Chapter 3005 Another New Car

During the days since arriving in Khabarovsk, Malashenko has been making the most of his time to complete the final preparations for the attack.

In addition to some new equipment that has been arriving and delivered one after another, mainly focusing on non-main combat equipment such as logistics support vehicles, Malashenko also received some new tricks, the ZSU-37-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun mounted on the chassis of the T43 medium tank.

"This is the latest high-mobility field-companion anti-aircraft weapon, Comrade General, it is just right for troops like yours."

"To be honest, she has actually been tested in actual combat during the last days of the Great Patriotic War. It's just that she was not in your troops at that time, but in the East Prussian battlefield. The Nazi Air Force assembled a considerable force to try to defend their place of revival and resist stubbornly. Under the cover and cooperation of the aviation comrades, the actual combat effectiveness of this new self-propelled anti-aircraft gun has been fully tested."

Looking at the new equipment in front of him that did not use a fully enclosed turret, Malashenko knew that because there was no air search radar in those days and the enemy could only be searched by sight, in order to have better search and capture and real-time response capabilities for various tactical aircraft targets at low altitude and high speed, the use of an open-air turret with excellent vision was also a helpless move, and it could not be said that this thing was not good or was just a piece of junk.

Isn't the German Corian an example? The fully enclosed armored turret has good protection, but it relies on a few observation slits and a few crappy observation windows to search for the enemy, which directly leads to the fact that the Corian has a very poor reaction ability to low-altitude and high-speed targets that are close to a certain extent.

After all, the real-world Corian does not have a third-person perspective for you to use. You Germans can slowly find the plane through those narrow slits and windows.

Especially after the pilots of the Red Army's ground attack aviation received the Corian analysis manual issued by their superiors for unified study, they knew that the weakness of this thing was "close-up blindness". If you encounter this thing again in the future and need to attack it hard without evacuating, then there is a high probability that you will fly to the top of Corian's head at a very close distance, and then attack it crazily.

Corian, who was dizzy from the explosion, often "lost his way" in the fierce battle.

The electric turret has a fast rotation speed, that's true, but when it can't find a nearby target, it can only stand there and shake its head like a broken electric toy, which is particularly funny.

In view of this, after repeated considerations, the Red Army's R&D and Design Bureau finally chose the seemingly conservative, but indeed the most practical open-top turret design for the current technical conditions and actual combat environment.

The open-air turret plus two parallel 37mm automatic anti-aircraft machine guns, the good news is that this thing uses a modified ammunition hopper for ammunition supply.

A hopper can hold 5 5-round magazines, a total of 25 rounds. Before these 25 rounds of spare ammunition are used up, as long as the loader keeps putting new magazines in, it can ensure continuous and uninterrupted firepower output, unless the barrel overheats or the gun has a mechanical failure.

Instead of firing one round and one round like your German 37 hand-pulled machine gun, it is comparable to the 37mm enlarged version of the Mauser 98K, and it has to be the kind that doesn't even have a magazine.

Generally speaking, in addition to its own air defense function, field-mounted self-propelled anti-aircraft guns also shoulder high-rate firepower support and even auxiliary attack missions.

Let's take the example of Colian. This kind of short-range air defense is often used as a monkey by the Red Army Air Force, but it is very powerful in the ground combat in Bastogne, comparable to the Germans' dream of 1939.

The 101st Airborne Division of the US Army, which had no decent heavy firepower and only light weapons, was killed and shattered by this thing. Even the intact corpse could not be found. In most cases, it was directly blasted into slag by high-explosive shells.

Under the cover of Colian, the 105mm Tiger King artillery, which was like a god's help, was very powerful, and the ammunition ready to be fired in the semi-automatic loader could be fired to death.

The armored grenadiers who rushed forward with their STG44s had never fought such a cool and comfortable battle on the Eastern Front. They were able to experience the pleasure that the Russians enjoyed every day.

In this battle, the Corian won the first place with a well-deserved anti-infantry record, which made the Germans, who did not expect that this thing would be so effective against infantry, ecstatic.

