1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2490
The army's need for this special heavy equipment is indeed not urgent. In terms of existing strength, there are basically no armed forces in Asia that can confront the Haihan army head-on.It's just that the combat method of the Haihan Army relies too much on logistical support, so the army's combat scope is generally still mainly in the coastal areas, and rarely penetrates into the inland areas.

But now that the relevant technologies for manufacturing such weapons and equipment are basically in place, how can the ordnance department sit back and watch such a treasure remain on paper, or invest resources to slowly create such an experimental armored combat vehicle.

Accompanied by the roar of the engine, Beks quickly introduced to everyone that the hull of this chariot is made of cast iron and is built with welding and riveting techniques. The rotating turret on the hull is equipped with a 70mm caliber short-barreled howitzer.The combat weight of the whole vehicle is about twelve tons, and the power comes from a 220-horsepower diesel engine installed at the rear of the vehicle body, relying on the crawlers on both sides of the vehicle body to advance.There are three people in the car, namely the commander, driver and gunner.

Due to the limited engine power, the body armor was mainly concentrated on the front side due to the consideration of weight reduction during manufacture, and the weapon was only a howitzer. It was not even equipped with a machine gun for infantry, nor was it equipped with external fuel tanks. To ensure that this engine can drive the already very heavy car body.

"If the power of the engine is sufficient, we can gradually increase the load on the body, but if the car is made too heavy at the beginning, the engine will not be able to load, and it will be more troublesome to reduce the weight." Beks also specifically explained Let's see why this tank looks so "rough".

Although the people present may not all be military experts, they still have a basic understanding of tanks as a weapon. Naturally, they knew that this thing should not just look at the clumsy appearance, so they immediately asked the tank to show its basic combat capabilities.

The main strengths of tanks are nothing more than three, direct firepower, off-road capability and armor protection.Under the command of Beks, the tank was displayed one by one.Although his tactical movements were obviously slow and clumsy, after some operations, he finally basically completed the instructions.

However, the high-ranking Haihan officials present will not be disappointed by this. They are well aware of their own industrial technology level, and the first tank they built is a test product. It is already good to have such a level.

Yan Chujie, as the head of the military, also took the initiative to express his opinion: "At this stage, this is actually a tractor with an iron shell and a turret, and there are still many unresolved problems. It is necessary to bring it to the battlefield. It is impossible to go up to be the only one, and it is mainly used to improve and perfect our existing ordnance manufacturing technology to accumulate experience for the future."

Ning Qi also laughed when he heard the words: "Such a heavy iron lump, just transporting it across the sea is a big trouble... Do we have a cargo ship that can transport this thing now?"

Sun Changmi nodded and said: "It can be transported, but to put such a heavy thing on board, the hull must be greatly modified. In addition, special hoisting equipment must be built on the dock."

Beks added: "Although this tank has only three crew members, there are almost 20 people in the backup crew plus logistics and maintenance personnel. In addition, the performance and service life of this high-power engine are still very unstable. Liaiaozi is a pile of scrap iron, and it cannot be put on the battlefield for the time being."

The opinions given by these two people basically confirmed that the tank in front of them did not have the ability to be put on the battlefield to perform combat missions.Although it will inevitably make people somewhat disappointed, the senior officials present are also very aware of the status quo, and they have not expressed dissatisfaction with such a conclusion.

Beks went on to say: "I invite you to witness the combat capability of this tank today. It does not mean that we will install it in the army, but that we already have the relevant technical reserves. In a certain period of time in the future , when we need to use this kind of heavy weapon, we can manufacture it in a very short time. Of course, we will continue to improve the various defects and deficiencies mentioned just now through technological research and development. I believe that when this When the weapon is officially installed, its performance will be much stronger than it is now!"

As a prototype under research and development, this tank still has a lot of room for upgrading, but despite its various shortcomings, it already has the most basic combat capabilities, which means that the ordnance industry department has invested a lot in the past few years. The resources of this project are not in vain, and it also means that the related research and development work will continue in the future.

That's right, this is actually a phased results conference for the internal, allowing the executive committee to witness the research and development results, and to obtain better conditions for the ordnance department to apply for the next stage of research and development funds.Even if this is a weapon that is almost unusable at this stage, from the perspective of development, Haihan still has to rely on the existing technology platform to continue to develop and upgrade it, so as to ensure that Haihan will be able to survive in the next few years. It will still maintain an absolute advantage in the field of heavy weapons and equipment.

Such weapons and equipment in the research and development stage are far more than tanks. The army alone has mortars, large-caliber howitzers, wheeled infantry combat vehicles, heavy machine guns, and so on.The Navy is currently conducting trials on warships equipped with high-power diesel engines. If the related manufacturing process and service life can be greatly improved, then the existing sailing warships will begin to be replaced one after another in the near future.

As for the more advanced air force, it is now in the planning and preparation stage.Relevant departments have circled a large area of ​​land in the plain area of ​​the upper reaches of the Sanya River to build runways and supporting facilities. Haihan Ordnance has also set up a flight center to be responsible for the development and manufacture of Haihan's first-generation aircraft.

However, the development process of this thing is much slower than that of tanks. In addition to the difficulties in manufacturing technology, the training of pilots is also an extremely difficult thing.Although the time-travelers have mastered the technology of making planes, very few of them actually fly the planes. After some investigation, only Qiao Zhiya held a professional flight license before time-traveling.

But Qiao Zhiya was not a pilot when he joined the army, and his flight license was also a civilian aircraft driver's license obtained after retiring from the army. The total flying time was only a few dozen hours.The most important thing is that he has not touched the cockpit of an airplane for nearly 30 years. It will undoubtedly be a very risky test to expect him to make his first flight or train a group of reliable pilots.So up to now, the flight plan is still in the preparatory stage, even Qiao Zhiya himself can't guarantee when the first flight will be realized.

(End of this chapter)