When Cheney and Alger expressed concern about the shortcomings of the Maxim anti-aircraft machine gun, the dignitaries in the room also turned their heads to look at Maxim. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info was still a little proud just now, and the red-faced Makqin's face darkened a little.

When he was told to modify a firearm that shot into the sky as quickly as possible, Makqin and his colleagues worked all night to draw and design, then find equipment accessories that could be called, and dismantle the welding connection frame to assemble.

So far, Makqin and the others have not slept for two hours, and their tired faces and eyes are red, but the joy of success still makes Makqin feel refreshed.

Of course, Makqin only knows how bulky and ugly this sample assembled after staying up all night is. The high-ranking officials who looked over compared the information from time to time, and looked at themselves with suspicious eyes, which made Makqin's face hot and painful.

"Rest assured, gentlemen, I promise that if we are given enough time, we will be able to reduce it by more than half, and I guarantee that it will not compromise performance."

Being suspected by so many people, how could Makqin not care, and these people are not ordinary citizens, these are the top part of the country, in order to prove themselves, he immediately stood up and assured.

Since Makqin has promised this, everyone has no doubt that at least the ugly sample has achieved its effect, and the difficulty of the remaining improvements has been reduced to a very low level.

Ten thousand steps back, if further improvement fails, use this ugly guy to also be able to fight back against the firepower in the air of the Pingshan Army, and it will not suffer so many losses and lose face in the Qing Kingdom as this time.

That reparations were a small matter for the United States, which at this time had already caught up with Britain in GDP and was overtaking it. Money is a trivial matter, and it is embarrassing to lose the war.

As the Minister of the Army, Alger naturally pays more attention to the Army, and if he wants to be better used by soldiers on the march and in battle, not only in terms of volume, but also in terms of weight.

Hearing Makqin's assurances, Alger still had to ask about the doubts about the weight of the anti-aircraft machine gun. "I want to explain a problem, Mr. Makqin, the logistics problem of our army, I think you should know that if it is too heavy, we will have to spend more resources and manpower on it."

"Your Excellency, Minister..." Makqin straightened up his tired body and grabbed his beard and thought about it. "On the basis of reducing the volume by more than half, it is no problem to reduce the weight by more than half, but the cost is high."

"yes, no matter how high the energy is, how high can it be." Makqin asked rhetorically with some nonchalantism. Will the government run out of money, such an important piece of equipment, still short of this money...?

"If you want to reduce the weight without affecting the anti-aircraft machine gun, I think Your Excellency the Minister should know about the Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy; This is a good thing, it has high heat resistance, strength, plasticity, toughness, formability, weldability, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility, and is the trump card alloy in the metal industry. Your Excellency Minister Alger, I don't know if you can apply for this material, but the price is 100 times that of steel. ”

"Whoa... Whew... Whew.... ”

Everyone in the room took a cold breath and looked at Alger with deep meaning, and the meaning in their eyes was that we would never agree.

Just kidding, this procurement will not only have the navy and army, but also the army stationed in the country, which is how much to purchase. Even if you only apply for the part of the Qing Army, the cost will be high, and the government is rich, but it is impossible to play like this.

At this time, there was only a lot of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy, and the entire United States was only a few thousand tons, and it was mainly used in important equipment such as warships and submarines.

In particular, the submarine will be stepping up the expansion of the Holland-6 submarine, and resources are moving closer to these equipment. If it's just to reduce the weight and use this scarce precious metal to make it, it will make people bleed.

Alger also felt that if such a proposal was handed in, it would inevitably be opposed by everyone, and if a small number of anti-aircraft machine guns were made of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy, it might be okay.

But if you want to use all of this material, it is obviously impossible to reduce the weight of the less important one, and besides, this anti-aircraft machine gun does not have to be made of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy.

Alger didn't want to answer Maxim's words, and asked himself a stupid question, unable to answer, pretending to read the information on the paper, and did not hear.

Nelson A. Myers, the commander-in-chief of the Army, also believed that it was necessary to reduce weight, but it was not possible to approve of the use of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy due to cost considerations, but there were other materials.

"Mr. Makqin, the weight of the anti-aircraft machine gun should be reduced as much as possible, as for the materials, you should try to find a more suitable one, and the Ministry of Defense will give you 500,000 US dollars in terms of funds, and you must improve a high-performance sample as soon as possible." Miles said solemnly to Makqin.

"Your Excellency Miles, please rest assured, I will do my best to improve it, but it will be a bit long, and I don't know when the Army and Navy plan to purchase the finished product."

Makqin knew that this weapon was in a hurry, so he had to confirm the time. When the Minister of Defense and the Secretary of the Army proposed the quantity, the people present did not react much, so they did not mention the number of purchases, knowing that it would definitely not be less.

When it comes to the time of procurement, everyone is silent, and it is certain that it will be done as soon as possible. Without a large number of firing points, it would be impossible to stop the planes of the Qing Pingshan Army, but it was obviously impossible to build a large number of Makqin anti-aircraft machine guns in a short time.

And it is still in the period of further modification, plus the production time, I am afraid that a few months is required. And the war on the Qing side has ended, so it doesn't have to be used immediately, so relatively speaking, there is plenty of time.

The crowd began to talk in a low voice, about when to buy and how much to buy first. In this matter of Makqin, the white-bearded man was obviously too old to stand, so he sat down and waited for the results of the discussion.

It was said that the army should be equipped as fast as possible, in case Pingshan and Pingshan encountered it, but they could not fight back.

There are also people who feel that the war of the Qing Kingdom has already passed, and it is not so urgently needed, and more deadlines can be relaxed, so that the cost can be reduced a lot.

The rest of the people remained neutral, did not threaten the overhead, and did not have to worry about sitting on the wall and watching. Everyone had their own opinions, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt held down the crowd's chatter.

"Gentlemen, since it is not necessary to use it urgently, but we cannot be unprepared, then we can make it with appropriate ampleness, Mr. Maxim, I hope you will improve your baby within two months, and deliver more than 500 pieces, and we will let people do our best to cooperate where necessary."

Roosevelt sat for a long time, and had not spoken to Maxim, and it was time to brush up on his presence. He immediately expressed his opinion and struck a balance between urgent use and emergency use.

"Your Excellency Vice President, please rest assured, wait for my good news, we will do our best." Makqin stood up and gave a salute to his chest with one hand.

President McKinley and Secretary of State John Hay and others also agreed with Roosevelt's proposal, and after the time was set, no one had any objections to the number, the threat was already there, so it was always better to be equipped more.

Even if you don't need that much, you can still sell it. Several questions from President McKinley were punctuated by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's questioning of the appearance of the sample, as well as whether the clan allies were selling it to him at the same time.

There was not much disagreement among the senior officials on this issue, and they did not inform them for the time being, and after their own troops were partially equipped, they would inform the allies such as Great Britain.

At this time, the United States urgently needs new colonies, especially the idea of fighting the Philippines, and it is almost over, so it is natural to try to obtain the understanding of the current hegemon, Britain and other countries, so sharing this Maxim anti-aircraft machine gun is a good way.

Therefore, when considering selling, there is naturally no restriction too much, as long as you first meet most of the equipment of your own army, you can give them equipment.

But it's not just a matter of selling money, but also attaching some understanding conditions, which is the general way to sell special equipment, and if you don't get more if you have the conditions, it's not something these shrewd people can do. (To be continued.) )