It’s quite interesting to talk about. Although the plan of converting the T43 into a combat vehicle was first proposed by Morozov, later on, it was used as a relay bridge to connect Kotin and Morozov with Malashenko as the relay bridge.
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 chassis part of the car body was left to Morozov, while Kotin took over the design, construction and testing of the turret. This can also better help Morozov.
Lozov shared 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 Kotin's first bureau. Instead, it was already designed and built by Morozov's second bureau.
It was built and specially delivered via the main railway line. After all, it would be a bit embarrassing for you to ask Kejing, which does not have a T43 production line, to build this car body and chassis.
The body and chassis improvements and the final stage of testing on Morozov's side were carried out in an orderly and step-by-step manner. The turret design on Kotin's side was not far behind, and several different plans were tested and screened before being finalized.
The best winner is this 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 Marashen
Ke understood that Cogin 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 clearly knows that infantry fighting vehicles are something. Except for a few eccentric ones that specialize in security warfare, none of the infantry fighting vehicles of the major mainstream military powers in later generations is of heavy armor design. Infantry warfare
The combat purpose of the vehicle itself is not 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 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 sufficient.
So even though Kogin designed a solid head for this thing with a frontal armor thickness of 80 mm, the new turret is actually lighter because of the proportional reduction in size. This means
This means that after being installed on the vehicle, the overall combat importance of the vehicle is smaller than that of a serious T43 medium tank.
A high-protection infantry fighting vehicle with a higher power-to-weight ratio than the T43 medium tank, better maneuverability, and faster running speed. If you think about it according to this description, Malashenko suddenly feels that this is too
Not bad. At least the small water pipe anti-tank guns of the Germans can't deal with this thing. The improvement of protection is not meaningless.
And after all, this is a youth version of the infantry fighting vehicle modified for wartime emergency use. 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 think this thing is a horse-drawn horse
Schenko, Kotin, and Morozov were involved in it. They all invested a lot of energy and only reluctantly acquiesced to its existence when they believed it would succeed.
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 good. I think that's it. If there are no more 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 became a riddle man. A slightly surprised Malashenko subconsciously asked him back, but Kogin, who was a little shy, just smiled.
After taking it away, 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
Is the design of the turret reliable? From the inspection results, it is gratifying that there is indeed no problem."
"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 vehicles, Marshal Zhukov personally approved it, and he got the approval of the Supreme Leader
Authorization. Of course, it is also 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 thing all about? Has it been finalized and put into production?
Damn it! This is too fast, what happened? Comrade Lao Zhu has stepped in, is it really a custom-made model by the leader?
Malashenko obviously underestimated the influence of the combined arms report he submitted. Not only Zhukov and Stalin, the two known bosses, 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 Rokossov”, spoke highly of the report.
Since everyone agrees, it is not impossible to invest a little effort and try to do it. It is not impossible 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.