The year 1984 finally came to an end, and 1985 came.

This year is special, because this year's Spring Festival comes very late, generally in January for the Spring Festival, the first half of February is already very late, and this year, February 20th, is the time when the Spring Festival arrives.

In the production workshop of a machine factory, it has always been in full swing, for everyone, it doesn't matter whether the Spring Festival is or not, a large number of orders are pressed in hand, and they must be produced as soon as possible in order to be converted into real income.

And the special R&D workshop is also updating its own tanks day and night.

"On the basis of the Storm Tank, we have experimented with a lot of new technologies." Qin Zhenhua's side, Li Changjiang said: "Now, in order to further develop, we have expanded the seat of this chassis. ”

This is a new prototype car in production, and now, the body of the chassis has been welded, and those who are familiar with it can see its characteristics at a glance.

The seat of its turret is much larger!

The turret and the chassis of the tank are the two major parts of the tank, dig a hole in the tank hull and plug the turret into it, and this hole is the seat of the turret.

There is a circle of gears on it, and the rotation of the turret is also driven by this gear.

The diameter of the turret seat was 1840 mm, but now it has been increased to 2100 mm.

"Yes, we have to increase the seat, otherwise, the automatic loader will not be easy to install in the future." Qin Zhenhua said.

The tank design institute has a very strong technical foundation, and they can be regarded as designing from scratch, drawing on paper one by one, which belongs to the orthodox tank design scheme.

And what about your own side?

Although we also have technical personnel, there are still too few people with professional backgrounds, so it is impossible to completely go through the process of research and development.

What we are walking is the road of gradual improvement, just like a folk workshop modified car, relying on technology and experience, little by little.

Now, one of the major improvements you've made to the Storm Tank is to increase the turret bezel!

"Yes, I heard from the Second Machine Factory that the 125 mm tank gun should come out with a sample gun in the near future, and our sample car, first install a 105 mm tank gun, and wait until the 125 mm tank gun comes out, and then replace it with a 125 mm tank gun at any time."

Change the gun!

Caliber is everything, and under the same technical conditions, the larger the caliber, the greater the natural power.

The pressure on the second machine factory is also very great, and it is impossible for them to meet the requirements of the third generation of tanks at once for the tank guns they produced in the early stage, which is also a process of continuous improvement, but the initial production is definitely better than the original Soviet one, because their own electroslag remelting steel and self-tightening processes such as body tube self-tightening have matured.

Foreign trade can't wait, this foreign trade tank, install a 125 mm tank gun as soon as possible! In this way, you can make up your mind as soon as possible.

If you want to enter the international market, you have to have your own characteristics, the eastern powers have always pursued firepower as the king, if the firepower can not reach the strongest, then what else to promote?

This is a new tank prototype, after the Storm 2 tank, a new prototype, where is the new one?

It's its firepower!

It was prepared for the installation of a 125-mm tank gun, and an important problem with this tank gun was that it took up more space!

The 105 mm tank gun, which can be installed on the 59 tank, is enough to show that the structure of this tank gun is compact, and on its own six pairs of load-bearing wheels, this tank gun makes the internal space of the turret very spacious, even a fat man can get into it.

However, 125 mm tank guns, then it will not work.

The volume of this tank gun is very large, and the volume of the shells is also large, and if a turntable automatic loader is installed, the original turret seat diameter is no longer enough.

Now, when it is expanded to more than two meters, the space is much richer, the interior space is spacious, and the arrangement of various devices is more convenient.

"However, the imitation of the automatic loader is not smooth, not only requires high processing accuracy, but also requires sufficient reliability, according to our estimates, it will take at least a year or two to manufacture, and even if it is manufactured, the initial reliability will not be very high." Liu Changjiang continued.

At present, there are not many tanks that use automatic loaders, mainly Soviet series tanks, the original T-64 tank, when the automatic loader was first used, there were a lot of reliability problems, and even the tankmen had to abandon this equipment and use backward manual loading.

Now, if the domestic automatic loader wants to imitate the mature T-72, I am afraid that there will be such a problem in the early stage.

Qin Zhenhua nodded: "Yes, so, on our sample car, we can temporarily use manual loading, wait until the next one, and then consider the automatic loader." ”

The reliability is not high enough, if you take it out directly to the customer, it is estimated that it will leave a bad impression on the customer, although the relationship with Lao Ba is good, but Lao Ba's technical requirements are also quite high.

A tank should not only be high in all aspects of performance, but also mature and reliable enough, and an immature tank is not liked by users.

The big guys also have a deep understanding of these, but the solution is not difficult, before the automatic loader is mature, replace it with a manual one.

Liu Changjiang nodded: "Yes, we can only do this at present, in this way, the initial rate of fire must be miserable." ”

The 125 mm shells were divided into two loads, and the automatic loader was able to say that if it was reloaded manually, it would definitely bring about a rapid regression in the rate of fire.

"Anyway, it's temporary, let's verify that our firepower and fire control system are okay first." Qin Zhenhua said.

"By the way, our tank has not been named yet, should it be called the Storm-3 tank?" Zhang Xiangqian asked there.

Qin Zhenhua shook his head: "I feel that the naming is not very good, let's call it the Type 85 tank." ”

Type 85 tank? Hearing Qin Zhenhua's words, all of a sudden, everyone present was stunned: "This, not very good?" This number should be the number given to us by the army, but our tank is planned to be used for foreign trade! ”

"That's why it's all the more necessary." Qin Zhenhua said: "Let's call it the Type 85 tank!" This year is 1985, and our new tank is named after the year name! ”