From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 398: The Battle of Returning to Nature

"The bombardment was effective. But why didn't their air defense positions react?"

After the self-propelled electromagnetic gun battalion began to launch effective fire on Garibal's outer permanent positions, Amber suddenly realized that these rounds of artillery fire had not been properly intercepted.

Although it is difficult to intercept the shells of self-propelled artillery, for some "hedgehog-like" positions, it is always possible to hit a few shells by relying on a large number of high-energy lasers or charged particle cannons to sweep.

In an extreme case, using the diffuse shooting mode of the heavy particle cannon is also an option.

"Their anti-artillery radars and reconnaissance units are probably focused on the two brigades at the front. The artillery positions here probably weren't anticipated."

Oans looked at the images sent back from the front line and said that as a designer of weapons, he must also understand the problem of "contradiction and confrontation".

"And the super-heavy shells fired this time are actually not that easy to intercept. In order to smash through the top armor plate of the permanent fortifications, they all use tungsten alloy warheads. Unless multiple heavy particle cannons are used together to conduct diffuse shooting, it is basically impossible to stop them."

"The early warning radar detects artillery shells flying in the atmosphere at speeds of more than Mach 5, and then in less than two minutes, the air defense radar group accurately locks on the target and shares the information with the HCP or fixed artillery on the front line, allowing them to complete the diffuse shooting?"

Amber shook her head and said, "At least judging from the training level of the imperial guards, it is impossible to do so."

"Yes, Boss. This is just an attack by 24 E-2s from a self-propelled electromagnetic gun battalion. If it is put into mass production in the future, the attack on this kind of defensive position will be carried out by the firepower of the entire artillery combined brigade. By then, I estimate that the general air defense system will be paralyzed."

While Orns was speaking, a hole had been smashed in the outer permanent fortifications southeast of Garibal. Although the imperial defenders also used their only anti-aircraft weapons to intercept during the subsequent effective shooting, the effect was minimal.

Instead, after exposing their own position, they were taken special care of by the 155 self-propelled artillery and cruise missiles under the two frontline synthetic brigades.——
Amber, Ornes, Hogg and others positioned the E-2 heavy vehicle-mounted self-propelled electromagnetic gun as a heavy hammer for attacking tough enemies.

In a sense, this positioning is very similar to the well-known heavy artillery in ancient times, such as "Big Bertha", "Karl", and "Stalin's Hammer" - all are designed to attack high-intensity permanent fortifications.

This is also related to the fact that ground warfare in this era is becoming more and more "back to basics".

After various directed energy weapons became popular among heavy mechanized forces, and the deflection force field developed based on the principle of "directional magnetic field" was extended from under warships in space to ground combat forces, a new concept of "armor-assisted missile confrontation" emerged.

The most commonly used directed energy weapons for ground forces are high-energy lasers, charged particle beam weapons and heavy particle cannons.

In the future, there will be plasma cannons that fire plasma - Amber has already had the equipment research and development center testing this thing, and according to Eugene and others, it will be weaponized soon.

High-energy lasers are much more difficult to use in the atmosphere than in space. This light-speed-level weapon was originally designed to have the ability to strike the enemy in real time at a long distance.

This can indeed be done in space, and lasers rely on the high heat at the focal point of the beam to kill, and deflection fields cannot be used for defense. Generally, the ship's external layered armor, special coatings with a thermal expansion coefficient close to 0, and working fluid water cooling layers are used to resist.

But on the ground, common planets suitable for human habitation are basically similar in planetary curvature radius and topography. This also means that the visual distance for ground combat is only a few kilometers to more than ten kilometers at most.

At this distance, the advantage of high-energy lasers is infinitely reduced, and lasers are subject to various restrictions in the atmosphere, especially in rainy and foggy weather, so basically don't even think about using high-energy lasers to hit long-distance targets.

Therefore, the high-energy laser weapons equipped by ground forces are basically used for air defense, and when the weather is good, they can be used to attack manned aircraft, unmanned aircraft, cruise missiles, and everything else flying in the sky.
When the weather is not good, you can also lay it flat to shoot at close range "soft targets".

