Take the nine 203mm main guns on the "Nanchang-class heavy cruiser" as an example. The original one was an improved version of the German skc/34 naval gun. Because Hu Weidong strongly recommended the use of a fully automatic loader, this gun made this historical record during World War II.
203 with the strongest overall performance
mm naval gun's firing rate has been greatly increased, reaching the same maximum firing rate of 6 rounds per minute as the American 203mm naval gun. However, while the firing rate is greatly accelerated, due to the new barrel steel provided by China, the barrel of this naval gun
The average life span has hardly decreased at all.
The improved skc/34 naval gun has opened a long gap with other artillery of the same caliber in the world at this time, but the Germans did not expect that Hu Weidong had not yet come up with all the practical information. He just used barrel steel.
It is said that the formula and process provided by Hu Weidong are used to manufacture army artillery, and the firing rate of army artillery is much lower than that of naval guns of the same caliber, so the performance is naturally much lower.
In addition, although German artillery experts are already world-class, they are still accustomed to designing artillery first and then looking for suitable materials for the artillery. Therefore, after they obtained new materials, they simply replaced them. Apart from extending the life of the barrel, they did not gain anything.
Improvements in other performance. As one of the world's top artillery and ammunition experts in the 21st century, Hu Weidong is able to
Therefore, after the two heavy cruisers were confirmed to be owned by the Chinese Navy, the performance of Hu Weidong's redesigned 203mm naval gun was much better than that of the German cannon. Under the premise of not being inferior to the accuracy,
This 203mm naval gun not only has a maximum rate of fire of an astonishing 10 rounds per minute, but also has a barrel life of more than 800 rounds.
However, as the materials used become better, the cost has increased accordingly. In particular, the amount of various alloy components such as rare earths, tungsten, and molybdenum is several times higher than the materials provided to Germany. However, China's resource reserves are far greater than those of Germany.
much richer, especially
Chinese specialties such as rare earths, coupled with 203mm naval guns, are already the largest caliber artillery of the Chinese Navy. Moreover, the Nanchang-class heavy cruiser will not be equipped with too much equipment based on China's national strength, so it is completely affordable. In fact, for China,
a resource
For a country with abundant resources but low industrialization, production hours and product quality are the key to determining production costs. Because Hu Weidong has always paid close attention to quality management and simplified artillery design as much as possible, both of these aspects are enough to make many people wonder.
.So overall, although the 203mm naval gun designed by Hu Weidong is not cheap, it is not outrageously expensive either. The production cost is only 50% higher than the original German naval gun, considering the substantial improvement in performance.
The price/performance ratio is actually not bad.
Coupled with the various new types of ammunition specially developed for it by Hu Weidong (Note 1), its power in actual combat is far from comparable to any artillery of the same caliber in the world, and the use of new propellants has improved the performance of the artillery.
Bore pressure and shell muzzle velocity, its maximum range is more than 50 kilometers. Although due to the hit rate, it is almost impossible to hit enemy ships beyond 30 kilometers, but artillery with a long range is also very powerful (the shells and propellants are the same
Under the premise) Ah!
In addition to the 203mm main gun on the Nanchang-class heavy cruiser, Hu Weidong also designed a large number of new artillery, including anti-aircraft guns of various calibers, tank guns, aircraft guns, etc., thus greatly improving the overall strength of the people's army. But even Hu Weidong himself
I have to admit that if it weren’t for the military precision machine tools, 10,000-ton hydraulic presses and other strategic processing equipment provided by the Germans,
No matter how capable he is, it is impossible for China to develop these artillery pieces and start mass production so quickly. And if there are no artillery pieces with excellent quality, many advanced special ammunition will also be unusable, so even
Hu Weidong, who had always been a fan of the Soviet Union back then, also developed a certain fondness for Germany, even though he knew that the two countries were actually just using each other.
There is another key technology that must be mentioned, and that is armor double-sided hardening technology. This technology can greatly enhance the armor's anti-penetration ability, up to 50%. Although the armor thickness exceeds a certain limit, the improvement will become increasingly large.
The smaller it is, but for a heavy cruiser whose armor is not very thick, it can still achieve a considerable improvement. Taking into account the huge performance advantages of the new armor steel itself, the defensive capability of a double-sided hardened 80mm armor plate can almost
Compared with the 300 mm thick armor of Japanese battleships, this is really terrible.
Historically, this armor technology was originally invented by the Americans. Although China started researching it very early, because some key points in the process were not clear and the industrial base was too weak, the cost could never be reduced.
Therefore, it is natural that it cannot be applied on a large scale. It was not until the 21st century that Chinese armor experts finally made progress in this area.
A major breakthrough has been made. Once the key is understood, the problem becomes extremely simple, and the cost of double-sided hardened armor has therefore been reduced to a level not much higher than that of homogeneous armor (this aspect is better than the United States, but the performance
I don’t know if there is any difference.), so that it has been widely used in the cheapest wheeled armored vehicles.
Hu Weidong naturally knew the secret of this technology, but his previous research work had been very unsatisfactory. It was not until he received technical equipment support from Germany that many of the original problems were immediately solved, and this technology was finally successfully cracked. This forced Hu Weidong to once again
Lament the importance of the industrial base.
After the successful development of this technology, the biggest benefit has been to Chinese tanks, especially light tanks. Since the double-sided hardened armor is particularly effective on thin armor, it can increase its resistance to armor-piercing bullets by 50%, while its resistance to armor-piercing bullets can be increased by 50%.
The improvement in the ability of armor-piercing projectiles is even greater (because double-sided hardened armor is, to put it bluntly, an extremely simplified version of composite armor), so much so that the latest model of the Type 81 light tank (Note 2), without increasing its weight, actually
It has amazing armor protection that exceeds the T34 medium tank
Note 1: Ammunition was highly valued by Hu Weidong, but the German side did not fully realize its value. Therefore, except for the paid transfer of the concave and jujube core full-bore ammunition types that were easily copied, Hu Weidong only helped Germany
People have improved the alloy material formula and heat treatment process used in armor-piercing warheads.
Note 2: This is also the first officially mass-produced Type 81 light tank. Compared with the early experimental model, it uses the latest rare earth armor steel and double-sided hardened armor technology, and the main gun is replaced by a 57mm anti-aircraft gun.
tank gun, and the engine performance has also been significantly improved. Both the maximum speed and the maximum stroke have been improved to a certain extent. (To be continued.)