Overjoyed, the Germans also took out some of the Panthers that had been discontinued in the rear but still had a lot of inventory, especially the more damaged cars waiting to be repaired in the repair shop, and used them to transform the Corian. It was convenient to repair and modify them at the same time, so as to save the need to return to the factory again.

Unfortunately, most of the modification plans for these Panthers only remained on the schedule. A considerable number of them did not even have their turrets built. They were like headless leopards parked in the factory workshop waiting for the turret to be installed. The Red Army rushed into the factory and seized the vehicles and drawings.

After getting Kolian's drawings and a large number of completed and unfinished vehicles, they were sent to the design institute and the test site for tinkering.

The Red Army, which thoroughly analyzed Kolian's advantages and disadvantages, immediately applied this part of the new experience to the improved design of the ZSU-37-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, and finally came up with what Malashenko saw.

But to be honest, in the current leader's equipment system, this equipment with unsatisfactory protection performance is really not needed for land battles.

You mean large-caliber, high-rate continuous-fire artillery for anti-infantry, anti-light armor or unarmored targets? And it must have strong mobility and be able to accompany heavy troops in deep front-line operations.

There is no need to look for it, there are ready-made ones and they are in huge quantities, such as the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle.

Although the 25mm small cannon is not as powerful as the 37mm cannon, the advantage is that the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle does not need to occupy a new organization, but is an existing organization, and it is also large in quantity and can pull infantry to the front line.

So if we talk about competition in the same tactical position, the ZSU-37-2 must not be able to compete with the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle.

Other Red Army troops may regard it as a treasure and artifact for front-line mobile anti-infantry, but the leader army really does not need this thing to go to the battlefield with the tank. The width of the battlefield confined to a certain area is limited, and the density of equipment on the front line also has an upper limit and marginal effect. It is not just a matter of stacking it up like playing Red Alert, the more the better.

The ground-to-ground work it can do can also be done by the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle, and the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle can also do other big work in addition to this. It can occupy a parking space and has multiple functions. So is there any need for your ZSU-37-2 to go to the front line for ground assault? There is really no need.

But this does not mean that this thing has no meaning.

It is not good at ground attack, but it is strong in air attack. When the enemy planes are rampant overhead, this good thing that does not need to be deployed and has the ability to respond quickly can be driven into the shooting position in time, and an air-to-air fire network can be set up to drive away the enemy's tactical air strikes and protect its own ground units. This is its value.

So when this thing is handed over to him, Malashenko thought that it can only do some of its own work, and it is not certain how much work it can do.

What kind of broken plane is your Kwantung Army? Dare to compete with the Red Army Air Force?

After you can get air-to-air stranglehold, let's talk about air-to-ground. New vehicles like the ZSU-37-2 with electric turrets are enough to deal with it.

The chassis of the T43 is compatible with the T43 medium tank and the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle. It can be regarded as "one car for three purposes" in the leader's army. It will not bring much pressure to the existing logistics system. It is a new type of equipment with many benefits and high practical value.

Looking at the new thing in front of him, he walked forward and fiddled with it, including climbing onto the body and getting into the open turret to fiddle with the main gun and breech block.

After the inspection, he did not find anything too worthy of criticism. Knowing that there were no anti-aircraft vehicles with air search radars these days, Malashenko nodded, and then quietly spoke to the leading designer comrade who came to deliver the equipment.

"Good stuff! Really good! It's just in time for the leader's army, so I'll take it. I wonder if you brought anything else? It's impossible that such a long train is full of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, right?"

The designer who led the team to deliver the equipment was an old comrade, who belonged to Morozov's side, that is, those who specialized in medium tanks.

Malashenko guessed that there must be something else in this full train of equipment? The laughter of the old comrade next to him was indeed as expected, and Malashenko guessed it literally.

"There are indeed other equipment, and they are new weapons. Unlike the ZSU-37-2, this is the latest weapon that has not been used on the battlefield, and only part of the initial batch has been mass-produced so far."

"Oh?"

