"The overall performance of our tanks is still good, but the Western L7 105mm tank gun will also pose a threat to us. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info"Accompanying these people to the front of the destroyed tanks, Tikhonov's mood was extremely heavy.

Kartsev looked closely at the destroyed tank, the turret of the tank had detached, and one could imagine what kind of explosion had occurred in the first place.

"It was our munitions that exploded." "The turret of our tank was penetrated by the enemy, which caused a violent explosion of our ammunition and lifted the turret off," Kartsev said. We have to improve. ”

Of all the tanks, the T-72 is the most vulnerable to explosives and turrets, and the main reason is the T-72's automatic loader.

In order to improve stability, simplify procedures, and facilitate mass production, the T-72 uses an automatic loader that is different from that of the T-64, and the magazine for storing ammunition is mainly set up in a rotating disc under the turret, which can hold 22 shells. The detached shells in the magazine are placed horizontally above and below, with the propellant on top and the warhead below. When loading, the shell carrier rises to the height of the tail ring of the gun, first reloads the warhead, then lowers the charge to reload.

In other words, this part of the turret seat is just surrounded by shells, and the opponent's armor-piercing shells fly just enough to hit the ******, ****** once ignited, the consequences will be catastrophic.

And the Western shells, which are mainly stored in the aft compartment of the turret, are also provided with pressure relief plates, although the actual effect is not known, but after all, they are in the rear, not like this. It's just a turret seat, as long as it's blown up. Just from the seat part.

"Then we're going to have a big change, and we're going to improve the structure of the autoloader. It's about the same as redesigning a tank. Hearing Kartsev's words, a technician next to him said.

After all, the automatic loader is an important piece of equipment in the tank, and if this thing is changed, it will have to be changed.

Kartsev frowned: "Big changes have to be changed, this is related to the lives of our fighters!" ”

The most important thing for Kartsev is the safety of personnel! Tanks are meant to protect themselves and strike at the enemy. If you can't effectively defend yourself, then how can you fight the enemy?

"Actually, you don't have to change the autoloader." At this moment, Andre on the side spoke.

It is precisely this automatic loader that the T-72 uses, simplifying the structure, which is convenient for mass production, which is consistent with the Soviet Union's guiding ideology of equipment. Moreover, later the main battle tanks of the Huaxia used almost the same structure.

"So change what?" Kartsev asked Andrei.

"Change the outside. As long as our armor was thick enough not to penetrate the enemy's armor-piercing shells, there would be no problems now. Andrei said.

Change the armor, as long as the armor is thick enough. Make it impossible for the other party to penetrate, then that's fine!

Change the armor? Hearing Andrei's words, Kartsev's brows were still furrowed: "That will make the cost of a tank like ours soar significantly." ”

The armor of the T-64 tank was hard enough. It is possible to protect against the blow of such a 105-mm armor-piercing projectile, however. The manufacture of composite armor for the T-64 is quite complex and has many processes. The high cost is not suitable for the production of the T-72.

The main protection of the T-72 was also composite armor, which placed a sandwich of dissimilar material between cast steel or rolled steel plates. The original production T-72 consisted of a turret made of homogeneous cast steel, and the front of the body had a layer of fiberglass-like material sandwiched between the homogeneous rolled steel plates. After that, the turret thickness of the T-72A was slightly increased, in which a layer of quartz particles was placed; By the time of the T-72B, the thickness of the turret had been greatly increased, and a sandwich of multiple layers of aluminum and rubber had been placed in the cavities on both sides of the main gun, and a harder steel plate had been added to the front of the body.

Now, the army that landed in Hokkaido is equipped with T-72A tanks, although it can block the fire of the island nation's L105mm tank guns at long distances, but it can't be at close range, and if it is equipped with more advanced ammunition from the West, the T-72 cannot stop it at long distances.

"Yes, it's outside." "We can install an additional layer of explosive armor on the outside of the T-72 to increase the tank's protection," Andrei said. ”

Additional armor! In various photos of later generations, you can see that the T-72 tank is covered with rectangular bread cubes, and this thing is explosive reactive armor!

"Explosive reactive armor?" Kartsev couldn't help frowning: "This project has been terminated a long time ago." ”

When the opponent's anti-tank weapons fly, the explosives placed outside the side explode to destroy the opponent's weapons, the concept of explosive reactive armor was first proposed in 1949 by Professor Lavredev of the Moscow Prumity Institute, the then Soviet Iron and Steel Research Institute project, in the following decade for further research and testing, and in the mid-60s installed on a T-64 test vehicle for live-fire testing.

Unfortunately, but the result was not ideal, it was just a bag of explosives outside, and when the test vehicle was hit, it did blow up the flying shell, but the explosion of a piece of armor caused a chain explosion of adjacent reactive armor blocks, destroying all the external sighting equipment.

Although the follow-up continuous improvement, however, in the next few tests, they also found that in addition to the warheads and armor-piercing shells of flying anti-tank missiles, machine gun bullets and artillery shell fragments can detonate reactive armor, the final conclusion is frustrating, there are too many problems, and it cannot be put into actual combat, so the Soviet Union can only transfer it to the technical reserve and terminate the research of this project.

Now, Andrei has proposed explosive armor again, which makes Kartsev feel difficult, the ideal is very plump, the reality is very skinny, this thing can't be used!

"I wonder if you've heard of a Dr. Halder in the West who proposed a new structure of reactive armor?" Andrei said.

Although he was a pilot in his previous life, he was a military fan since he was a child, and Andrei was very clear about these things, the Soviet Union's explosive reactive armor did not begin to re-establish the project until after 82, when the Israeli tank in the Lebanese War in 82 was captured, and the jacket reactive armor developed by Israel itself was hung on it, which successfully resisted the attack of AT-3 anti-tank missiles and RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers.

And those reactive armor are based on the new theory proposed by Dr. Haulder. (To be continued.) )