The adjustment from the second howitzer company to the missile company was like a dream for Yang Wenbin. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

He has an inexplicable fear of missiles.

And his fear comes from the legend of the Ben Thanh Army Academy.

During the training camp at the Army Academy in Ben Cheng, a tragedy that made people sigh was spread by word of mouth among the students:

Two months before this group of local college students went there for training, the most tragic tragedy occurred at the Army Academy in Bincheng.

Four undergraduate students were seriously injured in the graduation debriefing exercise, three were killed, and one was disabled.

And if it weren't for this tragedy, they would have graduated smoothly and been assigned to the grassroots company between the white mountains and black waters, and went to serve as platoon commanders.

Yang Wenbin learned about this incident during a casual conversation with Pan Liquan and the district captain, and this incident gave him a strong shock at that time.

And the origin of the matter has to start with the graduation exercise of the Bincheng Army Academy.

In that year, several hundred cadets of the Bincheng Army Academy were about to graduate, and in order to let the cadets experience an exercise close to actual combat before graduation, the academy came forward and organized graduates of the Army Missile Academy, the Aviation Academy, and the Artillery Academy to conduct a joint military exercise together to test the results of the training.

The exercise was conceived as an offensive battle on the scale of a composite regiment against an infantry company of enemy aircraft.

Before the offensive, the artillery prepared for heavy artillery fire on the enemy positions, destroying most of the enemy's fortifications.

The engineer detachment cleared the snake-bellied barbed wire, triangular pyramid and other obstacles in front of the enemy position, and the infantry detachment was ready to attack.

At this time, one of the enemy's firing points suddenly revived, and the Red Command ordered the attacker to flexibly use the Red Arrow 73 anti-tank missiles to destroy the enemy's resurrected fortifications.

Cadets of the Army Missile Academy, in accordance with the offensive order, fired the first anti-tank missile at the enemy's point of fire at a basic launch position 1,000 meters away.

With a "whoosh", the missile flew towards the enemy target, but, after flying about 500 meters, it lost control and fell into the grass in front of the position.

The commander was in a hurry, and fired a second one, "whoosh", and the missile left the launcher and flew out, but after continuing to fly for about 500 meters, it still lost control and fell into the grass in front of the land.

How can you lose face in front of fraternal troops?

The commanders of the missile academy know that the trainees are the best after training, and it is impossible for them to make mistakes in a row, but only because of the quality of the missiles.

"Launch!" He gave a third order.

"Whoosh", the third missile flew out, continued to fly for 1000 meters, hit the target, cleared the obstacles in the way of advance.

It was time for the infantry to attack, however, the infantry did not launch a full-line assault as planned.

At this time, the commander's radio sounded urgently, and the forward command post reported that something was wrong! Four infantry cadets lurking in front of the position to launch an assault were seriously wounded and needed immediate medical attention.

The exercises were forced to stop.

It turned out that the culprit was the dropped missile.

The two missiles that fell in the grass happened to fall in the lurking area of an infantry squad, and although they did not explode, the inertial momentum of the Red Arrow 73 missiles still seriously injured the four trainees lurking there.

The ambulance of the accompanying hospital roared, rushed to the injured area, pulled up the wounded and galloped away.

However, young lives did not have the opportunity to see the blue sky, the white clouds and the Army Academy where they lived for four years.

The accident still led to the tragedy of three deaths and one injury.

Later, the accident investigation team determined that there was no problem with the launch of the missile that caused the accident, and the trainees were not responsible.

The problem, however, lies in the missiles themselves.

It turns out that because the production level of semiconductor components in China is still very low, the quality of the components is unreliable, and their stability, reliability, and environmental adaptability do not meet the technical requirements of missiles.

After expert research and analysis, the main technical reasons for the failure of the dropped bomb are the eccentricity of the thrust of the rocket engine and the eccentricity of the mass of the missile.

The rocket engine of the Red Arrow-73 adopts four symmetrically arranged backflow nozzles, and if the position deviation exceeds the specified allowable value during processing and assembly, the thrust eccentricity of the missile will be generated, resulting in excessive initial disturbance when the missile takes off, and even the phenomenon of loss of control or even dropping.

This accident left a shadow on the young Yang Wenbin's psychology!

Now, when you get to the missile battery, you have to come into contact with missiles all day long, will the quality of these missiles be passed, and there will be no accidents again, right? It's so worrying.

Good missiles, they don't always trick or treat, do they?

On the first day of moving to the missile company, after meeting the company commander, Yang Wenbin raised his questions to the company commander Ji Yurui.

Ji Yurui is 1.79 meters tall, with a long face, and his face is always red. He is a top graduate of the Army Missile Academy.

Hearing Yang Wenbin ask about the reliability of the missile, Ji Yurui smiled.

He said that the unstable performance of the Red Arrow 73 anti-tank missile has long been an open secret in the eyes of cadres specializing in missiles. However, it was the first time he had heard of a missile falling to the ground and injuring people.

He told Yang Wenbin:

"In the early seventies, China acquired Soviet-made Sagar missiles. This is a wire-guided anti-tank tactical missile, and its armor-piercing power is more advanced than that of the first generation of anti-tank missiles. China has decided to concentrate its defense industry on its elite troops and to copy the "Sagar" missile.

