Chapter 1588 122 or 100?
“Our bureau’s current plan is to proceed in two steps, Comrade General.
“First, we intend to improve and upgrade the T43 medium tank. Although this medium tank is not as good as the Germans’ new tanks for the time being, it is a good platform for upgrading and improvement. Unlike the previous T34, we considered replacing the more powerful main gun and adding thicker protective armor at the beginning of the design. ”
“To this end, we calculated the power-to-weight ratio of the tank and reserved enough engine power for future upgrades in armor protection. A sufficiently powerful engine was installed in the early design, which can fully meet the needs of future armor upgrades and will not perform poorly in mobility due to the increase in tonnage. ”
“In addition, we also calculated the installation size and breechblock recoil distance of larger caliber artillery. The new turret has no problem even directly carrying a 122mm main gun on the vehicle. However, because the time was too rushed, the first batch of mass-produced T43 could only use the design that had been demonstrated and proved to be feasible on the T3485, and was produced with an 85mm main gun and delivered to the troops. ”
“As long as the relevant demonstration is proven to be feasible, the plan to replace the more powerful main gun will be immediately reflected in the second and third batches of mass-produced models. The upgrade of armor protection will also be carried out at the same time. We have now begun to collect the power parameters of the German tank guns for demonstration. If there is enough time, there will be live-fire target shooting tests, which is not yet certain. "
In the existing history, no, it should be said that the T44 medium tank is actually a very embarrassing and unlucky child who has not caught up with anything.
She did not catch up with the opportunity to replace the T3485 in actual combat and beat the Germans' broken car to the ground. In the post-war Red Army tank unit replacement and upgrade plan, she also failed to find her right position. The T54 medium tank that replaced it quickly replaced it and completely became the tears of the times.
The T44 or T43 medium tank, which was born out of time, is actually a trial work of the Red Army medium tank in the technical transition period.
But even so, Malashenko still does not deny that this is a An excellent medium tank.
She indeed inherited the low cost and easy mass production characteristics of the previous generation T34 medium tank, and at the same time completed the upgrade based on the T3485. In particular, the potential for upgrade and improvement cannot be ignored, which is much higher than the T34, which was designed earlier and did not take into account the needs of later actual combat changes.
If the T34, which was finalized before the war, helped the Red Army tank troops to play the first half of the game, made outstanding achievements, and handed in a perfect answer.
Then the T43, which inherits all the advantages of the T34, is the official orthodox sequel to the previous excellent masterpiece. The difference is that it is highly expandable and can play a lot of MODs, just like the Skyrim 5 was played by players. It's like Girls' Scroll 5. After a lot of modifications, it is fully capable of replacing T3485 to play the second half until the end of the war and win victory for the motherland.
The key to the problem lies in how to modify it, how to modify it correctly and what is needed in actual combat.
Generally speaking, this requires a lot of time to prove it, and for the sake of safety, many conservative designs that affect the full combat power will be adopted. This needs to be improved little by little based on the actual combat feedback from the front line. This is the case for any tank that has been proven to be excellent in actual combat, and the T34 series is like this.
But the problem is that whether it is the Red Army tank unit or Morozov, what they lack most now is time.
Under the premise that the Germans' new monsters have already started mass production and deployment, the delay in time means greater losses for the front-line troops, which means lives.
There is no other way to deal with such urgent matters except to do it slowly. Even if Morozov is anxious and staring, he can't speed up, but this is only under normal circumstances.
Comrade Lao Ma is not an ordinary person. It is estimated that there is only one time traveler in the world who can call himself a "second-rate person". This kind of problem that makes Morozov so worried that he can't sleep is exactly what Comrade Lao Ma is good at.
"If you let me give you a suggestion, then my suggestion is to use 100 guns to upgrade the firepower, Comrade Morozov, what do you think?"
"100 guns? "
Morozov certainly knew what the 100-caliber gun that Malashenko was talking about was. It was originally a "take-it-or-leave-it" land version of the Red Navy's 100mm naval gun.
When Kotin designed the IS2 heavy tank, he had considered installing a main gun of this caliber on the vehicle.
But at that time, due to production issues and suggestions from Malashenko, the 122-caliber gun was finally chosen instead of the 100-caliber gun, and it has been used on subsequent models of the Stalin heavy tank and has been proven to be a successful large-caliber tank gun in actual combat.
The current situation is different from the past. Compared with when Kotin was preparing to design the IS2 heavy tank, the 100-caliber gun has made greater progress.
Because the large-scale production of the German army's new tiger and leopard zoo has led to a sudden increase in anti-tank pressure on the front line, the top is preparing to use this new 100mm main gun as the main gun design of an anti-tank destroyer to curb the momentum of the German zoo becoming more and more fierce.
But for Morozov, it is a completely different design idea.
Morozov, who was pressed for time, had no time to wait for the new 100-gun to be mounted on the tank and the demonstration to be completed. According to past experience, after all the demonstration and test procedures were completed according to the normal procedures, the mass production of the improved T43 equipped with the 100-gun would not start until at least October or even later.
It would not be earlier than the mass production of the new tank destroyer equipped with this main gun, after all, the demonstration of the main gun there was already underway. However, the main gun design suitable for the tank destroyer version could not be directly used on the tank, which was completely unrelated.
If Morozov wanted to use it, he had to start from scratch and conduct the demonstration of the 100-gun version of the tank, but he really didn't have the extra time now.
For this reason, Morozov's original plan was to directly install the 122 gun that Kotin had already passed the demonstration and was proven to be successful in actual combat on the T43 medium tank. In this way, the time for demonstration and testing can be greatly saved, and the mass production of subsequent batches of improved T43 can be accelerated, so that the front-line troops can use it as soon as possible and substantially improve their combat effectiveness.
In the final design of the T43 medium tank last time, Kotin promptly helped Morozov and sent some designs that had passed actual combat tests, which was a great help to Morozov, who was in a hurry.
With this "successful cooperation", Morozov originally planned to shamelessly ask Kotin to help him again and fix the design of the main gun so that the 122 gun could be installed on the vehicle as soon as possible.
But Malashenko's words "change 100 guns on the vehicle" directly pulled Morozov back to the crossroads of making a choice.
Morozov, who knew how tricky the situation was, was still full of doubts in his heart, and then asked Malashenko.
"The 100mm main gun has never been installed on any of the Red Army's active tanks. We tried to install it on the T34, but failed in the end. Only one failed test prototype was produced and rejected."
"If we want to install a new 100mm main gun, we will have to spend more time testing and proving the design, and it is still unclear whether it will pass in the end. It may fail like the T34 with the 100mm gun, and precious time will be wasted again. Although there is enough room for upgrading at the beginning, no one can guarantee the final result."
"Is it really feasible to replace the 100mm gun on the car? Why do you think so? Comrade General, can you tell me more details?"