Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2790 New Equipment ()

"Very suitable, very easy to use, a guy who likes the new but hates the old! How many years has the Hall rifle been used?" Comrade Thorpe said.

Although there are joint logistics complaints about the navy, the navy is very supportive of the equipment of the 1637 type. This is natural. The ammunition for sailors' rifles is insignificant compared to the huge warships. Moreover, sailors rarely use rifles, and the ammunition consumption is negligible. As for the base team and the naval force, the former is stationed for garrison, with the warehouse behind them; the latter basically operates near the coastline and rivers, and rarely goes deep into places where ships cannot supply supplies. Moreover, its small number of personnel, short self-sustaining combat time, and small unit operations such as multi-person raids have certain requirements on the rifle's rate of fire and range.

The Political Office of the General Staff also submitted a report. The General Administration pointed out in the report: The tactics of troops using new rifles are more complex, which places higher requirements on the cultural level of officers. Only with a higher cultural level can one understand and use these new tactics well.

The intellectual talents cultivated by the Senate's own education system were completely insufficient. The various departments are not willing to enrich them into the army. The Political Department said the quality of officers needs to be improved urgently.

So two opinions formed in the army. The industrial sector is also very conflicted. On the one hand, industry veterans are extremely interested in product upgrades. After all, the performance of the Hall rifle after it was put into production cannot be considered "satisfactory." If it can be used in the 1637 type, it means that the industrial sector will welcome Come to industrial upgrading. In particular, the fixed-loading ammunition that Type 1637 will use will have an upgrading effect on the metal stamping and chemical industries.

On the other hand, the production of Type 1637 poses new challenges to the current level of machining. The structure of the Mini rifle is extremely simple. Strictly speaking, the core component is just a barrel, and the most complex part is its trigger. There are very few parts and the processing is simple. The caliber of tens of millimeters also makes it very insensitive to tolerances - and the same goes for ammunition.

Although the Hall rifle has been improved, it only adds a movable barrel, which is not a big improvement.

The Type 1637 is a completely modern breech-loading rifle. More complex structures, more parts, tighter tolerances and better materials. With the current level of machining and materials in the industry, it is difficult to achieve stable mass production.

Since this is a brand-new rifle, the actual equipment and tooling cannot be used in common with the production lines of old rifles. The factory needs to be rebuilt, and an ammunition production enterprise must also be built. Even if the supply of raw materials and skilled workers can be guaranteed unhindered, it will take about three or four years to stabilize mass production.

"It's not feasible to build and produce at the same time. There are two main problems: first, the quality is not stable, and second, the output is very low." Zhan Wuya expressed his opinions to Wu De who came to ask for advice after looking at the entire structure of the rifle. .

"How much can we produce in the first year?"

"If the equipment and tooling are not complete, we can rely on skilled fitters to assemble them by hand. In the first year, we can produce about 300 to 500 pieces of qualified products. Once the equipment and tooling are completed, mass production will be fast. An annual output of 10,000 pieces is not a problem. ―The premise is that you can guarantee the investment. By the way, there is also ammunition, which requires chemical support. Black powder propellant can be used, but it is best to use smokeless powder. We have not done the deep-drawing process of brass cartridges. ――But it’s not too difficult. By the way, can the supply of copper be guaranteed?”

"Japanese copper..."

"To be honest, the output of Japanese copper is really not enough. Not only bullets, but also the current industrial demand, Japanese copper is stretched. New sources must be developed as soon as possible."

"It seems like it's not easy."

"In fact, everyone knows that there are benefits to this matter, but it is very difficult to do it." Zhan Wuya smiled, "The artillerymen of the Army are shouting every day to throw the Napoleon cannon into the garbage heap of history, but now they still have to rely on those." Iron pipes' to maintain firepower. Who doesn't like good things, but they are expensive! From 32 to now, the ones equipped for the navy are almost scrapped, and they are still not in mass production. Is it because the army doesn't want to ?"

Of course, it's not that the Army doesn't want to do it, but that the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Agency don't think it's necessary. Wu De understood what he meant. In terms of artillery equipment, the navy's artillery technology has always been more advanced than that of the army. It's just that it is technically inferior to others. However, the navy needs to equip its ships and fortresses with a lot of artillery. It occupied a large amount of funds and industrial resources, causing the Army to complain.

"We won't mention this matter. If the Type 37 rifle is to be mass-produced, do you think it is feasible?"

"Of course it's feasible." Zhan Wuya nodded, "As I said, as long as you can guarantee your investment, I can do it here."