After nearly six years of trial production and tackling key problems, the "Red Arrow-73" anti-tank missile was finally finalized and equipped with troops in batches in the late 70s, filling the gap in China's antitank missile equipment.

The whole bomb is divided into two parts: the warhead compartment and the carrier compartment, which are separated and packed separately in peacetime, and the two compartments are connected together by a quick hook when used; A tracer tube is installed at the root of the wing in the upper left part of the projectile body for observation and aiming while flying; The warhead adopts a hollow-charge single-cone warhead; The guidance methods are visual aiming, tracking, wire transmission command, and manual control guidance.

The missile has a diameter of 120 mm, a length of 854 mm, a wingspan of 393 mm, and a weight of 11.3 kg. Wire control method, firing range 3 km, armor piercing thickness 400 mm. When the range is 400-600 meters, the hit rate is about 60%, and for 600-3000 meters, the hit rate can reach more than 90%.

Attacks tanks, armored targets, or bunkers at distances from 500 to 3000 meters.

The Red Arrow 73 is available in three models: basic, B, and C.

Red Arrow-73B anti-tank missile

China's first-generation improved anti-tank missile is suitable for man-man-borne, ground-launched or vehicle-mounted launch. It is mainly used to attack tanks and armored vehicles, and can also be used to destroy fire points and improvise field operations.

The diameter of the bullet is 120 mm, the weight of the bullet is 11.7 kg, the range is 3000 meters, and it can break through steel armor by 180 mm. Optical sight tracking, wire transmission command, infrared semi-automatic guidance mode is adopted. The improved system retains the manual operation function. The whole weapon system consists of missiles, launchers, and ground control equipment.

The biggest advantage of this bomb is that it can not only use infrared semi-automatic guidance, but also retain the manual control and guidance ability of the original Red Arrow-73, the armor-piercing power of the warhead has been greatly improved, the static armor-piercing power has been increased from 500 mm to more than 850 mm, the dynamic armor-piercing power has been increased from 150 mm/65 degrees to 180 mm/65 degrees, and it has the ability to penetrate the front main armor of the T-72 tank, and the hit rate can reach 90 percent.

The technical improvement of the Type B anti-tank missile was mainly aimed at the reactive armor of enemy tanks. It uses a tandem warhead, and the first stage charge is used to detonate the reactive armor draped on enemy tanks; The main charge of the second stage directly destroys the main armor layer of enemy tanks. The dynamic armor-piercing power of the B missile has been increased to 180 mm/65 degrees, and the original manual operation function is retained, and it can still be operated and used like the first-generation missile when needed.

The Red Arrow 73C anti-tank missile adopts optical aiming, infrared tracking, and semi-automatic control guidance, and the power supply uses a 30-volt nickel-cadmium battery, which can continuously launch more than 30 missiles on a single charge.

The missile can effectively attack various armored targets such as tanks at a distance of 400-3000 meters in an environment with natural light and infrared light interference, and can also be used to destroy fire points and various light field fortifications.

The technical improvement of the Red Arrow-73C is manifested in four aspects:

First, compared with the B missile, the power of its main warhead (the second stage of the main charge) has been greatly improved, and by optimizing the shape of the metal shaped cover, the structure of the charge and adjusting the high bombing measures, its power is close to the armor-piercing level of foreign heavy anti-tank missiles, so as to counter the world's third-generation new main battle tank.

The second is to improve the rocket engine and use a rocket propellant with a higher specific impulse. Although the improved missile is more than 1 kg heavier than the prototype, it flies at a speed that is 15% higher than the original model.

Third, an infrared thermal imager has been added, which has greatly improved the night combat capability of this missile type.

Fourth, a follow-up launcher has been developed, which can realize the linkage between the missile and the sight, thereby increasing the speed of the launch operation.

The C-type is arguably the most successful model in the entire Red Arrow-73 series. Although it still uses a mount launch, it surpasses the second-generation anti-tank missiles of most countries in some key performance indicators.

Anti-tank missiles still have many deficiencies: their full combat weight is still on the high side, which is not conducive to our individual combat carrying and use. A standardly-equipped Red Arrow 73 anti-tank missile combat unit requires two soldiers to carry support, which is a heavy burden for an infantry squad in battle.

Moreover, all of them are manually semi-automatic control wired guidance, and in the whole process from aiming to launching a missile to hitting the target, the missile shooter must rely on manual control of the missile to hit the target throughout the whole process, and once the enemy discovers the missile launch location, its combat casualty rate is also conceivable. ”

"Our company is equipped with Type C, which is more secure.

Moreover, our missiles, in peacetime, you can't touch them, you can only touch the training simulator, which is absolutely safe. Only when it comes to the drill, can you get in touch. In addition, our shooter training level is very high, and we have been starting hits and hitting shots for three consecutive years.

The price of each missile is more than 30,000 yuan, and it is when we are exercising that we can have the opportunity to hit a few rounds to have a good time!

Don't worry too much! The company commander explained with a smile.