Karl and Messerschmidt nodded frequently, what Xiao Weiguo said was something they had never heard of at all, and now the two of them were also interested in tanks!

Carl happily said, "Not bad! These tank design ideas are truly eye-opening! I think this time the German Ministry of Defense will bid for tanks, and our Dragon Soul Ordnance will definitely win the bid! Now we still need two tank guns of different calibers, and I think we can use Bofors's advanced technology in artillery to design and manufacture two tank guns, which should not be much of a problem! ”

Xiao Weiguo nodded and said, "That's right!" The German Ministry of Defense's tender this time required that the main gun of a 15-ton training light tank be able to penetrate 25 mm of armor, and there was no specification for how large a caliber it was. For 30-ton medium tanks, the caliber of the main gun must be more than 75 mm, and the penetration of steel armor should reach more than 80 mm! However, none of these indicators are very specific. After all, there is no regulation at what distance this kind of penetration can be achieved, let's assume that this is the maximum penetration of a tank gun. So I think that based on Bofors's 30mm Vulcan gun or 40mm anti-aircraft gun, a tank gun for a 15-ton light tank can be improved. But the caliber of the main gun of a 30-ton medium tank, I think 100 mm is the most suitable. ”

Why did Xiao Weiguo choose a 30 mm or 40 mm gun as the main gun of a 15-ton light tank? This is because he knew that to penetrate 25 mm thick steel armor, 30 mm caliber would be enough. The French Army's first specially designed anti-tank gun was the 25 mm Harchicas anti-tank gun.

As early as 1921, the French army proposed to develop a light anti-tank weapon between 15 mm ~ 37 mm, which was mainly used in infantry detachments, and required that it be transplanted to aircraft as an aerial gun if necessary. In 1924, the requirement to double as an aerial gun was abolished, and the design target was named 30 mm caliber and 400 meters of effective range.

In 1926 Harchikis and APX submitted their prototypes, and in 1928 Harchiques' design passed the review. The main reason was the armor-piercing depth of forty millimeters and the effective firing range of a thousand meters of the Harchikais gun. However, when the French army later sought a larger caliber anti-tank gun, they chose the 47 mm gun of the APX, and finally finalized the 25 mm caliber gun, which the French military considered to be the optimal combination of power and mobility. In 1934, the gun was installed in the French Army, and it was the largest anti-tank gun in service in the French Army in 1940.

During the French campaign, due to the lack of anti-tank weapons of the British Expeditionary Force. Therefore, the British army introduced a large number of 25-mm Harchikis anti-tank guns. The more mechanized British soon discovered that although the gun was designed to be towed, it was easily damaged by a fast-moving truck, so the British had to carry it onto the vehicle. In battle, the cannon, like other similar weapons, suffered heavy losses due to its close range. However, the gun performed well and was no problem against German tanks No. 3 and below in 1940, and No. 4 could penetrate at close range.

The 25 mm anti-tank gun being developed by the French could penetrate 40 mm thick steel armor at an effective range of 1,000 meters, let alone a 30 mm or 40 mm gun from Bofors. With a slight improvement, increasing the length of the barrel and designing an armor-piercing ammunition, it is possible not to mention the 25 mm thick armor specified in the tender of the German Ministry of Defense, even 50 mm thick steel armor.

Even the later Chinese armored car 2A72 type 30-mm cannon was more powerful. The gun uses 30×165 mm shells and can fire anti-personnel explosive incendiary, armor-piercing incendiary and tracer anti-personnel explosive incendiary shells. The muzzle velocity of the gun is 970 m/s, and the effective range against ground armored targets is 1500~2000 meters, and the effective range against air targets such as helicopters is 4000 meters. Armor-piercing incendiary shells at a distance of 1500 meters can penetrate steel plates with a thickness of 60 mm with an inclination angle of 25 degrees. And the 30-mm gun, which is specifically designed as an anti-tank, is even more problematic.

For the 30-ton medium tank to use a 100 mm main gun, Xiao Weiguo also has considerations. Because he knew the main tanks of various countries in World War II. Basically, it's between 57mm and 88mm, with the exception of the King Tiger heavy tank and the like. Under normal circumstances, the main gun of a tank is below 88 mm, and the penetration of armor-piercing shells against steel armor is generally less than 150 mm.

If you add additional composite armor to the front of a 30-ton medium tank, it will be able to withstand the frontal attack of these tank guns. The 30-ton medium tank, with its 100 mm gun, is fully capable of destroying any tank in the world at a distance of 1,000 meters or more. For the importance of firepower of tanks. Xiao Weiguo knows best. In the Iraq War, the Iraqi T72 tank was unable to penetrate the frontal armor of the American M1 tank because of its firepower, while the shells fired by the M1 tank could easily penetrate the T72, and the final result was a complete defeat.

Throughout the Gulf War. Iraq lost 3,874 tanks and 1,450 armored vehicles, and only 9 M1A1s were destroyed or injured by Iraqi tanks, while the rest were unscathed. Of these tanks, only 4 were not completely destroyed and could not be repaired. Analysis of the reasons for the destruction of these four tanks shows that all of them were destroyed in a melee or ambush by the Iraqi army, allowing the Iraqi army to hit the weak side or rear armor of the tanks within 1,000 meters or even hundreds of meters. At this distance, the Iraqi 125mm gun was still very powerful, enough to penetrate the side and rear armor of the tank, which was less than 300mm thick. Unfortunately, in real combat, tanks are generally facing the enemy head-on, and it is almost impossible to face the enemy with the flanks and rear.

So the 100mm gun can give this 30-ton medium tank an unparalleled firepower advantage, the 100mm rifled gun can penetrate 150mm/30° homogeneous steel armor plate at a distance of 2000m, and the 100mm smoothbore gun can penetrate more than 300mm of homogeneous steel armor! Such a powerful armor-piercing power is enough to penetrate the second-generation tank. So in the face of World War II tanks, this 100 mm gun has a great advantage.

In comparison, some of the most famous tank guns of World War II were much less powerful than 100mm guns. The T-34 was later equipped with a more powerful 85 mm gun, which could penetrate 102 mm of vertical armor at 1000 meters. The German No. 4 tank was equipped with a 75 mm 43 x diameter long-barreled gun against the T-34 from the F2 onwards, penetrating 89 mm/30 mm armor at a distance of 1,000 meters, while the later G model was equipped with a more powerful 48 x diameter 75 mm gun, penetrating 94 mm/30 degree armor and 109 mm vertical armor at a distance of 1,000 meters. The Pershing main battle tank, introduced by the United States at the end of World War II, is equipped with a 90 mm gun that can penetrate 122 mm/30 degree armor at 914 meters using cap-piercing shells. (To be continued.) )