The problem of engines was basically solved through international cooperation, but this did not mean that the Red Air Force could sit back and relax, and after the previous air battles of Tongguò, especially after the bombing of Narvik and Knaben, another problem was placed in front of the Air Force.

That is, there is not enough firepower! Whether it is a fighter, a bomber, or an attack aircraft, it is generally reported that the ShKAS aviation machine guns equipped with them are not powerful enough to effectively destroy enemy fighters.

Seems like ShKAS is a? Well, I really can't say that, in all fairness, ShKAS is not only not bad, but it is quite sharp among aviation machine guns of the same level!

The ShKAS firing 7.62×54R weighs around 10 kg (the S is the heaviest 11.1 kg, the K is the lightest 9.8 kg), and the maximum speed is up to 1800 rounds / min (the S model is also 1600 with a speed limiter, and the Ultra-ShKAS is up to 3000 rounds / min). Compared to the aviation machine guns of the same caliber of the same period, the ShKAS was simply raped.

It can be said that one ShKAS can withstand two or more other countries, and its firepower can be said to be amazing. It can only be said that Russians are Russians, whether it is Tsarist Russia or the Soviet Union, the name of the country is changing, and the temperament of the fighting nation will not change. The Russians have always preferred to pursue absolute excellence in the design of weapons in the primary combat performance, and can make sacrifices in the lesser performance. So I often make some weird things that seem to be so strong that they are perverted. In the future, we will see again and again the demons caused by this peculiar "national soul".

However, the ShKAS demon is also problematic, for example, after the Germans seized the ShKAS for testing, they showed disdain for this weapon. It is even considered inferior. But. Germany pretended to be cold this time, but it really didn't understand the situation. Don't look at the ShKAS also uses 7.62×54R ammunition, but it is not an ordinary rifle cartridge that can be used on the ShKAS. ShKAS uses specialized shells with specially reinforced shells. Hans didn't know why he tested the ordinary bullet, and the result was naturally not good-looking.

Anyway, let's put it this way, the ShKAS was second to none at the time in terms of rate of fire, and the reliability was passable, although the life span was a little worse, but for Maozi, who was fighting a war of attrition, this was not a problem at all. The only problem is the small caliber of ShKAS. The 7.62mm rifle cartridge is a bit underpowered for an increasingly sturdy all-metal fighter.

For example, in previous air battles, there were examples of BF-109 being beaten into a sieve by ShKAS and flying back safely, and pilots on the front line generally reported that if they wanted to shoot down enemy aircraft with ShKAS, they needed to consume a lot of ammunition, and often even if they shot down the opponent, they had to go home to replenish ammunition.

Not only did fighter and attack aircraft pilots complain a lot about ShKAS, but bombers, especially four-engine bomber pilots, had a bad opinion of ShKAS. For example, in the previous bombing operation of Knaben, the low-flying Tu-3 and Pei-8 used two ShKAS in the nose to shoot at the ground anti-aircraft fire, which was relatively disadvantageous. The effective range of the 7.62 mm rifle cartridge is too limited, and it can only exert effective lethality at a distance of about 800 meters. And even 20-mm anti-aircraft guns with ground anti-aircraft fire can hang them from a distance of a thousand meters, not to mention the larger caliber 37-mm, 40-mm and 88-mm anti-aircraft guns.

The bomber pilots felt that they had to immediately raise the fighter's self-defense firepower. Not only should you be able to shoot bullets, but you should also be able to increase the lethality as much as possible.

In this case, the Air Force immediately launched a round of research and discussion, and the more optimistic part of the bureaucracy believed that since the boys felt that the firepower was insufficient, it would be impossible to give them the guys with a bigger caliber. Anyway, the Red Army has no shortage of 12.7 mm aviation machine guns, and the Berekin UB 12.7 mm aviation machine gun is very good!

Objectively speaking, the UB machine gun is really good, the performance of this aviation machine gun firing 12.7×108 mm ammunition can be said to be surprising, the rate of fire is up to 1050rpm, and even the UBS, which is slowed down by the firing coordinator, can reach 800rpm, which is comparable to the American AN / M2 machine gun, and the weight is a little lighter.

