After receiving this tender, Xiao Weiguo informed Karl that he also came to Messerschmidt, and this time the German Ministry of Defense's tank bidding is an important opportunity for the Dragon Soul Ordnance, and seizing this opportunity can make the Dragon Soul Ordnance Industry develop into the field of the army's main battle equipment -- tank armored vehicles. The most important thing is that the number of equipment of tank armored vehicles in the army can be a huge number, more than aircraft, and for a comprehensive defense company, it is not worthy of the name if it cannot design and manufacture tank armored vehicles, the main equipment of land warfare.

Of course, tank armored vehicles are a very foreign territory for the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex! But for Xiao Weiguo, designing a tank is like playing, I think he was also responsible for the subsystem design of the fourth-generation main battle tank, and he is very clear about the development of tanks, what kind of technology should be used, and how to design a tank that can be both mass-produced and advanced, he is naturally the best.

Both Karl and Messerschmidt felt that it would not be easy for the Dragon Soul Soldiers to come up with a feasible tank design plan, at least the two of them did not have this ability, and there were no tank designers in the Dragon Soul Soldiers' Consortium. Of course, not to mention the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex, even several other companies, they are not too sure about Rick's design and manufacturing, after all, Germany has not developed tanks for many years.

In Messerschmidt's office, Xiao Weiguo, Karl, and Messerschmidt were discussing a tank design. It is better to say that Xiao Weiguo is explaining the knowledge of tank design and manufacturing to Karl and Messerschmidt.

Xiao Weiguo drew two sketches of the tank design, one for a 15-ton light tank and the other for a 30-ton medium tank. However, the first time Karl and Messerschmidt saw these two pictures, they were shocked by the two tank shapes designed by Xiao Weiguo, although they had never designed and built tanks. But they still know what the tank looks like. The shape of the tanks in these two pictures is very different from the current shape of tanks in the world, which makes both Karl and Messerschmidt's eyes widen.

Karl was surprised: "My God, Philip, what kind of tank did you design, and why does it look so weird?" ”

Xiao Weiguo thinks that the tanks in the world are weird now, and the two tanks he designed are decent and square. However, he also knew that people in this era were accustomed to seeing the shape of a tank with exposed tracks and irregular body shapes, and at first glance they would naturally feel very strange when they saw the new tank with a simple shape designed by him.

Seeing Carl and Messerschmidt's shocked looks, Xiao Weiguo laughed and said, "Don't be surprised! In fact, I designed a tank with a simpler shape than all the tanks in the world today, right? ”

Messerschmidt nodded and said, "That's true." But why would you want to take a different approach and design a tank that stands out from the rest? ”

Xiao Weiguo pointed to the sketch of the 15-ton light tank and said, "Look, you two, I designed it with a purpose. During World War I, tanks in various countries basically used riveted hulls and turrets, mainly because the hulls and turrets were thin. But this riveted structure is fragile and does not withstand shelling, or even penetration, and is able to destroy it by the vibration of a shell. So now some countries are beginning to design a cast turret with a welded hull. Casting is easy to leave sand holes and bubbles, reducing strength, riveting is equivalent to adding a grenade in front of the enemy's shells, rivets flying all over the sky! The weld of the weld is the weak point. It must be handled carefully! So I designed both tanks with welded hulls and turrets, and they were angular. Such a double-tilted shape is mainly to increase the ballistic performance of the armor. The cast turret is integrally formed, the thickness of each part can be adjusted by using the mold, the processing is simple, and it is mostly made into a hemispherical type, but the disadvantage is that the armor density is not enough, and it cannot be forged to increase the density, and it can only be made thicker if you want to improve the protection. Because the welded turret is processed separately for each part of the turret, the density of the armor material can be improved by forging, and the protection can be increased, because the surface of the welded turret is flat, so it is easier to attach additional composite armor, from the perspective of avoiding elasticity, the inclined armor plate makes the probability of low-speed shells ricocheting higher, and has less impact on the high-speed armor-piercing projectile ricochet, but the diagonal is longer than both sides, and the oblique placement increases the thickness of the armor in disguise, and my wedge-shaped armor is a variant of the inclined armor, cutting off the lower part of the armor, The lower part is still arranged at an angle, but the angle is reversed, but the weight can be reduced a lot! ”

Karl said with understanding: "Philip, what you said seems to make a lot of sense, we have gained a lot of knowledge!" However, which way should we use tank armor, is it better to cast or cold rolled forged? ”

Xiao Weiguo laughed and said: "I want to be in the production of tank armor. Bofors still has a natural advantage. Armor is produced using a cold-rolled forging process, which is much better than casting. Compared to cast steel, the strength characteristics of cold-rolled forged steel are much higher! The density is increased by about 10% or more, for example, we can add additional composite armor to the front of the hull and turret to further improve the ballistic resistance. It was even possible to bring a light tank of the 15-ton class to the level of protection of a medium tank. The welded turret I designed has a lot of space and can be loaded with a tail magazine, which can better improve the survivability of the tank. You can also bring more ammo. At the same time, it is convenient for maintenance and repair, as well as replacement parts. In addition, load wheels are installed on the front and sides of the vehicle to protect the driver and ammunition. A toolbox was added to the rear of the turret to strengthen the relatively weak armor at the rear of the tank. Tank tracks made of manganese steel have extremely high hardness, and because of the angular shape of the tracks, it is very easy to ricochet the enemy's armor-piercing projectiles! This is equivalent to adding almost 30 mm of armor to the tank. Of course, it doesn't stop there, I also designed a scheme with side skirt armor that protects the tank tracks!"

Messerschmidt seemed to be interested in additional compound armor, and he asked curiously: "Philip, what are you talking about with additional composite armor?" ”

Xiao Weiguo pointed to the schematic diagram of the composite armor on the sketch and said, "Two of you, please see, this is the composite armor." We designed the armor into two layers, with a certain distance between the two layers of steel armor, and when the armor-piercing projectile hits the front armor, a powerful metal jet is formed, and the air layer can stretch and thin the jet, and it will be dull when it hits the armor plate at the back. Of course, if this protection against armor-piercing and armor-piercing shells is not enough, we can also add one or more layers of non-metallic materials such as ceramic armor between two layers of steel armor, so that the bulletproof ability of the armor can be further improved. (To be continued.) )