At this time, Xiao Weiguo was planning a new weapon project, this weapon was rocket artillery, and the rocket artillery he was going to engage in was not an ordinary towed rocket launcher, but a self-propelled rocket launcher. The Dragon Soul Ordnance Industry Joint is reflected in the fact that there is no shortage of funds and talents.

Xiao Weiguo knew that both the Germans and the Soviets were very keen on rocket artillery. In particular, the Soviet Union's Katyusha rocket artillery in World War II became famous in World War I. At this time, the development of advanced self-propelled rocket artillery can have the opportunity to be put into the battlefield of Western Spain, and the self-propelled rocket artillery of the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex will become famous in World War I.

After World War I, Germany's political turmoil, economic depression and inflation did not affect their dedication to rocket research in the slightest. In 1925, Oberzer and Goddard continued their research on solid-state rockets; In 1928, Frieze von Opel used rocket technology in his "Opel" car; In 1929, rocket-boosted aircraft began to fly test; In 1931, Winkler invented the liquid rocket, which pushed Germany's rocket technology to a leading position in the world.

Of course, for the Wehrmacht, which was limited by the Treaty of Versailles due to its defeat, the development of rocket-powered projection weapons would circumvent the strict restrictions imposed on the German development and production of various weapons, including conventional artillery; The soldiers of the old empire, who had experienced the chemical gas warfare of April 22, 1915, also felt the need to develop a rapid, large-caliber, long-range projection weapon for future chemical warfare. Under the Lapallo Agreement, the Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army secretly exchanged and shared the resources of both sides in the field of rocketry.

In the eyes of the German Wehrmacht officers with the idea of military revolution, the rocket has the advantages of simple gun structure, low cost, and the ability to throw a large number of large-caliber ammunition at the enemy's position in a short period of time, and can be quickly towed away from the position by the vehicle after firing. However, due to the technical level at that time, compared with the barreled artillery, the true range was short, the trajectory was unstable, and the hitting accuracy was poor. When fired, it produced a lot of smoke and was vulnerable to enemy countermeasures, which put rocket artillery in a rather awkward position in the German armament rearmament.

Beginning in 1929, the Department of Weapons Development of the German Wehrmacht, under the leadership of artillery expert Dr. Beck, began to develop rocket-powered weapons, which marked Germany's 6~10 years ahead of other countries in this field. At the Kumedov Artillery Range Rocket Research Station, two young lieutenants, Walter Domberg and von Braun, who would later make great contributions to the world's rocket science, began the development of rocket engines. In the beginning. The Germans decided to use rotation to control the flight stability of the rocket, rather than by rocket tail mining, as the Soviets did.

In fact, Britain and Sweden developed rotational stabilized rockets as early as the 70s of the 19th century, but they were not very successful, and the main problem was that the error was too large. The first rocket developed by the Kumedov Rocket Research Station had a diameter of 110 mm, numbered "110 mm special rocket", weighed 15 kg, and the launch tube was fired with a rectangular frame 3250 mm long, ignited with an electric igniter, and had a maximum range of 4500 meters. It is planned to equip each chemical warfare battalion with 18 such launchers. Unfortunately. German researchers had the same accuracy problem, with the rocket's impact point dispersion exceeding the military's requirements. Therefore, the missile was only trial-produced in a very small number and did not enter the mass production equipment troops.

When Xiao Weiguo handed over the task of developing rocket artillery to Bofors Defense Company, Karl was a little surprised, he didn't expect Xiao Weiguo to engage in the research and development of rocket artillery when the Dragon Soul Ordnance Consortium had so many weapons research and development projects.

Carl said worriedly: "Philip, we have a lot of projects now, and it is not easy to transfer technical personnel. This kind of rocket artillery. The practicality is not very strong, and the accuracy is too poor. We just developed it, and I'm afraid there are no buyers willing to buy it! ”

Xiao Weiguo laughed and said, "Carl, your mind is still stuck in the past. You must know that rocket artillery, although it existed more than a hundred years ago, but it has not been developed, why is this? Except that you said that it is not very accurate. More importantly, the idea of artillery weapons is transformed into another idea, which requires scientific and technological progress and time. Of course, we all know that China has been using rockets since the 10th century. The Arabs introduced primitive rocket-propelled weapons to Europe in the 13th century. However, body-barreled artillery was developed. And the rocket is in a dormant state. It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that it was used effectively again. ”

Karl said hurriedly: "Yes, I know. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after the British studied the captured Indian rockets, Congreve used the new gunpowder to create the first practical rocket, which weighed more than a dozen kilograms, was about a meter long, and had a range of up to 1,800 meters. These rockets were first used as ship-borne weapons during the British attack on the French port of Buren and the British attack on Copenhagen. Separate rocket artillery batteries were also formed. After Britain became famous for using this rocket against the Americans, for some time countries were racing to copy it. But due to the fact that the use of rifled barrels and anti-recoil mechanisms gave the barreled artillery a new advantage, the artillery rockets of various countries stopped. The shortcomings of the Congreve rocket are too obvious, the accuracy, the performance is unstable, even if it hits, it is lucky, and what is even more disturbing is the erratic zigzag flight trajectory of the rocket, only if the wind direction changes slightly, it is possible to fall into the team of your own people. ”

Xiao Weiguo laughed and said, "That was before. Now Germany is actually developing rocket artillery, and the Soviet Union is even more keen on this weapon. Units such as the Wehrmacht Air Force's Hermangorin Regiment began to be used as a pilot to equip rocket artillery to replace the old 100-mm mortars, consisting of a howitzer-like launcher that could be split into three parts and a small trailer that could be dragged into positions by artillerymen, with each gun crew consisting of four gunners. The gun had a caliber of 100 mm and a barrel of 13 times the caliber and a rate of fire from 10 to 17 rounds per minute. This kind of gun is actually a kind of rocket extended-range mortar, in addition to the range and launch speed is acceptable, in terms of cost, projectile volume, maneuverability and durability are not satisfactory. ”

Later, however, researchers at the Kumedorf Rocket Research Station, under the guidance of Technical Director Captain Walter Dolmberger, discovered that the disadvantage of the previous design was that the thrust of the rocket engine acted on the bottom of the projectile, and if the propellant burned irregularly, the thrust would cause the rocket warhead to deviate from course, resulting in a large increase in error. So they took a different approach, placed the rocket engine at the front end of the rocket, that is, in front of the warhead, and opened several nozzles around the body of the projectile that were inclined 14 degrees respectively so that the rocket could rotate and remain stable. After solving the stability of the rocket, they found that the rocket without tail does not need a solid directional tube like a real barrel during launch, as long as the rocket can be successfully guided during launch, so as to save manufacturing costs. Of course, we don't need to imitate their designs, we want to have our own designs. Xiao Weiguo said calmly. (To be continued.) )