The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 103 Armored Vehicle Technology

late at night.

The cold wind was howling, mixed with snowflakes.

There is light snow in the sky tonight, making the weather seem even colder.

Except for the study, the lights in other rooms were turned off.

Liu Tao was writing on the letter paper. Each line of his handwriting was very neat and beautiful.

His handwriting cannot be called calligraphic, but it is very neat and better than most people.

He wrote a letter to Zhu Lin three days ago. Judging from the time, it must still be on the way. It takes at least a week to send a letter from Kunming to Beijing. Ten days or half a month is normal.

But he would write another letter tonight.

After they parted, he always missed her terribly late at night, and Zhu Lin's beautiful face would always appear in his mind involuntarily.

Only by expressing his feelings in letters can he find peace of mind.

After writing four pages of letter paper, Liu Tao stopped writing, put the pen cover on, put the letter paper into the envelope, then put a stamp on it and wrote the recipient and address.

Liu Tao stood up, went to the balcony and looked outside.

Most places were dark at this time, but there were still some places with faint lights.

With the reservoir being put into use, Panshan Machinery Factory no longer has a shortage of drinking water and electricity.

At least in the next one or two years, there won’t be too much electricity shortage.

Two years later, if everything goes well, the Chaishitan Reservoir will start supplying electricity, and the Panshan Machinery Factory will no longer lack electricity.

However, although there is no shortage of electricity now, people will not waste electricity.

Saving is engraved in everyone's bones, and waste will make people feel ashamed.

Liu Tao's thoughts inevitably turned to the armored vehicle into which he had invested a great deal of energy during this period.

Armored vehicles are various tracked or wheeled military vehicles with armored protection, while tanks are armored vehicles, a type of tracked armored vehicle.

The country's current tanks include the Type 59 main battle tank, the Type 62 light tank, the Type 63 amphibious tank, and the Type 69 heavy tank.

The Type 59 tank was manufactured by the Republic based on the Soviet T-54. More than units have been produced so far, with units equipped in the army, nearly units provided as foreign aid, and to units in storage, ready to be used at any time.

The Type 62 light tank was developed in 1958 and officially equipped in 1963. It is mainly used to cope with the harsh road conditions with low traffic capacity in the south, such as hills, water networks, rice fields, etc. It has good mobility, certain firepower and protection capabilities. Currently, about units have been produced.

The Type 63 amphibious tank is the first generation of amphibious tanks independently developed by China. It is used for combat in inland rivers, lakes, swamps and water-networked rice fields, as well as for landing and anti-landing operations in coastal areas, and to destroy enemy beachhead defense facilities.

The Type 69 tank is a medium tank that was improved and redesigned in the 60s based on the Type 59. It was not successfully developed until 1974. It is also my country's first independently developed domestic main battle tank.

The performance of Type 69 is better than that of Type 59 tank, but due to the current backward technology, the troops would rather use Type 59 tanks than Type 69 tanks. The approximately tanks produced are basically used for training and reserve purposes.

Liu Tao also has some knowledge about tanks.

It can be said that it was not until the Type 99 main battle tank that domestic tanks gradually caught up with the performance of foreign tanks.

It will take another 99 years before the Type 20 main battle tank is put into service.

If he wanted to build a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun with advanced performance, he had to use an advanced armored chassis, and of course, the performance of the engine and other equipment had to be improved.

However, relying on China's current armored vehicle technology obviously cannot meet Liu Tao's requirements. He needs to break through a lot of technologies!

Armored chassis, tracks, engines, armor, air search radar and more!
He even considered that anti-aircraft guns alone could not meet the air defense requirements, so he had to consider combining them with air defense missiles.

So far, he has only successfully developed anti-aircraft guns and ammunition.

"And the fire control system. China's technology in this area is too backward." Liu Tao sighed to himself.

The damage to the military industry was devastating.

Everyone only saw the advanced technologies such as the two bombs and one satellite, but did not see that other weapons had stagnated or even taken a big step backward.

Just look at the Type 63 automatic rifle. Many of the reasons are that the production quality is not up to standard and it has not been improved for more than ten years.

It’s not that the soldiers don’t want an advanced and good gun. On the contrary, as soldiers, they know the best about guns and know what a good gun is better than anyone else.

Just like the Type 78 automatic rifle he developed last year, the soldiers couldn't put it down after using it.

"68000 chip. The fire control system can use this as the processor." Liu Tao said secretly.

The fire control system is a very important component of an armored vehicle. It is no exaggeration to say that it directly affects the performance of the armored vehicle.

In terms of chips, China's beginnings can be traced back to the 50s, when China began to develop its own electronic components, including transistors, diodes, etc. However, due to the limitations of technology level and equipment conditions, China's chip industry has always been lagging behind.

The 68000 chip, the forerunner of Motorola's 680X0 microprocessor, is a CISC structure that was launched last year and used in Apple Macintosh computers, as well as Apple LaserWriter ⅡSC and Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet printers.

This kind of commercial chip is much more powerful than China's most advanced chip.

It is also a chip that can be obtained on a large scale internationally.

But Liu Tao couldn't help but think that if he just relied on purchasing, he would easily be stuck with chips.

He was deeply impressed by this point.

"Alas, there are so many things to do. I have to rely on myself and master the technology step by step." Liu Tao sighed.

This is because he has an item upgrade system. Otherwise, he alone would not be able to develop an advanced fire control system in twenty years, let alone ten.

As for the third-generation tanks, it took China several decades to develop them. If it were an individual, it would be impossible to do it.

You should know that the Soviet Union's T-72 main battle tank began production in 1971 and was equipped to the troops in large quantities in 1973.

It is no exaggeration to say that China's most advanced tank is still far behind the Soviet Union's T62 main battle tank, not to mention the T72 main battle tank.

After feeling the cold wind for a while and seeing a thin layer of snow on the ground outside, Liu Tao went back to his room to sleep.

The next morning, after arriving at the office, Liu Tao asked someone to mail the letter.

This is Liu Tao. All the firearms were developed by him, so there is no possibility of any technical leakage. If someone else wrote the letter, it would have to be reviewed by the security department before it could be sent out.

As for making a phone call, that was even more impossible. There were only two telephones for external contacts, one in Liu Tao's office and the other in Liu Tao's home.

It was impossible for other people to use the phone. Even the deputy factory director had to go to the office to use the phone.

The only phone number Liu Tao has at home is his second sister and brother-in-law. They don't call every day, maybe once a week at most.

It is really troublesome to make long-distance calls nowadays, and it also wastes resources, so they are used to saving money.

(End of this chapter)