So the consultation paper returned to the table of the General Staff. The rifle was of little use to the navy, so it didn't care about taking the lead in this matter. Then the attitude of the largest potential user determined the future of the weapon. Although the opinion of the General Staff is not to change the uniforms, the veteran officers have their own ideas, and there are supporters of "changing the uniforms" and "not changing the uniforms". In the conference room of the General Staff, a heated debate broke out among the veteran officers of the Army. The debate lasted for two or three days. Both sides displayed sand tables, maps and videos taken on the front line and made repeated arguments. For this reason, Shi Zhiqi, commander of the navy team who was among the first batch of Type 37 rifles issued for trial use, was called in for "demonstration."

Mr. Shi was a loyal fan of the 1637 rifle and recorded every battle case during the "trial". The conclusion is that the biggest shortcoming of this gun is that it was not equipped with troops earlier.

Of course, during this period, the issue of whether the infantry needed to be equipped with breastplates came up again, and another off-topic debate with the characteristics of the Senate broke out.

After traveling around the Senate, the consultation paper finally came to fruition, and the final conclusion was that the Senate was in harmony. Secretary of State Ma made a concluding speech at the State Council meeting. It is believed that the Type 1637 rifle "is advanced, progressive, and represents a new military trend." However, "large-scale mass production of this gun will take time." Now that the gun has been finalized, it is completely necessary to put it into mass production for replacement. of.

Therefore, the meeting decided to build a new rifle factory in Danzhou Industrial Park. As for the ammunition factory, it will not be launched for the time being. Instead, it will be shared with the Mini bullet production plant and gradually transition to the production of custom-loaded ammunition.

Of course, it will take time for the new rifle factory to build production capacity. In order to familiarize the troops as soon as possible, the 1637 rifles will be equipped with the troops in batches in the form of "small quantities and multiple batches".

The first batch of equipment units is the Lingao Guard Battalion commanded by the General Administration of Guards of the Senate. The special reconnaissance team of the General Reconnaissance Bureau will also purchase a small amount; the Marine Corps currently has about one platoon of "trial products", and it was decided at the meeting that the gun will be fully Equip the 1st Marine Expeditionary Team. Replaces the original Hall rifle.

In the army, the initial equipment targets are mountain companies and light infantry companies. Gradually it was extended to battle infantry. At the same time, 1637 will also produce short-barreled models to equip artillery, cavalry and navy.

This bill is finally settled. For the opposition, the gradual change of equipment will naturally not impact the existing system of the army; for those in favor, this is regarded as legal approval of the change of rifles. And after the ordering unit is determined, the order for the rifle is also guaranteed - even if it is an arsenal, it still has to calculate costs and profits.

Now, the establishment of Factory No. 37 has naturally come to Dongmen Chuiyu. Although this is a matter for the industrial department, it is an arsenal after all, and many things must be approved by him.

Judging from the content of the original article, several veterans involved in the design of the 1637 rifle have arrived in Danzhou, ready to roll up their sleeves and have a big fight - after all, this is their biological son, and they must fully prove his "excellence".

As we all know, whether a weapon is easy to use or not, design performance is only one aspect, and organization of production is the highlight. In this world, there are countless weapons with beautiful design indicators that have become useless due to lack of production. There are especially many lessons learned in this area with small arms.

The rifles currently issued to the Navy and the General Guard Administration for trial use are all carefully manufactured and processed by senior mechanical experts with technical backbones, and the materials are also carefully selected. Naturally, it performs well, but when it comes to mass production and the use of low-level express workers, quality decline is inevitable.

"This Li Yilao has never designed 1637, why is he going to join in the fun?" After another look, I found that the Joint Logistics Factory 37 was planning to use the "Repair Department of the General Reconnaissance Bureau" as its foundation.

The so-called "Reconnaissance Bureau Armory" is actually a small gun-making workshop. Specially designed for Li Yilao to rub various "modern" light weapons to satisfy some elders' obsession with certain light weapons. For example, many senators have a Tokarev TT33, and the Senate version of "Hualong Made" such as Browning and Ruger came from this repair shop.

"So that's it!" Dongmen Chuiyu thought, no wonder they wanted to recruit Li Yilao to join them.

One of the reasons is naturally because he has good skills and is a very good fitter. He is also familiar with the structure of various light weapons and has rich experience. The second is that this repair shop has received various firearms and equipment shipped from the North American branch in the past. Although in the old time and space, these equipment could only be regarded as things for fun, but in this time and space, they are highly sophisticated, and the equipment manufactured in this time and space equipped by this repair machine is also the latest and best. Moreover, this repair shop has been doing weapons maintenance, repair and refurbishment work for the special reconnaissance team for a long time, and has trained dozens of skilled workers with rich experience in modern weapons maintenance, which is a rare asset for a new factory.

"Smart enough!" He smiled unconsciously, thinking that since he had this intention, let's see what miracles they can do. Anyway, now it’s Wu De’s headache.

Dongmen Chuiyu thought for a moment and wrote at the end of the letter: "The General Staff has no other opinions on the land, equipment and personnel deployment required for Lianqin 37 Factory. Everything is subject to the Planning Institute's plan."