You must know that the M2 is a classic among the classics, and the UB can be slightly stronger than the classics, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the best performance of the large-caliber aviation machine guns of World War II. For example, a UB is installed in the back seat of the Il2, so what else is there to discuss, hurry up and change the outfit!

However, Li Xiaofeng disagreed, the UB machine gun was very strong, but not without problems, and a declassified American wartime intelligence in 1952 had an interesting description of the life of the UB machine gun: "The ShKAS is a fairly complex and well-machined weapon, and the added cost for this is to ensure that the whole gun can be repaired and replaced with parts to keep the whole gun in serviceable condition." Compared to the ShKAS, the Beretkin machine gun was deliberately designed to be expendable, and the Soviets' plan was to scrap the entire gun after a short period of use, when the components were damaged. ”

Let's put it this way, Maozi deliberately uses soft steel that has not been hardened by heat treatment to make the parts of the UB series softer steel, so that the moving parts can slowly deform without breaking under the severe friction and collision of high-speed emission until the deformation exceeds the allowable value and is scrapped. Therefore, it can be said that the good and abnormal performance of the UB series is at the cost of a very poor service life.

Of course, it's nothing just a matter of life, anyway, Li Xiaofeng is not the kind of diehard who picks at life, and the UB machine gun has other problems, such as ammunition. In order to enhance the lethality, Mao Zi made MD and MDZ high-explosive shells when firing 12.7×108 ammunition.

As you can imagine, 12.7 mm is a little more than a centimeter, and it is difficult to fill explosives and fuses into high-explosive bombs in such a small volume. Anyway, back then, the Americans thought that the .50 level ammunition should not be tossed with any high-explosive shells, it was not suitable at all, save it!

However, Maozi didn't believe in evil, but he wanted to do it, and he did it. However, the high-explosive elastic performance of MD and MDZ is not very reliable, because Maozi has made a very unique "air compression fuze".

This fuse does not have a firing pin. The fire cap is mounted at the bottom of a hollow tube. When the warhead hits a hard object deforms. The air inside the tube is compressed sharply. Thus the charge inside the detonating warhead of the fire cap is fired. Because there is no firing pin, and it needs to be hit at high speed to ignite, the storage and transportation safety of this kind of fuze is relatively guaranteed.

At the same time, because the fuse itself is very light, a warhead of the same weight can be filled with more charges, which is beneficial to improving the damage effect. For the same 41g warhead, the MD bullet is loaded with 2.4g PETN, while the MDZ is loaded with 1.5g PETN + 1.2g incendiary agent, and the loading coefficient reaches 5.9%~6.6%. It is even higher than the similar warheads of Germany, Italy, Japan and other countries. The disadvantage is that the firing reliability of the air compressed fuze is not very good, and the requirements for the angle, speed and target material of the warhead hitting the target are relatively high. Of course, the more important thing is that this kind of high-explosive bomb is relatively small, and it is difficult to destroy enemy aircraft with a small amount of ammunition.

And what makes Li Xiaofeng the most unacceptable is this, the power of the 12.7mm machine gun is still too small, rather than changing it again in the later stage of the war, it is better to do it in one step. He believed that in the future, the Red Army should be armed with at least 14.5 mm aviation machine guns, and preferably 20 mm aircraft guns.

And Li Xiaofeng's requirements are not ordinarily high. It is stipulated that the rate of fire of this new weapon shall not be less than 1500 rpm and the weight shall not be greater than 100 kg. And it was these two perverted demands that worried the famous weapons designers of the Red Army.

For example, the ShVAK 20 mm gun, which was widely used in the history of the Red Army, weighed about 45 kilograms, but the rate of fire was only 700 to 800 RPM. The B-20 aircraft gun designed by Beretkin on the UB machine gun weighs 25 kilograms, which is quite good, but the rate of fire is only 700 to 800 rpm, unless two in parallel can meet Li Xiaofeng's requirements. As for the VYA23 aircraft gun now installed on the Il-2, the power is sufficient (23×152 shells), but the rate of fire is completely insufficient. And its recoil is too great for fighters and bombers.

Even the NS-23, which only caught up with the tail of World War II, could not meet Li Xiaofeng's perverted requirements, and even the improved version of the NS-23, the NR-23, was not up to standard. I'm afraid that the only thing that can really satisfy Li Xiaofeng is the GSH-23.

