Chapter 171 The new tank gradually becomes clear (4k)

At this time, Gao Zhendong had basically thought through and organized the contents of his memory. However, there was no other way because his memory was too complex, almost like hyperthymesia, and not like a computer with an index.

Seeing that everyone was a little surprised by his statement, Gao Zhendong said: "Not now. Not at all, but we have to keep the possibility of launching missiles."

But here, no one noticed that Gao Zhendong said "missiles" instead of "anti-tank missiles."

Knowing that Gao Zhendong must have his reasons for saying this, everyone waited for him to continue speaking.

"At this stage, the combat effectiveness of anti-tank missiles is not better than that of tank guns within their range. In fact, since missiles fly slower than artillery shells, their battlefield adaptability is even lower than that of tank guns. For tanks, since they already have that gun, missiles are no longer necessary."

Others were not clear about the details of the missile, but it was clear that the missile did not fly as fast as the artillery shells, especially the new wing-stabilized armor-piercing discarding sabot projectile.

"Yeah, that makes sense. A tank gun can fire once and run away, but you still have to keep an eye on an anti-tank missile."

"Anti-tank missiles may take more than ten or dozens of seconds to fly two or three thousand meters. During this time, the tanks can't do anything else, and can't even retreat."

"Yes, and the missile launch has undoubtedly exposed the target. During this period of time, the tank has basically become a target."

At this time, the anti-tank missiles did not have the capability of "fire and forget", which meant that once the missile was launched, the tank had to stare at the target until it hit.

Gao Zhendong added: "The amount of anti-tank missiles can't be compared with artillery shells. Relatively speaking, my view on the current anti-tank missiles is that they are more inclined to be used as anti-tank means for infantry and other light armored vehicles, and even unarmored vehicles. I don't recommend using them as anti-tank weapons for tanks."

Gao Zhendong's remarks undoubtedly provided a basis for the anti-missile faction. Some of the things mentioned, such as the amount of ammunition in reserve, were problems they had already discovered.

But at this point, Gao Zhendong changed the subject: "However, missiles are, after all, a very unique advanced weapon. In my opinion, tanks carrying missiles are not intended to be used against enemy tanks at the main combat distance."

This statement left everyone a little confused. If not against tanks, then what to fight against?
Gao Zhendong smiled and said: "After the missiles mature, they can be used to supplement the firepower of tanks outside the main combat distance, such as the distance of 3 kilometers to 5 kilometers. In this way, our tanks will have a means to fire first, which is very useful in combat. At the same time, it can also be used as a supplementary means to support infantry assaults."

What Gao Zhendong didn't say was that when the armed helicopters came out, even the 12.7mm missile on top of the tank would be just a small water pipe in front of the heavily armored armed helicopters. Now it would be time to fight for the "height of a tree". With missiles, at least the tank would not be completely passive.

Someone asked: "Chief Engineer Gao, where is such an all-powerful missile?"

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "I told you, it's not mature yet. That's why we have to leave the possibility of installing missiles in the future."

Mr. Luo pondered for a moment and said, "Mr. Gao, for the sake of future possibilities, we have to make some redundant designs on the tanks now, and even make compromises for this. Isn't this a bit too much of a price to pay?"

Many people nodded their heads at this statement. After all, the financial situation is not good now, so they should save as much as possible.

Gao Zhendong smiled and shook his head: "There is no need to come up with any redundant design. What I mean by leaving a possibility is more of a thought. That is, we should leave this string and remember to fill it in when the conditions are ripe."

After hearing this, Mr. Luo felt that it made sense and could solve the problem from an ideological perspective.

Before he could open his mouth to agree, Gao Zhendong changed the subject: "As for the next generation of tanks, there is no need to leave any special interfaces or space for missiles. They already exist."

Mr. Luo and his team were confused by Gao Zhendong's 18 turns on the mountain road. Mr. Gao, this is not over yet, right? It's turning again.

Mr. He smiled and said, "Mr. Gao, don't beat around the bush. I'm dizzy. Just tell me straight."

If I don't take a detour, your impression won't be deep enough.

Gao Zhendong thought as he said, "Tank guns, smoothbore guns, are naturally similar to the directional tubes of missiles. Use reduced charge to launch the missile, and then ignite the missile engine, hahahaha. According to your current 105mm gun caliber, Mr. He, missiles of this caliber can do a lot of things."

