In the foreseeable future, the maximum travel of a ground armored vehicle will be determined first by the vehicle suspension, and secondly by the power system.

The first sentence of the document grabbed Liang Yuan's attention.

However, a good powertrain can increase the battlefield survival rate of armored vehicles.

Looking at the second sentence, a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of Liang Yuan's mouth, although his wife's main business is in the sky, but her understanding of the ground guys is not bad.

As we all know, the performance of ground armored vehicles on the road system has never been the focus of design and optimization, the past world war has shown that a good road system has always been a very luxurious resource on the battlefield, in the case of sufficient power system, the off-road speed of the tank vehicle is the decisive factor that determines the maximum range of the tank.

When the power of the tank engine exceeds 1500 horsepower, the main factor that prevents the tank from increasing its off-road speed is not the lack of power, but the inability of humans to withstand greater bumps in the limited space of the tank.

Excellent suspension can increase the maximum off-road speed of the tank vehicle, and in the case of limited power and fuel, the higher the maximum off-road speed, the higher the maximum travel of the tank.

However, in war, the battlefield advance speed is only effective at the macro level similar to the battle, and the mobility is the real data to improve the survival rate of armored vehicles on the battlefield.

For ground armored vehicles represented by tanks, an excellent suspension system determines the agility of the tank, and a high-power heart is the only magic weapon to improve acceleration.

This is also the most important reason why the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, spent huge sums of money to put gas turbines on tanks.

Of course, in the future, the application of gas turbine units in tanks will be repeated, which is nothing more than the fact that the international military circles have greatly reduced the probability of the outbreak of large-scale armored battles, and the world war cannot be fought. The high fuel consumption and high cost of gas turbine units must be unusually dazzling.

If we ignore the technological progress that has occurred with the passage of time, the idea of global armament development during the Cold War was that performance is king and the purpose is to win the enemy, as long as the probability of defeating the enemy can be improved, the relative increase in cost is not a problem at all, and the global armament after the fall of the Soviet Union is for the purpose of saving money, and the retirement of F14 fighters. The withdrawal of gas turbines from the tank's power system, as well as the F35 fighter project of that pit daddy, are typical cases of this line of thinking.

In Liang Yuan's view, the performance of the M1A1 tank in the Gulf War does not explain any problems, the war is not so much a battle as a march, the advantages of low noise, high torque, and strong explosive power of the gas turbine cannot be shown at all, but the weaknesses are vividly displayed.

If Iraq had been equipped with diesel-powered M1A1 tanks and the two sides had fought several large-scale armored battles, Liang Yuan believed that the reputation of gas turbine units in tank applications would definitely be another kind of limelight.

No one in this world is stupid, after the Gulf War. Even if the gas turbine units were sprayed into slag by many military experts because of the problem of fuel consumption, the economically prosperous republic in the future would still repeat the past of the United States and the Soviet Union and try to put the gas turbines on tanks.

For the republic at that time, the first choice was to increase the combat strength of the army and maximize the chances of recovering Taiwan.

After flipping through the first page of the outline document, a table marked (*non-public information for reference only*) full of various data came into Liang Yuan's eyes.

Soviet T-80B tank (42.5 tons): The power core uses an SG-1000 gas turbine with a rated engine power of about 746 kilowatts (1,000 hp) and a maximum internal fuel load of 1,100 liters. The maximum road range is 335 km, and the fuel consumption is about 328 l/100 km.

American M1A1 tank (57 tons): The power core uses an AGT-1500 gas turbine. The engine has a rated power of about 1,103 kW (1,500 hp), a maximum internal fuel load of 1,900 liters, a maximum road range of 463 km, and a fuel consumption of about 410 liters/100 km.

Federal German Leopard 2A4 tank (55 tons): The power core adopts MB873Ka-501 4-stroke 12-cylinder V-shaped water-cooled pre-chamber supercharged intercooled diesel engine, the engine has a rated power of about 1100 kW (1500 hp), and the maximum internal fuel load is 1200 liters. The maximum road range is 550 km, and the fuel consumption is 219 l/100 km.

French Leclerc main battle tank (53 tons): the power core uses a V8X1500 ultra-high supercharged diesel engine, the engine has a rated power of about 1103kW (1500 horsepower), a maximum internal fuel load of 1300 liters, and a maximum road range of about 550 kilometers. Fuel consumption is 236 l / 100 km.

Japanese Type 90 main battle tank (50 tons): The power core adopts the Mitsubishi two-stroke water-cooled V-shaped turbocharged diesel engine, the engine has a rated power of about 1103 kilowatts (1500 horsepower), a maximum internal fuel load of 1200 liters, a maximum road range of 350 kilometers, and a fuel consumption of 342 liters / 100 kilometers.