For this reason, the designers of light weapons in the Red Army argued with Li Xiaofeng on the basis of reason, emphasizing one after another that someone's demand was too perverted and could not be fulfilled at all. But Li Xiaofeng didn't believe in this evil, and made a tough statement that these technical indicators must be realized, and no discount is allowed!

So why is Li Xiaofeng so tough? The reason is simple, in his opinion, these designers are still nesting in the frames of the ShKAS and UB machine guns, and with the traditional principle of automatic, such as the short recoil of the barrel, it is simply impossible to go up.

If you want to increase the rate of fire, you have to find a way to do it from the roots, such as using the Gatling or Gasst principle. And these two are not a big problem at all, the former is already in service with the Red Navy with the guò AK-630, and the latter the Germans are also ahead of the competition. As long as these designers open their eyes, designing a weapon that satisfies Li Xiaofeng is not a big problem at all.

I am afraid that the fundamental reason why these designers are reluctant to do this is because they think that the traditional automatic way of the cannon can meet the requirements, and do not make a big deal to start anew. It's a pity that they bumped into Li Xiaofeng and had to take this step.

Soon, the designers came up with their own designs based on the principles of Gatling and Gatst, with the slowest rate of fire also around 1200rpm. Anyway, the rate of fire is no longer a problem, the only thing that bothers the Air Force is which caliber to use.

As mentioned earlier, the caliber of the Red Army's aircraft guns was quite complex, with 20 mm, 23 mm, and even 37 mm and 45 mm freaks in the later period. The 23 mm one is divided into two types, one is 23×152 and the other is 23×115. And Li Xiaofeng said before that the 14.5 mm caliber is also considered, that is, there are actually three calibers participating in this round of aviation gun competition.

Among them, 23×152 ammunition was quickly eliminated, this thing is powerful, but the rear seat and weight are not very acceptable, so let the Il-2 continue to use it to bombard German tanks and armored vehicles. The real competition is actually between 23×115, 14.5× 114 and 20×99R.

It's also funny to say, the first two completely different caliber ammunition are actually of the same origin, and the 23×115 ammunition is flared with a 14.5 cartridge case. Then a 23-mm warhead was mounted. Weird, right? But it works. The only problem is. 23×115 muzzle velocity is not enough. The trajectory is more curved (no way, the gunpowder thrust is not enough).

Li Xiaofeng was not satisfied with the 23×115 of the egg pain, but compared with the 20×99R, it seems that the development potential of 23 mm is greater, so the 20 mm caliber was eliminated first. Next, in the PK between the two siblings, it is really indistinguishable, the 23 mm warhead is more powerful, but the 14.5 mm muzzle velocity is more accurate. Anyway, it seems that it is difficult to distinguish between Zhong Bo.

In desperation, Maozi was lazy again, since it is difficult to distinguish between them, let's get on the horse at the same time! Of course, the Red Army also made specific requirements, the 14.5 mm was mainly used to replace the ShKAS machine gun, and the rate of fire was high enough, preferably to the level of the original ShKAS. And the 23-mm one was intended to replace the UB machine gun. The rate of fire can be slightly lower, but the weight must be controlled.

It didn't take long for the designers to come up with several different proposals. Almost every caliber came up with at least four schemes, and after a detailed comparison, the Gatling scheme was more popular with the top brass of the Air Force. Soon the ShVAK-14.5 and NS-23 (not the old version, but the designers are still the same two) were born.

Among them, the ShVAK-14.5 has a rate of fire of up to 2000 rounds per minute, while the full gun weight is also charged at the level of 40 kg. The NS-23 has a higher rate of fire, which can be adjusted from 250rpm to 3000rpm, and the full gun weighs 65 kg.

Of course, this is not all, because the GSH-14.5 mm three-barreled Gatling machine gun, which was selected at that time, was later favored by Li Xiaofeng, and after its caliber was changed to 7.62 mm, it was widely equipped with the Red Army's general-purpose helicopters as a support weapon.

Beginning in July 1942, the ShVAK-14.5, which had just walked out of the national test site, was impatiently loaded onto the plane by the Tu-3 and Pei-8 pilots, for no other reason, in the first year of the Great Patriotic War, the shortcomings of the four-engine bomber's frontal firepower were too thin to be discovered by the German pilots, and they frequently adopted head-on attack tactics, so that the Red Army pilots could not parry.

