Steel Soviet Union

Rubber is as important to war as the blood in the human body.

Without it, you can't even fight a decent thermal weapons war, and all kinds of heavy equipment will be difficult to move and turn into a pile of scrap metal.

Rubber is so important, but in a sense, this military necessity, which is a creation of nature, is the tragedy of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union, which is located at high latitudes, does not have a large rubber planting area. Natural rubber has not been associated with the Soviet Union since God drew lots to allocate land.

In addition, in the early days of its establishment, the Soviet Union was blocked by imperialism and European powers, and Europe's sanctions became even more severe after the Soviet-Finnish War. It was difficult for the Soviet Union, which did not produce rubber itself, to purchase it from foreign countries. It was not long before the Soviet Union was reborn. The Soviet Union began to experiment with the refining and synthesis of artificial rubber early on.

The Soviet Union first synthesized artificial rubber in 1931, and large-scale production was scheduled for 1932 the following year. The military rubber that really played an important role in supporting the war was officially developed in 1940, the last year before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Its name is neoprene.

Neoprene has many benefits. It has excellent oxidation resistance, durability, fire resistance, corrosion resistance, and dissolution resistance. The most important thing is that it is not flammable and can extinguish itself after catching fire.

The Soviet military industry, which had acquired the treasure, immediately put neoprene into many uses, such as self-sealing fuel tanks for aircraft, road wheels for tanks, etc.

This time, Comrade Ma also set his sights on synthetic neoprene.

It's just that Comrade Lao Ma sees the advantage of this thing, and it's not that it can be used to strengthen the road wheels to absorb the shock of the tank. The shock-absorbing effect of the rubber supported by the Yankees on the road wheels is much better than this kind of thing.

What Malashenko really likes about neoprene is its excellent fireproof and non-flammable properties. In addition, it is also the property of rubber itself. This can easily make people think of a world-famous future main battle tank: the T72B main battle tank. .

It is quite funny to say that the T72, which is regarded as a vehicle for general troops and whose project weight is far lower than that of the T80 series main battle tanks, has even been "differentially treated" in the application of armor materials.

The ceramic composite armor used on the T80 series has not been approved for use on the T72. The reason is simple: the cost of advanced protective materials is too high, and the design positioning of the T72 itself is not enough to support the use of such luxurious materials.

After the application was rejected, the R\u0026D and design team of the T72 main battle tank had no choice but to do the next best thing and began to look for a cheap common material to strengthen the tank's protection. The final answer they found was fire-resistant rubber.

How to explain to Kogin that rubber can enhance the protective effect of tank armor against chemical energy metal jets is a headache for Malashenko now.

It is definitely not appropriate to use armor configuration directly. I have nothing to prove, and I can't let Kejin conjure up a piece of composite armor mixed with rubber out of thin air. I pointed it out. After thinking carefully for a while, I finally found one that I guess is okay. He spoke slowly.

"First, we hypothesized that a layer of fire-resistant rubber is sandwiched between two steel armor plates, which is a new type of armor."

"Then, we used chemical energy armor-piercing projectiles to try to shoot at this armored target plate. After the metal jet penetrates the first steel armor plate and contacts the rubber sandwich in the middle, what effect do you think it will have at this time? "

Armor-breaking bullets are not actually a new thing. They have appeared for a long time. As the top heavy tank master of the Red Army, Kotin naturally knows the principle of its action and understands what Malashenko means by the metal jet. This is not What an incomprehensible thing.

After tilting his head and thinking for a moment, Ke Jin quickly blurted out his answer.

"The rubber interlayer will not be able to withstand the high temperature of the chemical energy metal jet. Even fire-resistant rubber will melt into fluid and will have no defensive effect."

Pure rubber will definitely not be able to withstand the bombardment of ultra-high temperature metal jets, and this is indeed the case based on inertial thinking.

However, the concept proposed by Malashenko is a sandwich structure composite armor with a layer of rubber sandwiched in the middle and steel plates inside and outside. At this time, you can't just consider the defensive effect of the rubber itself against metal jets. You also have to consider the inside and outside. The existence of two steel plates is also included.

"You are right. This is true when pure rubber faces metal jets, but the assumption we are making now is that there are two pieces of armored steel sandwiching the rubber in the middle, and adhesive is used to bond the layers together. This It’s a stable, fixed state.”

"Compared with armor steel, rubber is soft, impact-resistant, highly elastic, and can disperse the force of metal jets, while armor steel has good toughness, high ductility, and is strong and reliable. What we have to do is to make this The characteristics of two different materials are combined to allow their advantages to coexist and enhance the defensive effect against metal jet armor-piercing projectiles.”

"This three-layer structure of armor plates needs to be arranged at an angle to achieve better results. The metal jet will cause serious damage to the armor itself during the process of penetrating the armor. The armor plates arranged at an angle will be severely deformed and move violently, causing the layers to A relative cutting motion is formed between them, just like the combination of the earth's volcanic eruptions and the planet's rotation will form rolling mountains."

"Well, I know there may be something wrong with my description, but that's what it means. I just want you to understand that this new type of armor arranged at an angle will have a cutting effect on the metal jet, which will seriously affect the remaining armor-breaking ability of the metal jet "

"Our Red Army has good inclined armor designs for both heavy and medium tanks. This armor layout idea is readily available. Especially at large inclination angles, such as 60 degrees, it can achieve very good cutting of metal jet motion. The effect, I call it the inclination effect, it’s my own name.”

At the end of the speech, Malashenko felt a little confused and spread his hands in embarrassment, indicating that he had only so much to say and hoped that Kogin could understand.

Facing Malashenko who had an expression of "I've finished speaking, it's your turn", Kogin, who couldn't see anything special or unusual from his face or expression, first lit a cigarette for himself and puffed out a puff of smoke between his hands. After thinking for a while with a cigarette in his pocket, he slowly and leisurely spoke to Malashenko.

"Will this work? Will it work as well as you say it will?"

Malashenko probably guessed that Kotin might ask this question, but to be honest, without actual testing, Malashenko could only say everything that should be said to Kotin. There is no other way.

"Is this design reasonable? Of course, because it has feasible theoretical support. So is it useful? No one can say until it is tested. You will know if you try it. Any new weapon must be tested before a conclusion can be drawn, and the same goes for armor. "