With regard to antiaircraft guns, the person in charge of the weapons company told Xiao Zhenlei and others that the company had developed a total of two types of antiaircraft guns, one with a small caliber of 37 mm and the other with a medium-caliber of 77 mm, with the 37 mm caliber antiaircraft gun using a 40-caliber barrel and the 77-mm antiaircraft gun using a 45-caliber barrel. As for large-caliber anti-aircraft guns of more than 100 mm, the Chinese side has not yet developed them.

In fact, before China developed these two anti-aircraft guns, Britain and Germany already had mature anti-aircraft gun technology. In 1906, the German Ichhardt Arms Company (the predecessor of the Rheinland Arms Company) improved the original balloon cannon installation according to the characteristics of airships, and made it into a gun specially designed to shoot aircraft and airships. This was the world's first real anti-aircraft gun, at that time this anti-aircraft gun was 50 mm caliber, the barrel length was about 1.5 meters, the muzzle velocity of the grenade could reach 572 meters per second, and the maximum firing height was 4200 meters. In 1908, the Germans developed an anti-aircraft gun with superior performance, this gun has a caliber of 65 mm and a barrel length of about 2.3 meters, which is 35 times the caliber. When firing grenades, the muzzle velocity is increased to 620 meters per second, the maximum range can reach 5,200 meters, and the range of high and low fire and directional fire has been expanded accordingly. The gun had begun to use a portal gun carriage and a handwheel to adjust the high and low firing boundaries. With these improvements, the maneuverability of the artillery was significantly improved.

Last year, Germany developed a 77-millimeter anti-aircraft gun, and this year Russia also developed a 76-millimeter anti-aircraft gun, which is an anti-aircraft cannon. It can also be used to shoot at targets on the ground or on water. Prior to that, the best anti-aircraft guns in the world were German anti-aircraft guns of 77 mm caliber. Its outstanding feature was the simple gun tray mounted on a four-wheeled gun mount. This gun tray could be folded up and towed by horses or vehicles when marching; When fighting. Open the gun tray and prop up the gun body to shoot into the air. The use of the gun disc not only facilitated the transfer of artillery positions, but also shortened the time from the march to the combat state. Because it uses a handwheel to adjust the body barrel for aiming, and for the first time, it uses a gun plate, so the shooting rate is high.

When reporting to Xiao Zhenlei and others, the responsible person of the arms company said that the two antiaircraft guns they developed not only adopted the technology and characteristics of the 77-mm antiaircraft guns developed by the Germans, but also increased the artillery sighting device.

"In the face of the air threat, all European countries are now vigorously developing anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, especially anti-aircraft guns," the person in charge said. However, they seem to have paid only attention to the weight of the anti-aircraft guns, the speed of marching, the ease of position transfer, the muzzle velocity of the shells, the high firing height, and so on, while completely ignoring the hit rate of the shelling. Only Germany has some concern in terms of hits. At present, the two anti-aircraft guns we have developed have added cannon sighting devices, which include optical rangefinders, listening machines, and high-power night searchlights. ”

Xiao Zhenlei asked, "So how about the hit rate of these two anti-aircraft guns?" Has it been specifically tested and counted? ”

"Yes, President!" The person in charge of the weapons company hurriedly said: "Now European countries, mainly Germany, Britain, Russia, Italy and other countries, after statistics, the average bomb consumption of shooting down an aircraft with anti-aircraft guns is 11,585 rounds, while the average bomb consumption of these two anti-aircraft guns shot down by us is about 5,000 rounds, which is more than double the hit rate of European countries!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei affirmed and praised this: "Hmm. Yes, I would like to commend you here, our anti-aircraft guns are already leading the world in terms of performance. But that's not enough, you have to continue to work on new anti-aircraft guns with better performance. We also heard you say just now, anti-aircraft guns have some extremely important performance indicators, such as the muzzle velocity of the shell, the firing height, the hit rate, the rate of fire, the automatic range dù, and so on! ”

After taking a sip of water. Xiao Zhenlei continued: "First of all, is it possible to use a longer barrel to increase the muzzle velocity and firing height? Secondly. Can it be equipped with more advanced shooting sighting devices to improve the hit rate of anti-aircraft guns? Again. Can small-caliber anti-aircraft guns be equipped with loading and re-entry devices, while large- and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns use mechanical ammunition delivery equipment to increase the rate of fire of anti-aircraft guns? Finally, can we develop a more advanced automated fire control system to comprehensively enhance the combat capability of anti-aircraft guns? ”

The person in charge of the weapons company hurriedly took a pen and wrote it down in his notebook, lest he forget it, and when Xiao Zhenlei asked in the future, he did not follow this instruction, and it would be miserable at that time.

Next, several anti-aircraft guns were dragged out by the truck, and after stopping, the artillerymen on the truck jumped out of the car and began to operate the anti-aircraft guns, there are four anti-aircraft guns of two calibers, this 37 mm small-caliber anti-aircraft gun is still a double-mounted machine gun, which means that it can be fired continuously, the same as an automatic rifle, but the rate of fire is lower than that of the machine guns a few decades later, despite this, this twin 37 mm anti-aircraft gun is almost the most advanced anti-aircraft gun in this era, and its shells are equipped with trigger fuses.