China's Type 59-2 medium tank (36 tons): the power core B2 series V-type 12-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine, the engine rated power is about 382 kilowatts (520 horsepower), the maximum fuel load is 812 liters + 200 liters, the maximum road range is about 500 kilometers, and the fuel consumption is 202 liters / 100 kilometers.

Swedish Stridsvagn103C tank (42 tons): power core 6V53T inline 6-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine + Caterpillar 533 gas turbine combined drive, the engine rated power is about 216 kilowatts + 365 kilowatts (780 horsepower), the maximum internal fuel load is 960 liters, the maximum road range is about 390 kilometers, and the fuel consumption is 246 liters / 100 kilometers.

From the performance data of the main battle tanks of various countries, the following conclusions can be roughly drawn:

If you exclude the incomprehensible Japanese Type 90 tank, the fuel consumption of tanks using gas turbine units as the power system is significantly higher than that of diesel units.

However, it is worth noting that the Swedish tank has a different path, the fuel consumption of the Swedish Stridsvagn 103C tank with diesel-fuel combined drive is only slightly higher than that of the diesel unit, and what is more prominent is that although the Swedish 103C tank ranks in the middle of the ton power, the tank's mobility is very good, and the acceleration time from 0 to 32 kilometers is only 6 seconds, second only to the French Leclerc tank ......with 1500 horsepower.

This analysis is full of more than 10 pages, and uses a lot of data to compare the advantages and disadvantages of gas turbine turbine units, diesel units, and diesel-fired combined units.

Then it was concluded that the diesel-fuel combined drive power core is an excellent choice for ground armored vehicles.

Liang Yuan looked back at the data after reading this paragraph, and found that except for Lao Maozi's T80 tank, the data of other tanks was basically similar to the information that was slowly revealed in the future, but Lao Maozi had a long tradition of falsifying weapon parameters, such as the aero engine thrust ratio of the cheating father.

In the future, even Liang Yuan, who does not care much about army equipment, knows that in the propaganda brochures distributed in Ukraine, the real fuel consumption of T80U tanks with GTD1250 gas turbine units on the road is more than 430 liters per 100 kilometers.

After this summary of the current situation of the tank's power system, several three-view and internal structural sketches of the tank appeared in front of Liang Yuan's eyes.

"The WZ1224 tank experimental vehicle is equipped with a digital calculation simulation of the combined drive system of the jewel turboshaft engine and the B2 series V-type 12-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine. ”

Looking at the tank with six pairs of load-bearing wheels and the short text below the three-view view, Liang Yuan suddenly realized that it seemed that the six-wheeled heresy outside the gas turbine workshop should be the WZ1224 tank experimental vehicle mentioned in the document, and the remaining "five-wheel orthodoxy" should be a test platform for B2 series diesel engines.

As a veteran naval fan of the Republic, Liang Yuan naturally did not know the unique position of the WZ1224 tank test vehicle in the history of armored vehicles of the Republic.

The WZ1224 experimental tank established in 1978 is the third-generation main battle tank that the Republic skipped the second generation of tanks and directly pre-developed, at that time many Western-style tank design ideas were used, the turret was selected from the fashionable wedge-shaped welded turret and replaceable composite armor to greatly enhance the frontal defense, and the gun was selected to be a large-caliber 120 smoothbore tank gun.

The power system adopts a 1000-horsepower longitudinal engine that can be hoisted as a whole, and the transmission part adopts a fixed-shaft hydromechanical gearbox, a two-stage planetary steering mechanism, and hydraulic power assisted control. The chassis part is made of six pairs of small-diameter steel load wheels, with high-strength torsion bar suspension, friction shock absorbers, double-pin ear hangers and tank track shoes that can be replaced with floor rubber blocks.

The fire control system of the WZ1224 test vehicle is also very advanced, with the digital fire control computer as the center and the data bus as the backbone of the integrated fire control system, with infrared night combat capabilities, the vehicle has three prevention, automatic fire extinguishing and explosion suppression functions, there are thermal smoke screens and projectile smoke screen active defense system devices, and the vehicle has the function of diving.

Of course, due to the weak industrial base of the republic, the WZ1224 experimental tank also has many unsatisfactory points, such as the power core of the loading at that time was 8V331 civilian diesel engine, although it can temporarily meet the demand, but the volume and weight are too large and bloated.

The chassis suspension reliability of the body is good, but the shock absorption performance is far inferior to the liquid suspension, and the future development potential is almost non-existent.

If we add in the lack of the top hunter-destroyer fire control system of the international tank armored vehicles in the 90s, the WZ1224 experimental tank is basically the Chinese simplified version of the German Leopard 2A1 tank. (To be continued......)