The ShVAK-14.5 had a rate of fire of 2,000 rounds and was more powerful than 12.7 mm ammunition to the satisfaction of the Red Army pilots, and in a very short period of time, the nose gunner could rain more bullets on the German fighters. After the popularization of the ShVAK-14.5, the Germans quickly abandoned the continued use of head-on attack tactics against the Red Army's four-engine bombers, as it would be more than worth the cost. On the contrary, after the United States entered the war, when the B17 and B24, which were weak in firepower, swaggered in front of the German army during the day, it was a good hanging.

As for the Red Army's stronger NS-23, it was even more like an artifact, when the Yak-3, Yak-9, La-5, and La-7 were equipped with this gun, they once beat the German fighters, and as for the German bomber pilots, they were even more afraid of the NS-23, because an average of four 23mm shells could completely destroy it, and it would take hundreds of rounds to replace it with a 12.7mm machine gun.

Note that solving the problem of the aircraft gun is not the end, there are still problems with the Air Force. It's just that this problematic unit is more special - a helicopter unit. From the mid-thirties, two major designers, Sikorsky and Miri, began to make a splash, and the Red Army became the first army to make widespread use of helicopters.

Before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army had already initially created a fairly large army aviation unit. Of course, at that time it was not called army aviation, and helicopters were under the control of the air force at that time. It's not that the Air Force is too long and has to hold something that can fly, and the Army doesn't pay much attention to it.

Yes, the army just doesn't pay attention to helicopters, and when Yegorov was chief of the General Staff, helicopters had already initially shown their unique combat capabilities. However, the Yegorov generals always believed that the helicopters at that time were too simple, the load capacity was limited, and the combat radius was too small, and they could only undertake the tasks of reconnaissance, calibration, and rescuing pilots or emergency rescue of the wounded.

Therefore, during the Yegorov era, most of the helicopters purchased by the Red Army were light or medium helicopters for these tasks, and the number was relatively limited.

When Tukhachevsky came to power again, the life of the army aviation was even more difficult, Tukhachevsky's perception of helicopters was no different from Yegorov's, he paid more attention to the airborne forces. Moreover, with the imminent war, the aviation industry must be inclined to fighters, attack aircraft and bombers, which greatly limits the source of engines for helicopters, and the output is naturally extremely limited. If it weren't for Li Xiaofeng's constant emphasis on the role of helicopters, the General Staff would not hesitate to chop down these bamboo dragonflies and use valuable engines for fighters and bombers.

In order to solve the dilemma of the helicopter unit, Li Xiaofeng thought of two ways, one was to import engines from the United States for emergency response, and the other was to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall.

How to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall? Quite simply, didn't the Red Army produce a large number of fighters of the I-15 and I-16 families before 1939? Both types of fighters used the M-25 and its successor, the M-62. After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, these old I-15s and I-16s soon proved to be of limited value (not even for training pilots).

If there were no accidents, the fighters would either be quickly destroyed by the Germans, or they would slowly rot on the airfield. But in Li Xiaofeng's view, they are still valuable, at least their engines are valuable. He is ready to build a report to the Politburo and the Military Commission, dismantle some of the I-15 and I-16 that are of little value, and transfer the engine to the production of helicopters, which is also considered waste, isn't it? At least in Li Xiaofeng's view, this is a good thing.

But what he didn't expect was that as soon as this proposal was proposed, it was resolutely opposed by Tukhachevsky: "We need more fighters now, how can we artificially reduce the number of fighter units at this time?" Even if the I-15 and I-16 are of limited value, they are valuable as fighters or attack aircraft, and dismantling them and using the engine for helicopters is really worthless! (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank the lost remnant maple, os, frost magister, qq_1, duanjunyi, Xuanyuan Extreme Saint Emperor, hzwangdd, cs_ak74, Wind Drifting Shadow, Dog Playing with Frogs, Fat Cat ICK, Ula ~~, kk30, Remember to add the faint, Prince Chu, make the earth fly, Parasite Schistosomiasis, terde, hawkli, and Comrade Orphein!