Another 77 mm anti-aircraft gun has a 45-fold barrel, which means that the barrel is 45 times longer than the caliber, and its shells are equipped with proximity and time fuses. If it is a barrel of the same material, and the same kind of shell is used, generally speaking, the longer the barrel, the farther the muzzle velocity and range of the shell, but this is not absolutely unlimited, because the longer the barrel, the more difficult it is to ensure that it will not bend, break, etc. when firing the cannon, and there is also a problem of transportation, the longer the barrel, the more difficult it is to transport, because its center of gravity will move forward, and it is difficult to maintain balance.

In later generations, anti-aircraft artillery has been gradually replaced by surface-to-air missiles, but even after a hundred years, surface-to-air missiles are not omnipotent, it can not completely replace anti-aircraft guns, it stores dead zones at low altitudes, so these low-altitude shooting dead zones must rely on anti-aircraft artillery groups to defend, so a hundred years later, anti-aircraft guns still have room for development and survival. Many countries have adopted anti-aircraft weapons that combine anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles, which will exert great power in future wars.

Xiao Zhenlei instructed the artillerymen to operate several anti-aircraft guns to carry out artillery test firing, and the results of the test firing were very good, and he was very satisfied with this, believing that these two antiaircraft guns could be mass-produced, and the 77-mm anti-aircraft guns could form anti-aircraft artillery regiments, while the navy compared the demand for 37-mm twin anti-aircraft guns and quadruple-mounted 14.5-mm anti-aircraft machine guns, and it was imperative to increase the air defense weapon system for naval warships.

The day after returning to the presidential palace in Beijing, Sa Zhenbing, the actual commander of the navy, really came to Xiao Zhenlei with the application report, and he looked through the application report, which applied for 40,000 12.7 mm caliber twin antiaircraft machine guns, 20,000 14.5 mm quadruple antiaircraft machine guns, and 10,000 37 mm caliber twin antiaircraft guns.

Xiao Zhenlei gasped at these figures, looked up at Sa Zhenbing and asked, "General Sa, are you sure that the navy will use so many anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns?" What does your navy want to use for a hundred years? In a hundred years, everything that is not needed is rusting in the warehouse, aren't you wasting the country's money? I'll do the math for you, 40,000 12.7 mm twin anti-aircraft machine guns are 20,000 installed on ships, 20,000 14.5 mm quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns are 5,000 on ships, 10,000 37 mm twin anti-aircraft guns are 5,000 on ships, even if a battleship can be installed on 60 twin 37mm anti-aircraft guns, 5,000 can be installed on 830 battleships, this is still the largest battleship, do you have so many battleships? Not to mention the battleships, our country now does not even have so many ships in the Yangtze River, even if you have so many warships, the country can't afford to raise them! ”

Sa Zhenbing's face turned red when he was criticized by Xiao Zhenlei, he also wanted to ask for more equipment for the navy, but he didn't expect to think of a random number and fill it in the report but it became a joke.

Xiao Zhenlei closed the application report and said: "General Sa, you tell me the truth, how many anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns can each of the two Huanghe-class battleships we developed by ourselves carry at most?" ”

Sa Zhenbing glanced at Xiao Zhenlei cautiously and said: "The Ship Design and Research Institute has given the best configuration plan, each Yellow River-class battleship is equipped with 45 37mm twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns, 8 quadruple-mounted 14.5-mm anti-aircraft machine guns and 4 12.7-mm twin-mounted anti-aircraft machine guns!" Design experts also pointed out that if anti-aircraft guns of 20 mm or 25 mm caliber could be developed, the rate of fire could undoubtedly be increased. ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded to indicate that he understood, and asked again: "What about the Yangtze River-class aircraft carrier?" How many anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns can each of those two aircraft carriers be loaded? ”

"It can be equipped with 60 37-mm twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns, and it can also be equipped with 12 quadruple and four-twin anti-aircraft machine guns. In fact, we have carried out relevant research and tests, anti-aircraft machine guns for faster and faster flight speed, more and more flexible fighters are not very lethal, rather than equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns, it is better to equip more anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft gun shells using time fuze and proximity fuse to the fighter is much more lethal! ”

Xiao Zhenlei knocked on the table when he heard this: "Then why do you want so many anti-aircraft machine guns in your report?" ”

"I'm not worried that the cost of anti-aircraft guns is too high and you are reluctant to give it, so I will turn to more anti-aircraft machine guns, although its lethality against fighters is not large, but if there are enough of them, it should be able to make up for the lack of lethality, right?"

"Confused!" Xiao Zhenlei said with an ugly face, and threw the application report on him: "Take it back and rewrite it, and apply according to the actual number needed!" (To be continued......)