Once upon a time, the Tang Army was a chicken rib role.

At the beginning, the land and ground of the Tang Empire were active, and the national defense policy was mainly based on giving priority to the development of the navy and air force, which made the Tang Army reduced to the old man from the beginning and was the least valued.

At that time, due to the small strength of the army and the small area of the defense territory, the Datang Army was equipped with Tiger heavy tanks, which did not need to consider mobility, as long as it met the firepower and armor protection.

But now the times are different, the Tang Army has laid down a large area of land, Australia and the Far East millions of square kilometers of geographical area, not to mention the need for a huge army to defend, the Tiger main battle tank is too slow to be able to deliver quickly.

Therefore, taking advantage of the strategic recuperation period in recent years, the Datang Army has recruited troops and expanded its strength on a large scale, and on the other hand, it is also stepping up the production of a new generation of main battle tanks to fill the lack of mobility and quantity of Tiger tanks.

From the very beginning, the Royal Army of the Tang Empire has been building a modern army based on complete mechanization, and at this time it has followed this guideline, mainly building armored divisions and mechanized infantry divisions.

In recent years, the Tang Army only had heavy armored divisions equipped with Tiger main battle tanks, no medium and light tanks, supplemented by mechanized infantry divisions formed by wheeled infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery.

Now the Tang Army wants to form more medium and light armored divisions, mainly medium and light tanks, with the aim of being able to quickly maneuver in the vast land of Australia and the Far East and achieve real territorial control.

Although the Tang Army has only one heavy Tiger tank in service in recent years, the Army Ordnance Administration has been developing various tanks and combat vehicles. This includes a number of medium and light tanks, but the previous goal was to earn foreign exchange for exports, but now they are sold domestically.

Everything is at your fingertips. They are all ready-made, but the requirements of the Datang War Department are different, that is, the tanks equipped by the local army must be more advanced than those sold abroad, and in the event of a war conflict, it is necessary to ensure that the local army is stronger than the opponent in terms of equipment.

In accordance with this requirement, the General Ordnance Administration of the Army quickly listed a number of models of main battle tanks that had been designed but had not yet been put on export for export and compared and improved them. Make it meet the requirements of the War Department.

In the end, the T2A7+ heavy main battle tank and the T40M light main battle tank, which were favored by the Datang Army, were approved by the Army Commission. Mass production and equipping the Royal Army of the Tang Empire began.

Among them, T1 is the code name of the "Tiger" main battle tank currently in service in the Tang Army, and T2A7+ is an upgraded model after many improvements, called the "Tiger" type 2 heavy main battle tank, compared with the "Tiger" type 1 generation. The total combat weight of the second-generation Tiger tank was reduced from 65 tons to 60 tons. The exterior looks more modern, angular, powerful and domineering.

The biggest change is that the main gun has changed from a 70 times diameter 88 mm smoothbore gun to a 120 mm caliber 44 times diameter smoothbore gun, using a stabilized tail shell shell as the main ammunition, the armor-piercing power has increased more than ten times, and the target is the German giant tank. The armor is made of state-of-the-art special steel materials, and reactive armor is installed in some areas. Although the materials and properties of these reactive armors are still relatively primitive, this is a breakthrough. Tanks in other countries do not have such a thing, which has a positive effect on the survival of the Tiger 2 tank.

The powertrain has the largest improvement. Thanks to the large-scale tank production in World War II, the tank engine has been developed and improved by leaps and bounds, and the Tang Empire, as a leader in this area, has a strong technology and talent reserve, and is even more leading in tank engines.

The Tiger 2A7+ main battle tank is equipped with a TF-1220 supercharged turbine engine with a power output of 1200 kilowatts, which makes the tank's road maneuverability speed reach 60 kilometers per hour, and the off-road speed is also close to 45 kilometers per hour.

The biggest contributors to this were the newly designed hydraulic suspension, which was much more advanced than the earlier Christie suspension, as well as the easier handling of the hydromechanical system, and even the more robust tracks.

In addition, the Tiger 2A7+ main battle tank no longer uses the M2 heavy machine gun, but instead uses a 7.92mm parallel machine gun. On the surface, this will greatly reduce the power of anti-aircraft weapons, in fact, in the war, the Tang Army proved that even if the tank is installed with the M2 heavy machine gun, it will not be able to shoot down the aircraft, so the Tiger 2A7+ tank simply canceled the M2 heavy machine gun to reduce the weight, and used 4 sets of smoke bomb launchers as anti-aircraft weapons.

On the whole, the 'Tiger' 2A7+ main battle tank has all the advantages of heavy tanks and medium tanks, so the Tang Army no longer deliberately pursues medium tanks.

However, the tank could not be used alone and required some coordination, so the Don Army chose the T40M Bobcat light tank as a supplement.

T40M is an upgraded and improved model of the T40 (Soviet internal number T43) light tank exported to the Soviet Red Army, because the Tang Empire took the lead in buying the patent right of the Christie suspension device, so the Soviet Union had to turn to the Tang Empire for help, the T40 light tank was exported to the Soviet Army as the first light tank exported to the Soviet Army, which played a huge role in the Soviet battlefield, the Soviet Army only paid a small part of the patent use rights, but it was a large-scale imitation, the Tang Empire because of its alliance with the Soviet Union, Turning a blind eye to accountability has not been pursued.

However, the things exported by the Tang Empire are all left in one hand or simplified versions, and the performance of the T40M light tank equipped by the Tang Army itself far exceeds that of the T43 of the Soviet Army.

As an auxiliary tank of the main armored division of the Tang Army, the Bobcat light main battle tank is used for reconnaissance and vigilance, in fact, this tank is the airborne tank equipped by the Tang Army, with a total weight of only 20 tons, using a 76 mm tank gun, a 500 kilowatt diesel turbocharged turbine engine, a speed of up to 75 kilometers per hour, and a long hull. It can cross a 2.5-meter trench, has a retractable snorkel, can safely cross a 4-meter water depth, and is also an expert in climbing, with a steep slope of 75 degrees without any problems, which is enough to be competent for reconnaissance and vigilance tasks in any environment.

However, there were also disagreements within the Tang Army, because the mechanized infantry divisions of the Tang Army were equipped with wheeled infantry combat vehicles, and their comprehensive performance surpassed that of the Bobcat light tanks, which were more suitable for reconnaissance and alert tasks. They debated whether there was a need for light tanks, but because the protection performance of the Tang Army's wheeled infantry combat vehicles was not as good as that of light tanks, and Europe and the United States produced tens of thousands of light tanks for war, the Tang Army only produced 1,000 light tanks, which was not a high number, so the controversy was finally shelved.

According to the current scale of the Tang Army, the 'Tiger' 2A7+ main battle tank as the main force, will be mass-produced, the first batch of 3,000 will be directly equipped with the Tang Army's armored divisions and marines, the cost of a single vehicle is 800,000 Tang Yuan, which is a large amount of expenditure. The 1,000 Bobcat light tanks were used as reconnaissance and alert units of the Army and Marine Corps. (To be continued......)