In the future, both the Russians and our own tanks and infantry fighting vehicles will have this thing. The one on the infantry fighting vehicle has a caliber of 100 mm.

When Mr. Luo and Mr. He heard this, they said, "Wow, this is a really good idea. There is hope."

It has to be Mr. Gao, who is ingenious, yet simple and practical. When it comes to his things, they are really advanced, but when they are down-to-earth, the principles are definitely simple enough that even a child can understand them, and they can solve problems.

Mr. Luo couldn't help but applaud: "Great! What a great idea! Without changing anything, we can give tanks an additional magic weapon to defeat the enemy at long range and support infantry! Great."

Mr. He immediately became itchy and said, "Chief Engineer Luo, Chief Engineer Gao, how about we use anti-tank missiles? When Mr. Gao mentioned this idea, I felt itchy."

Others also praised it.

"Hey, why didn't I think of that?"

"If you want to get it, look, there, the position of Chief Engineer Gao is waiting for you."

"No, I'd better practice more."

"Chief Engineer Gao's method is really, you say simple, it is really simple, do you think you can think of it? Anyway, I didn't think of it."

Seeing everyone's excitement, Gao Zhendong said, "But the current missiles are not good enough. The guidance system's high-G tolerance, miniaturization, and versatility are not good enough. Moreover, the current reliable anti-tank missiles use wire control, which is an unacceptable disadvantage for firing from the muzzle."

At least we have to wait until laser guidance is mature. Gao Zhendong swallowed half of the sentence.

Everyone thought carefully about what Gao Zhendong said and felt that it made sense. It was indeed not suitable to develop artillery-launched missiles now.

Although he knows that it is not feasible for the time being, Mr. Luo still included the "gun-launched missile" in the future planning of the next generation of tanks, and noted that it would "wait for the right opportunity to act." This is a highlight, and even if it cannot be done for the time being, the highlight must be retained.

Mr. He had a look of regret on his face, as if something was missing.

This matter came to an end. As for the conventional things such as anti-aircraft machine guns and parallel machine guns, there is nothing much to say. It is worth mentioning that after the people of the Grassland Tractor Factory discussed it themselves, they cancelled the heading machine gun. The reason is very simple. It affects the protection and is not very useful.

Especially after planning for infantry fighting vehicles to follow tank assaults, this thing is even more useless.

After the hard firepower, the next thing is sighting and observation. At this time, there is no such fashionable term as "battlefield situation awareness" as it is today.

There is no doubt that the independent periscope sighting and observation that Gao Zhendong proposed a long time ago will not be changed. This thing has too many advantages.

As for the laser rangefinder, Gao Zhendong did not mention it. At that time, the world's first laser had not yet been produced.

In his opinion, among the various distance measurement methods that can be realized now, for tanks, except laser distance measurement, none of the others will work. The laser rangefinder happens to be one of the equipment that has not caused any problems in the development process of related sub-items of the second-generation tanks in the future. Although it came out a little late, it has kept up with the international pace, so he will not say more about it.

This shows that we are no worse than others if we are running at the same starting line. Even when our scientific research capabilities were the most backward, laser technology was one of our strengths.

But there is more to sighting and observation than this. There is no need to say much about dual-stabilization. It will definitely be used. As for which one to use, we will decide after Mr. He’s preliminary plan for dual-stabilization comes out.

However, there are differences of opinion on what to use for night battles.

At the beginning, there was no consensus on whether to use infrared headlights or low-light night vision goggles.

The disadvantages of infrared headlights are obvious: the effect is poor and the target is obvious. The advantages are also obvious: the technology is simple, it can be basically fully mastered, and there is no technical risk.

In fact, as far as Gao Zhendong knows, the later second-generation tanks still used this thing.

As for the low-light night vision goggles, they are effective but also have their shortcomings. However, compared with infrared headlights, there is a world of difference. However, there is one shortcoming that cannot be avoided. For people with high EQ, it is the immature technology, and for people with low EQ, it is incomprehensible.

Gao Zhendong has a wired-scan infrared thermal imager, but he can't take it out now. He can't determine the progress of its practical application for the time being. He can't rely on repeated extraction from the system, otherwise there will be real problems.

