afterglow

Chapter 572 I want all the machine guns and cannons; a strange complaint
The Lafette34 tripod equipped with the MG34 weighs 7.1kg and has a very complex structure. It is not only retractable, but also has a buffer design and comes with a periscope sight. The purchase price is as high as 400 marks. You must know that the MG34 itself is only 310 marks.

Historically, the US military also tested the MG34 captured in the North African campaign and found that its parts were complex in shape and difficult to process. This caused a number of arms dealers to exclaim: "It costs more than the Empire State Building!"

The shortcomings of being complex, expensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive may be barely bearable in the eyes of the Military Ordnance Bureau - anyway, there is no plan to change the entire army.

Another drawback of veto is reliability.

"The failure rate is too high, it really won't work." Zhou Changfeng turned to the last page of the test report.

"Yes, it would be a joke if such a precious thing suddenly becomes mute when it is time to use it." A civilian technical major agreed.

During the test, it was found that the failure rate of MG34 increased sharply in bad environments, making it difficult to use.

After it was soaked in sandy mud water, 50 jammed and 21 failed to fire out of 16 separate test firings. The 74% failure rate was heart-wrenching.

This is completely unacceptable to an officer like Zhou Changfeng with a grassroots background. No matter how good a gun is if it fails to fire at the critical moment, it is worse than burning a fire stick.

As a result, the idea of ​​​​copying the picture was immediately rejected.

On the steel frame of the warehouse, the huge barrel of a machine gun is particularly eye-catching.

The standard weapon configuration of the Ming Dynasty Air Force fighter jets is a combination of 7.36mm and 12.8mm aviation machine guns. This kind of firepower is enough to deal with the British Hurricane and Spitfire fighter jets, but it is difficult to effectively damage the US F4F Hellcat and P-38 Lightning.

To be honest, if you are not a natural workaholic, you will not be able to fulfill the responsibility of overall leadership.

At first, Zhou Changfeng wondered how an important department like the Ordnance Bureau could let a mediocre person be the leader, but he soon understood the reason——

"For now, let's make do with the old cannon. It's better to have something than nothing." Guan Bingwei turned to his entourage and said, "Tell Taiyuan Factory to prepare for production in advance. If the new cannon is qualified, it will be put into production immediately."

"Is this an airborne weapon?"

But this can only solve the urgent need, but it is not enough to completely solve the problem.

The weapons and equipment belonging to the army, navy and air force are so huge. Thousands of gadgets have to go through the review, discussion and verification of the Ordnance Bureau. Especially during the war, hundreds of officials from top to bottom are busy every day. Their work The quantity is second only to the Munitions Department.

The result of the former is the huge machine gun in front of everyone - the trial-produced Type 14.4 mm aviation machine gun.

Therefore, the research and development plan of large-caliber aviation cannons and even aviation cannons was quickly put on the agenda.

The weapon most commonly used by Ming army aircraft is the Type 7.36 aviation machine gun with a caliber of 9.7㎜. This is a light airborne weapon with a total gun weight of ㎏ and a rate of fire of one thousand rounds per minute.

It was basically sufficient in the early stages of the war, but it also exposed its weakness in its ability to damage all-metal aircraft and heavy targets.

The current doctor in the Ordnance Bureau is named Guan Bingwei. He took office only two months ago. He is a middle-aged man with great ambitions and mediocre abilities. He is from Jinzhou.

"Exactly, this is the heavy machine gun for new aircraft. The prototype of the larger cannon was supposed to be produced this month... Unfortunately, Mr. Chen passed away unfortunately. It is estimated that the aircraft gun will take a few more months to be completed." Guan Bingwei sighed.

"Then do it yourself!" Zhou Changfeng handed back the test report and said, "Have a short meeting, call some people from the arsenal, and let's discuss some technical indicators."

Yingtian Arsenal is in the southern suburbs, and it takes half an hour to get there by car. So while waiting for the attendees to arrive, officials from the Ordnance Bureau introduced to Zhou some of the recent plans, large and small.

Someone next to me answered: "But we need a bigger cannon, otherwise we won't be able to take down the thick-skinned bombers."

It fires 14.4×112㎜ series ammunition of the Army's Type 36 combat anti-gun. The whole gun weighs 7.36kg. The rate of fire is about rounds per minute. The kinetic energy of the muzzle can reach joules. This is a ㎜ aviation machine gun. Six times!
"This gun is powerful enough. Five shots can cripple an American fighter plane, and ten shots will kill it," said an Air Force official.

He is full of vitality and energy, and can be busy from morning to night for a month. He is a typical perfectionist and picky about faults. In addition, his theoretical level and resume are also qualified.

The "Mr. Chen" he was talking about was the senior engineer of the Taiyuan Air Force Arsenal who was seriously injured and died of injuries in the military inspection team.