Charged particle beams, heavy particle cannons, and plasma cannons that will become popular in the future have gradually replaced various barreled artillery and become heavy weapons for ground units.

But these weapons can all be defended against by the deflection force field. It is nothing more than a matter of instantaneous power competition.

At the same time, charged particle beams, which are near-light-speed weapons, and heavy particle cannons, which travel at 2100 times the speed of light, can occasionally serve as air defense units.

This is also the reason why the status of tactical air forces within the atmosphere is becoming increasingly low, and they have basically become a "mobile arsenal" for launching hypersonic weapons outside the defense zone.

The old days of using aerial bombs to support ground troops, or even using machine guns to attack the ground, are no longer seen. After all, no pilot would be willing to use directed energy weapons with almost no attack delay to attack the ground.
In this context, ground warfare has become a very retro confrontation - after doing a good job of air defense, it focuses on the new "armor-to-bullet confrontation" between directed energy weapons, deflection fields, and layered armor.

This is only the current situation. If the technology develops according to what Amber knows, ancient military buildings such as "fortresses" will also make a comeback.

The outer walls of the fortress are constructed with a large number of laminated armor and composite armor plates, a large deflection field array covering the entire fortress, a hedgehog-like anti-aircraft weapon array, and various fixed turrets equipped with directed energy weapons and hypersonic missile silos.
This is basically an upgraded version of the outpost built by Atlas before, or in other words, Amber made this kind of "fortress" that will gradually become popular in the future appear ahead of time.

When important nodes on the planet's surface are fortified, planetary landing battles become more difficult. Even if the attacking side successfully sends its troops to the ground, it will still face a large number of tortoise-shell-like fortresses.

As long as the attacker wants to occupy the planet instead of just "burning glass" or "growing mushrooms" for fun, they will have to bite the bullet and rely on conventional force.

In Amber's memory, some famous fortresses could even withstand orbital strikes - not those tactical thermobaric bombs dropped from outer space, but direct fire from the main guns of battleships.
The methods to deal with these fortresses are also very simple. Either send special forces to sneak in in advance to carry out sabotage operations, or let the insider directly shut down the deflection field generator.

If the first two methods are not possible, then we can only rely on high-density firepower delivery to overload and ineffective the deflection field generator. During this process, the fortress defenders will definitely counterattack and find ways to eliminate the attacker's long-range attack positions, so a unit that can deliver efficient firepower at a sufficiently long distance is very important.

Hypersonic weapons can indeed penetrate the final distance by relying on their unique penetration capabilities, but this type of weapon, which is not cheap, is more used to deal with time-sensitive targets rather than to hit an immobile turtle shell.

Self-propelled artillery can ensure the continuity of firepower, and the shells are quite cheap, but the attack distance of dozens of kilometers makes the artillery position not very safe. Whether it is the defenders' anti-artillery and missile attacks, or a rapid assault by a HCP squadron, it will cause a fatal blow to the self-propelled artillery.

Multiple rocket launcher systems have proven to be an extremely effective means of combating fortresses, both now and in the future, in environments where tactical nuclear weapons cannot be used.

The extremely high firepower projection in a short period of time and the plasma warhead are definitely a tough enemy for some small fortresses.

However, the multiple rocket launcher system also has its flaws. One is that the firepower is not sustained enough and the reloading cycle is too long. If a round of salvos does not "break the defense", by the time the reloading is completed, the fortress's deflection field will have almost recovered.

Another drawback is that the cost is relatively high and the ammunition supply is relatively difficult. Sometimes the fire commander has to make a choice: should he launch a round of fire coverage on the enemy's heavy armored group, or smash the turtle shell in front of him, or provide fire support to the troops that have sent a request for support?

But the emergence of the E-2 heavy vehicle-mounted self-propelled electromagnetic gun is, to some extent, a more economical solution.

At the same technical processing level, the cost of electromagnetic gun shells, especially those without extended-range boost components, is vastly different from that of long-range rockets.

