Steel Soviet Union

It is quite interesting to say that although the plan of converting the T43 into a combat vehicle was first proposed by Morozov, later on, it was to use Malashenko as the relay bridge, linking Kotin and Morozov. After the husband and wife, who were originally rivals, were brought together, the project later became a cooperative project between the First Special Design Bureau and the Second Special Design Bureau.

Because the plan was first proposed by Morozov and started to be trial-produced, and the production line of the T43 medium tank is not located in Kotin's first bureau, but in Morozov's second bureau.

In view of this, the main design and construction work of the body and chassis was left to Morozov, while Kotin took over the design, construction and testing of the turret. This can also better help Morozov share the design pressure, allowing him to devote maximum energy to the design and construction of the body and chassis.

In order to facilitate the surveying, mapping and testing work, Morozov also provided Kotin with several trial-produced and pre-produced improved car body chassis, which were used for Kotin to carry turrets of different designs for actual testing.

Therefore, the car body and chassis that Malashenko saw at this moment was actually not designed and built by Kojin's Bureau. Instead, Morozov's second game had been built over there and specially sent over via the main railway line. After all, it would be a bit embarrassing for you to ask Kejing, who has no T43 production line at all, to build this body and chassis.

The body and chassis improvements and the final stage of testing work on Morozov's side were carried out in an orderly and step-by-step manner. The turret design on Kotin's side is not far behind. After testing and screening several different plans, the best winner was finally finalized, which was the thing in front of Malashenko.

One thing to say is that the turret configuration that Kogin tinkered with looks a bit like a scaled-down version of the IS2 heavy tank turret head. When paired with the T43 body and chassis, it always gives people a "head-changing Kailu" ", it feels like it's not in tune.

Strictly speaking, this turret design configuration is not suitable for placing on an infantry fighting vehicle. The bulletproof shape is there but it is too tall, especially not suitable for concealment of an infantry fighting vehicle with relatively poor survivability. And according to Malashenko's understanding, Kotin also equipped the turret with heavy armor. The physical thickness of the front edge of the turret reached an astonishing 80 mm. You must know that this is just an infantry fighting vehicle.

Kogin's design idea is good. After all, the turret has a higher probability of being shot in actual combat. This is an accurate result obtained after summarizing all battle damage reports on the front line, so it should be protected.

But Malashenko knew clearly about infantry fighting vehicles. Except for a few eccentric vehicles that specialize in security warfare, none of the infantry fighting vehicles of the major mainstream military powers in later generations were of heavy armor design. The infantry fighting vehicle itself is not designed to carry heavy armor, but to fight against the enemy's well-equipped heavy firepower positions and tanks. A redundant set of heavy armor will only become a burden to the infantry fighting vehicle.

However, everything has its own characteristics, and we cannot apply rigid principles to everything.

After all, the T43 infantry fighting vehicle is a thing that is directly adapted from the emergency modification of the medium tank chassis. It completely inherits the power system of the original T43 medium tank, except that the rear position is moved forward and the position is moved.

This also means that this magic modified infantry fighting vehicle has exactly the same horsepower output as a medium-sized tank. Even when compared with the infantry fighting vehicles of the Cold War and even the future infantry fighting vehicles of the 21st century, this power output is absolutely equivalent. It is abundant.

So even though Kogin designed a solid head for this thing with a physical thickness of 80 mm of frontal armor, this new turret is actually lighter because of the proportional reduction in size. This also means that after being installed on the vehicle, the combat importance of the entire vehicle is smaller than that of a serious T43 medium tank.

A high-protection infantry fighting vehicle with a higher power-to-weight ratio, better maneuverability, and faster speed than the T43 medium tank. If you think about it according to this description, Malashenko suddenly feels that this is also not bad. At least the small water pipe anti-tank guns of the Germans can't do anything to this thing, and the improvement of protection is not meaningless.

And after all, this is a youth version of the infantry fighting vehicle modified from the wartime emergency magic. Both the design investment and the design time are very limited, but it is already good to make it look like this. This is because the superiors reluctantly acquiesced to the existence of this thing because Malashenko, Kotin, and Morozov were involved in it, and they all invested a lot of energy in it, and believed that it would be successful.

So anyway, it’s good to have the current sample. Some use is better than no use. What kind of bike do you need?

"It's very good. I think that's it. If there are no problems in the actual vehicle test, I think it can be finalized and put into mass production. I guess you haven't started mass production yet, right?"

Malashenko jumped down from the chassis of the car, patted the fly ash on his hands, and asked casually. Unexpectedly, the answer Kogin gave immediately after him was really surprising.

"If you ask me here, of course there is no mass production. After all, I only build heavy tanks here, but that is not necessarily the case at Morozov's place."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Kogin, who was always used to speaking outright in front of Malashenko, rarely acted as a riddle man. A slightly surprised Malashenko subconsciously asked him back. Kogin, who was a little shy, just smiled. After taking it, he spoke quietly.

"In fact, the thing we are seeing now has been tested three times. At present, after the third test is completed, it is driven back to the factory. The turret is lifted up to see if there are any abnormalities in the connecting structure and internal parts. The new model The turret design is reliable. The inspection results are gratifying and there are indeed no problems.”

"So, this also proves that there is no problem with the batch of products pre-produced by Morozov according to the third prototype plan. The total number is 50, Marshal Zhukov personally approved it, and he got the approval of the Supreme Leader Authorization. Of course, it is because these cars are to be provided to you, so he will take care of this matter. Under normal circumstances, Marshal Zhukov will not sign this. "

""

What the hell is this? Are they all finalized and put into production?

Damn it! This is too damn fast, what happened? Comrade Lao Zhu has already stepped in. Could it be that it is really a customized model made by the leader?

Malashenko obviously underestimated the influence of the combined arms report he submitted. Not only Zhukov and Stalin, two known big shots, thought it was feasible and tried, but also Hua Xi, who was always cautious in his words and deeds. Both Levsky and Malashenko's initial supporter, Rokossovsky's "Driver Luo", spoke highly of this report.

Since everyone agrees, it’s okay to put in a little effort to try it out. It’s also okay to trial-produce some new equipment that is needed without affecting the overall production task.

What's more, this is something that the supreme leader personally approved and felt that we could try to do.