Therefore, the military industry department hurriedly strengthened the weapons for the Type 7.36 fighter jets and the Type 12.8 carrier-based fighter jets - mainly replacing the mm machine gun with a mm machine gun.

In the Ming Dynasty Air Force's vision, future light fighter jets will all be equipped with 14.4mm aviation machine guns; heavy fighter jets will be equipped with an additional 25.6mm aviation cannon, responsible for intercepting enemy bombers.

Most of the small-caliber cannons in the world are unreliable, and the only optional Oerlikon FF light cannon has poor performance.

Historically, the US military was more interesting and looked down upon the backward Oerlikon FF, so it introduced the Hispano Hs404 cannon. However, the reliability problem was not solved until the end of the war.

[Globalization - refers to the Americans purchasing machine guns designed by Italians from French companies from the British. 】

The Ming Dynasty Air Force was relatively pragmatic and still copied the Oerlikon FF while developing better aviation cannons on its own.

The imitation Oerlikon FF is shaped as a Type 20.8 aviation cannon, firing 73.6×580mm series ammunition. Because the cartridge case is short and the propellant is small, the muzzle velocity of this machine gun is very low, only m/s. The trajectory is curved and it uses a -round drum magazine to feed the ammunition.

【Picture】

Because of this, Ming army pilots had a lot of negative comments about this kind of cannon. They generally believed that the muzzle velocity was too slow, the trajectory was curved, the range was too short, and the ammunition supply was too little, making it completely unusable.

They called the 38-type aircraft cannon a "piss cannon" and a "slingshot," and their dislike was evident.

The Ming Air Force refused to accept fighter jets equipped with such cannons. It was not until they were overwhelmed by US bombers that they hurriedly activated a batch and organized them into an interception unit dedicated to intercepting bombers.

They believe that a qualified cannon must have a muzzle velocity of at least 750m/s. At the same time, in order to improve the damage effect on heavy aircraft, the caliber should be increased, filled with a charge of no less than 15g, and should be as light as possible to ensure general use. Pretending to be sexual.

As a result, the Taiyuan Air Force Arsenal, which received the task, organized a team. They decided to develop a 25.6mm caliber cannon and control the total weight within 40kg.

It is a pity that one of the core members of the team died due to a despicable attack by the British, causing the project to be delayed for at least two months, otherwise the sample would have been displayed next month.

Zhou Changfeng knew that US military aircraft were known for their rough skin and thick flesh. He vaguely remembered that in the late war, the US military had all kinds of fat and big fighter jets and bombers.

"We must pay attention to the development of aircraft cannons, prepare for rainy days, work vigorously, seriously, and focus on it. We can also prepare to think about larger aircraft cannons. Let's make a preliminary draft first."

Guan Bingwei nodded, cupped his hands and said: "What Zhou Taizhao said is absolutely true. Maybe the enemy will have bigger bombers in the future, just like the British and American barbarians bombed the Baku oil fields. They really need more powerful artillery to deal with them."

"It is said that the United States has built a strange aircraft with an engine in the middle? It also uses a thirty-seven millimeter cannon, which is quite interesting. This large-caliber cannon would be great for attacking bombers." The air force officer from before The department official said with a smile.

Everyone discussed it enthusiastically for a while and felt that this was indeed feasible.

After a while, the people who were ordered to come to the meeting arrived one after another. Everyone came to a secluded side room on the second floor, and the informal meeting began.

Wang Huanan, whom he had not seen for a long time, was also present. He has now been promoted to the position of Director of the Public Works Department of the Yingtian Army Arsenal and became the top leader.

The draft written by Zhou Changfeng last night was transcribed and printed into more than a dozen copies, and is now distributed to the attendees present.

The room was very quiet, everyone was browsing carefully, there was only the sound of turning pages.

"All for the troops related to the memorial? I didn't expect Zhou Taizhao to pay so much attention to it." Someone said in surprise.

"In the next few years, those divisions will be the absolute elite main force. We must arm them with the highest standards. Unless we encounter insurmountable difficulties, we can lower the standards as appropriate." Zhou Zhang Fengyun replied lightly.

"They are really soldiers and horses made of gold." An Army Department official blurted out, but immediately added: "But it makes sense. The island is a small place, and soldiers are expensive and fine."

The thoughtful Wang Yuanan pondered for a moment and then said: "This is a light machine gun for infantry squads. Maybe we don't have to make it from scratch. Our factory can modify it based on Type 33."

"This is guaranteed, and the existing production line can be used." Someone next to him added an explanation.

Zhou Changfeng nodded and said: "This is one way, but it's not a bad idea to brainstorm. Maybe we can come up with a wonderful design."