Malashenko, who was interested, felt that he had roughly guessed what it would be, and followed the old designer to continue walking along the freight platform in the train station, heading towards the rear of the train loaded with heavy equipment, and listened to the old designer's subsequent introduction with interest.

"In fact, the improvement and design work of the T43 medium tank has never stopped. We are strengthening its armor, hoping that it can completely resist the direct shooting of the Nazi Chang 88 gun; we are also upgrading its firepower, hoping that it can have the ability to resist the Chang 88 shooting and then destroy the Chang 88 carrier, which is usually the Tiger King heavy tank."

"Ha, the medium tank completely resisted the attack of the heavy tank and then destroyed the heavy tank. Your design goal is really high. Is this a requirement from the General Administration of Equipment, or did your design institute set the starting point so high?"

Generally speaking, the Red Army's equipment design and development is the Red Army as the first party to put forward requirements and indicators, pointing out "I hope that such and such equipment will do such and such things under such and such circumstances and meet such and such performance requirements". Then the design institute below, that is, the second party, will establish the project and assemble project personnel, assign the chief engineer, and implement the design and development work. The code name "XXX Project" commonly seen in the Red Army equipment was also established in this process.

Next, the entire project team gathered their ideas and thought about how to make this thing with the requirements and indicators put forward by the military. After the final tinkering, the final product was handed over to the military for review. If it passed the review, the equipment was accepted, and it was given a formal equipment number and put into production.

In this way, the entire process from the design and development to the finalization and mass production of a new Red Army equipment was completed.

What needs to be done in the future is that the military and the factory will discuss how to increase production capacity according to actual needs.

Then there is the updating, improvement and upgrading of designs after the finalization and production. At this time, it is not only a matter between the military and the factory, but also the people of the design institute must be pulled back to brainstorm for the three parties.

The T43 medium tank is currently in this stage. The models that have been finalized and put into production are in mass production, and new improved and upgraded models are being prepared. After the design is completed and approved, the production line of the existing models will be gradually replaced to achieve such a state of conversion.

Malashenko is mainly curious about who set the design goal of "blocking the King Tiger and penetrating the King Tiger".

Generally speaking, the military puts forward the requirements and the institutes do the design, which is correct.

However, when the military does not put forward requirements and assigns work, so many people in your institute cannot just sit there and eat for free all day, right? Doing pre-research and design demonstration in advance is also a positive and meaningful normal work.

Malashenko was wondering who had given the design indicators that made the medium tank completely superior to the heavy tank, which seemed a bit outrageous at first. Could it be that the design of the pre-research of the institute was transformed into a physical object?

Malashenko's intuition told him that this was not a design indicator that the Red Army could give during the war, because the span was really too huge, resulting in a high degree of design difficulty that was likely to be impossible to achieve.

The Red Army's pragmatic tank and armored vehicle design indicator requirements should not be able to produce such a job.

And the new car in front of him that could catch up with the combat operations against Japan must have been the product of the design project during the Great Patriotic War, so this question was quite intriguing.

When he arrived at the flatbed car at the end of the entire train, looking at the new tanks lined up in front of him, unbuttoning the camouflage cloth, and about to reveal their complete true appearance, the old designer's answer also quietly blurted out along with Malashenko's question.

"This is indeed one of the pre-research designs that Comrade Morozov led the project team to carry out in advance. It started as early as the beginning of 1944. Comrade Morozov proposed at the time that since it is a pre-research design, it must have a high degree of foresight and cannot just stay on the improvement of the existing design performance. It should have stronger performance than the expected next generation of tanks."

"So at that time, the target was directly set on the newly emerged Long 88 Tiger King, which was also the strongest tank of the Nazis. Although it may sound a little unbelievable at the time and even now, we did it and finally did it."

When the cloth was finally completely untied and removed by the soldiers who climbed onto the flatbed truck, the true appearance of the new medium tank hidden under it finally came out with the words of the old designer who spoke again.

The first update is here first, a large 4K chapter, and the second update is still being coded. It will be posted at around 1:00, still 4K. Brothers who can wait can wait.