbers."

Mr. Guan thought about the infrared searchlight aiming and observation system that even we can make ourselves, and suddenly felt that this was not just Gao Zhendong's sudden idea, but a real threat that tanks will face on future battlefields.

I thought about it but couldn't get the point for the time being. Since Vice President Gao has raised this question, it must not be without purpose and he must have his own ideas.

I called out to my colleagues in my group and asked them to come over and listen. I thought with a guilty conscience that just talking and chatting shouldn't be considered as tiring for Vice President Gao. I didn't violate President Luo's instructions.

As everyone gathered around, Gao Zhendong also recalled some things from his previous life. Fortunately, this thing was just an idea and there was no technical difficulty.

(End of this chapter)