The Type 9.9 light machine gun has an empty weight of kg. It has a gas-guided automatic principle and the barrel can be replaced. Actual combat has proven that this is a very good light machine gun.

It cannot be called top-notch, it is mediocre, neither good nor bad. Its biggest advantage is probably that it is one of the few light machine guns that can pass rigorous reliability tests.

Wang Huan'an and others believe that the Type 33 light machine gun has been tested in actual combat, and it is feasible to make changes based on it, and it is fast, and there is no need to worry about making an unreliable thing.

Moreover, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Yingtian Army Arsenal are producing it, and they have ready-made production lines, making it easier to switch production.

But what Zhou is now applying is the leadership thinking of being in a high position - don't make a choice, I want them all!
"I don't like to make trade-offs. Even if I encounter huge obstacles, I can only put it aside temporarily." He said lightly: "But there are no difficulties now, so we must pursue the ultimate goal. This is war and is not suitable for the golden mean."

Wang Huan'an couldn't help but feel strange. He felt that this was not like Zhou's past style.

What impressed him deeply was the Type 39 submachine gun - submachine guns using stamping technology were shoddy and defective products in the eyes of traditional military personnel. However, Zhou waved the flag, ran around, and pushed hard, and finally this type of submachine gun began to be developed. Mass production eliminated the finely crafted Type 3 and Type 4 submachine guns.

"Zhou Taizhao, when you were making the Type 39 portable machine gun, didn't you say, 'The performance is just adequate'? Why do you emphasize the pursuit of perfection this time?" he asked.

The science and engineering technicians who do practical work are quite upright. If an official who is active in the government were to ask the same question, he would definitely not ask it in this way - no matter whether it is right or wrong, telling this example in public has a sense of going against the grain and slapping someone in the face.

Zhou Changfeng smiled slightly, stretched out his index finger and shook it, "No, the two are not the same thing. The more low-end consumables, the better. The ultimate pursuit of something that wins by quantity is 'as easy as possible to make'. The portable machine gun is Supplementary to grassroots automatic firepower, performance is secondary.”

"I see, it makes sense."

Guan Bingwei was afraid of causing embarrassment, so he quickly smoothed things over, "Everything is different. Zhou Taizhao's words have their own reasons."

The first one to be determined is the new light machine gun, with the approximate index requirements being:

7.36. It fires 40×mm short rifle ammunition and the barrel can be replaced.

2. The weight of the empty gun shall not exceed nine kilograms.

3. Use a drum magazine of not less than fifty rounds or a non-scatterable ammunition chain.

4. The firing rate is adjustable, with a maximum firing rate of 700 rounds per minute.

5. The barrel has a life of 15,000 rounds and the bolt has a life of 20,000 rounds.

There is no red tape in the meeting. This kind of simple and simple meeting with a small number of people is very efficient.

Next, the indicators of the new light and heavy dual-purpose machine gun have also been temporarily determined.

7.36. Fires 56×mm standard rifle ammunition, and the barrel can be replaced.

2. The weight of the empty gun shall not exceed 14 kilograms.

3. The supporting new tripod weighs no more than ten kilograms.

4. Use a 250-round non-dispersible ammunition chain.

5. The rate of fire is between 600 and 800 rounds per minute.

Zhou Changfeng, who had limited professional knowledge, did not know about the elastic gun mount commonly used in later general-purpose machine guns. He and everyone present were very troubled when determining the indicators, worried that the requirement of "the weight of the tripod should not exceed ten kilograms" could not be met.

However, weight reduction is of great significance, so we finally decided to spare no expense - if there are difficulties, allow the tripod to use part of the aluminum alloy to meet the requirements.

An Ordnance Bureau official thought about it in his mind and said, "What a luxury. If the gun frame is made of aluminum alloy, the purchase price will be 30% less."

This is actually not a matter of money, but that aluminum alloy is an important strategic resource, and it would be a bit wasteful to use it to make light weapons.

When Zhou was having a heated discussion with a group of participants, in the Forbidden City...

After the death of Emperor Daxing, the work was carried out in an orderly manner - in fact, many things had been prepared in detail last year, but I did not expect that Zhu Shiyan actually escaped death at that time.

Zhu Lingjing was considering a temple name for her father. Although it was impossible to tell others, in fact she had already considered it deep down in her heart.

A person like Zhu Shiyan, who is smart and wise, dances on a few eggs, and finally successfully saves the country and the country, and builds a prosperous and mighty world, should choose...

At this time, Su Yiyi came slowly holding a set of memorials and placed them on the imperial desk.

"Your Majesty, something is quite unexpected." She hesitated and said with a strange look on her face: "Mrs. Zhou Daizhao wrote a handwritten letter to you... to complain."

"Complain?" Zhu Lingjing raised her head, her eyes full of confusion.

(End of this chapter)