Finally, after discussion, everyone decided to use low-light night vision devices as the planning target, with infrared headlights as a backup. There was no other way because the conditions were limited.

When it comes to protection, the road ahead is smooth and there is nothing much to say. In the words of General Manager Guan, "It's easy for me. Chief Engineer Gao has basically done everything. I just do the optimization, but the basic things will not change."

The vehicle body uses 592 armored steel as the base armor, and external composite armor blocks as the main armor. Explosive counter-attack is not installed for the time being, and the addition of explosive counter-attack will be considered when the threat is clearly increased.

The turret is welded with 592 armored steel, with external composite armor blocks as the main armor, and the explosive reactive defense is the same as above.

As for the 593 cast armor steel, it is used on the 5DL and not on new tanks.

In terms of soft protection, it is equipped with automatic fire extinguishing and explosion suppression system, thermal smoke generator, and smoke bomb launcher.

It was also equipped with a collective three-defense system. This was the only area where Gao Zhendong did not help, but this was also a problem that was not solved for a long time in the future.

So I am quite important, Gao Zhendong thought.

Regarding this plan, Gao Zhendong only made one suggestion: a bolt interface for installing explosive reactive armor should be reserved on the top armor of the turret.

Everyone finds this suggestion a bit strange, as that place is generally out of reach.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "Because it is usually impossible to hit, no one has any protection on the top of their head. With the development of technology, maybe someday the enemy will take advantage of this weakness. It is always better to be prepared. If you consider it from the beginning, the protection area and protection parts can be optimized to the maximum extent. This is much better than temporarily adding protection when there is a threat."

Upon hearing this, General Guan nodded repeatedly: "This problem is really possible. It is impossible for everyone to not see such an obvious weakness. This is different from the rear. When we are attacking, the rear is relatively difficult to attack, but Top Armor may have a way."

Mr. Luo smiled and said, "Chief Engineer Gao is still a long-term thinker. This won't be a big deal anyway. Stay, stay."

Gao Zhendong did not say much about the vehicle body, as he did not have enough experience in this area. As for how heavy, wide, high, long the vehicle body should be, and how much unit pressure it should have, only the people who actually worked on this thing would understand. The indicators finally decided were almost the same as those of the later second-generation tanks.

The overall layout of the vehicle body is still a 4-person crew. The Grassland Tractor Factory was more conservative than the later users, who seriously proposed an automatic loader and included it in the plan. Everyone knows what happened next, it didn't work out.

There is no doubt that the engine is placed at the rear. No serious armored power would put the engine of its main battle tank in the front. In fact, it does not provide any benefit for protection.

Of course, it is not impossible that some novices do not follow this logic when fighting with each other. In fact, the front engine is mostly a stopgap measure when protection is not possible.

The size, firepower, and protection are all determined, and the only thing left is mobility.

The mobility indicators are ready-made, such as maximum speed, off-road speed, and maximum range. Basically, they only need to be slightly increased compared to the previous generation. The Grassland Tractor Factory is not too radical.

In terms of transmission, suspension and running, Caoyuan Steel Plant is still very radical, with three-liquid and planetary gearbox! All of them!
In fact, it cannot be called radical. After all, the three-fluid thing does not seem difficult. The difficulty of hydraulic equipment is not the principle. Similarly, a planetary gearbox is just a bunch of gears.

Gao Zhendong had no objection to this. If he really couldn't figure it out, it would be quick to switch back to a torsion bar suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers. These two things were readily available, and the clutch transmission technology to replace the planetary transmission was basically mature.

Besides, now that I have this little butterfly of my own, maybe I can now accomplish something that I couldn’t accomplish before.

When it comes to the engine, there is a little problem.

As the indicators of the new tank are increased, the weight will certainly increase as well. As the weight increases, the engine power must also increase. However, with the current technical capabilities, if the engine power increases, the engine size and weight must also increase. In short, it is like adding more flour and more water, and even if you add more flour, it may not be possible to make it.

Although this is planning and preliminary research, and there is time to do research on the new engine, the people on the engine side still feel unsure.

This is very normal. Not to mention now, even for a long period of time decades later, engines will be a stubborn problem that plagues almost all walks of life across the country, not only for military use but also for civilian use, and not only for those that run on land but also those that fly in the sky and swim in the water.

(End of this chapter)