安珀粗略的算了一下，一发射程180-200公里的300毫米远程火箭弹的造价，就抵得上将近20发能打180公里的电磁炮炮弹了。

Moreover, when facing a fortress-level deflection field, super-heavy bombs, weapons with higher kinetic energy, are obviously more difficult for the deflection field to deal with than the plasma fireballs of plasma warheads.

The latter can also rely on electric fields to set off fireworks, but the former can only be forced by pointing to magnetic fields.

Not to mention, in Amber and Ornes' plan, there is also an ultra-heavy vehicle-mounted electromagnetic gun that uses an 8-axle special vehicle to launch a 500-1000 kg warhead.

And it is possible to consider using gravity control technology to carry a suspended train to launch a behemoth-class train electromagnetic gun with a warhead of 1500-3000 kg.
Bigger is better, more is more beautiful. Since the future ground battlefield will become more and more extreme due to "conflicts and conflicts", Amber doesn't mind being a little more extreme on this basis.

Haven't you seen the studio next door, where they also played the World War I cavalry death charge in the interstellar era? The so-called tactics are all based on the technological level and combat style of the warring parties.
Of course, the salvo of long-range rockets and the killing effect on assembled troops are definitely beyond the reach of self-propelled electromagnetic guns, which also means that it is destined to be difficult for them to be eliminated in a short period of time.

If you are in a desperate situation, you can use tactics to intersperse. If you are successful, you can just bomb me.

For a big country, equipping its troops with long-range rockets might be a matter of closing their eyes and paying the bill, but for Atlas, it must be calculated carefully.

After all, Atlas is essentially a business, and the operation of a business must consider key indicators such as cost and cost-effectiveness. On the battlefield, if a target can be penetrated with 100 pieces of ammunition, it will never be destroyed with 110 pieces of ammunition.

Amber knows all too well how money is saved bit by bit.

Just as Amber and Ornes were discussing the subsequent production of E-2, the front-line attack forces also began tactical maneuvers under the cover of the self-propelled electromagnetic gun battalion and the brigade's self-propelled artillery battalion.

The HCP assault force led by Murat, relying on the outstanding mobility and protection capabilities of the improved "Holy Shield", boldly set up a "gun line" on the front line and attracted most of the firepower.

Those new suspended main battle tanks were completely unrestricted by the terrain that had been artificially destroyed by the Imperial defenders before the war, and they advanced to the front of the permanent fortifications almost as if they were walking on flat ground.

The Imperial defenders who managed to survive did not even have time to retreat to the second line of defense. They watched with their own eyes as these tanks, who had never seen a main battle tank before, did not even bother to use obstacle-clearing ammunition and simply increased their hovering altitude to fly over the anti-tank barricades.

Then these defenders were quickly killed by the coaxial electromagnetic machine guns, the close-in defense lasers and chain guns of the automatic weapon station. The fixed turrets that did not have time to turn their direction were also destroyed by the electromagnetic reconnection guns of these suspended main battle tanks.

However, the heavy troops that advanced to the first line of defense did not continue to move forward. Instead, they began to stabilize the line with the help of the wreckage on the position. While waiting for the follow-up troops to follow up, they were also ready to deal with the counterattack of the imperial defenders at any time.

The first to "attack" the city of Garibal were the suicide "swarms" that flew over the heads of the heavy armored troops, as well as the cruise missiles fired by the firepower battalion under the heavy brigade (2 self-propelled artillery companies + 1 cruise missile company).

Since the terminal defense weapon groups such as close-in defense guns and short-frequency lasers deployed outside Garibal were basically deployed together with the permanent fortifications, they were basically completely destroyed by the attack of the self-propelled electromagnetic gun battalion.

The terminal defense weapon groups on other lines of defense were obviously unable to support this gap, so they could only watch these dense swarms of suicide bombers and cruise missiles rushing along the streets towards the rear lines of defense like mercury.

Amber, who was 180 kilometers away, felt a little painful on her face after seeing this scene through the command terminal.

"This is simply burning money to reduce casualties."

(End of this chapter)