Things got interesting, the toughness of the United States angered the French people, and for a time there was a sea of protests in front of the American embassy. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info the angry French people rotten eggs and stones and other items to give the U.S. Embassy a bath.

However, in the face of the strong protest of the French, the United States was unmoved, because in their view, this is a bottom-line issue, and there is no possibility of backing down, anyway, the United States does not allow France or other NATO countries to obtain Soviet-made weapons, which is the most serious provocation.

And the interesting part of this is that the anger in France is expressed more by the French people, and the French government, although it says it is angry, has not taken any countermeasures. To put it simply, the French government seems to have everything under control.

In fact, de Gaulle also had everything under control, and of course he knew that the direct purchase of Soviet-made weapons was definitely the greatest provocation to the authority of the United States, and it was no wonder that the Americans did not explode in this way. His previous statements were more of an attitude, which was used to disgust Americans. Your Yankee guy was so disgusting before, you can't say that Lao Tzu can only be beaten and can't fight back, right?

So what was de Gaulle's real purpose? Of course, he wanted an advanced medium tank, and he was indeed quite interested in the cheap and high-performance T-55. But he knew that it was unrealistic and impossible to get the T-55 directly, and he had to find a way to get around the pit of Soviet-made weapons. It's just that he didn't think of a good way for a while.

But De Gaulle had no choice, Li Xiaofeng had a lot of solutions, in his opinion, this problem was too simple to solve, didn't the Americans just grasp the fact that the T-55 was a Soviet-made weapon? What if the T-55 ceases to be a Soviet-made weapon? What else can the Americans shout about?

First of all, half of the "copyright" of the T-55 was in the hands of the North Industries Group, which had the right to sell the T-55 to the market allowed by the Soviet Union (the benefits were distributed according to the agreement between the USSR and NORINCO). Of course, there are also political obstacles to the direct export of tanks from NORINCO to France, after all, NORINCO has long been labeled as a Soviet Union by the United States and the NATO bloc. Therefore, NORINCO must also borrow a shell to bypass these obstacles.

And this shell is KraussMaffei and Rheinmetall, and familiar comrades know that these two companies are German arms giants, both before and after the war, they were quite active. Of course, in this plane, these two companies have had a bit of a hard time. First of all, the severe economic situation in Germany after the war, the damage of the war and the huge war reparations will overwhelm the Germans, and the major companies are trying to find a way to live, but for the German military industrial enterprises, this way of life is not easy to find, because Germany has been forever deprived of the right to have an army, and there is no army, and there is naturally no defense spending.

Some comrades said that this dependence on foreign markets! The reputation of German weapons in the international community is still very good, how can there be no sales?

Let us ask rhetorically, how can there be a market? The arms trade has never been a simple commercial activity, and it is not in the international market that your weapons are cheap or have good performance that will necessarily be marketable. For many countries that need to purchase weapons, the purchase of weapons is actually an act of recognizing godfathers and huddling together for warmth.

Why did US imperialism hold the throne of the world's number one arms exporter all year round and occupy more than half of the market share of arms exports all year round? The main reason is that he is the only superpower, and for the rich Middle East oil bosses, they must supply the US imperialists, otherwise, the US imperialists, who control the shipping routes, will be able to play them to death in a minute. Even if you don't start from the shipping route, just the cage released by Israel in captivity by the US imperialists is enough to give the oil boss a pot to drink.

So the international arms trade is actually a very serious political act, and the Germans and the Germans were politically incorrect in the first post-war period. It is easy to give people the truth when buying weapons from Germany, not to mention that after the war, the super-gangsters, including the United States and the Soviet Union, have all hoarded a huge amount of surplus arms, and the big guys have sold them cheaply in the international market or simply sent them away as military aid. Who doesn't love a passable but cheap product in the market? German goods that strive for excellence are good, but they are not so good, everyone is of the same grade, and it is the truth to choose cheap political correctness.

So, unfortunately, Germany's arms exports have suffered a heavy blow, and most of the countries have either turned to the US imperialists or the Soviet Union, except for old customers who have been using German-made weapons for a long time, or countries like Israel that can accept Germany's use of weapons to pay for war reparations.

At one time, the German military industrial enterprises were almost unable to open the pot, and in this case, NORINCO made a decisive move, obtained a considerable part of the shares of the German military industrial enterprises through acquisition or shareholding, and transferred part of the production orders to Germany. For example, NORINCO's advanced high-power diesel engine was transferred to Germany, which was jointly developed by MTU and Bosch, covering a wide range of models from four-cylinder to twelve-cylinder.

Therefore, as soon as Li Xiaofeng heard that the French had political concerns, he immediately put forward a new proposal: "France will invest 100 million francs to jointly develop the first generation of European tanks with KraussMaffei, Rheinmetall, MTU and Bosch." ”

100 million francs was 20 million US dollars at the time, and to tell you the truth, this was a lot of money. It's only a billion dollars, and it's not a year. Now Li Xiaofeng is 20 million when he opens his mouth, this is too dark, right?

Li Xiaofeng did not feel that he was black, because the conditions he gave were very generous, and the funds of 20 million US dollars would not only enable France to participate in joint research and development and enjoy the right to authorize the assembly and production of the first generation of European tanks in the future, but also include the funds for the purchase of the first batch of 50 European tanks. In other words, France paid 20 million not only to get 50 tanks, but also to obtain the right to authorize the assembly and production of European tanks. Got it, right?

Of course, it is a good deal, for de Gaulle, the previous price of 100 units of the British Centenarian Captain was as high as nearly 20 million US dollars for the tank itself. Each car is worth a whopping price of $200,000. And these are just the tanks themselves, not counting spare parts, as well as ammunition and training costs. Miscellaneous and miscellaneous together, to buy a hundred centurions, France has to pay close to 30 million dollars. This was still very tight for France at that time.

And now, for 20 million, you can get 50 tanks, and you can also get the right to assemble and produce the first generation of European tanks in the future and part of the technology transfer. It's still a good deal for France!

Because at this time, when de Gaulle inspected the relevant French enterprises, he found that the development plan of a new generation of medium tanks was not as smooth as expected. The so-called most optimistic estimate of three to five years to start production is too watery, so to speak, the unoptimistic estimate that the new generation of French medium tanks may not be put into production until ten years later.

Maybe some comrades want to say, ten years is ten years, one's own things will be built in a hundred years, and it is better to develop one's own tank industry than to ask for people forever in the future, right?

That being said, if it took ten years and huge financial investment to make the French tank industry gradually catch up with the world's number one group, then de Gaulle put up with it. The problem is that according to the technical standards of the new French medium tank, even if a lot of money and time are spent, they have not been able to catch up with the technical level of the world's first group, but have been thrown farther and farther away.

Yes, the French have encountered a lot of technical hurdles that they cannot overcome. For example, tank armor, such as high-pressure tank guns and more advanced anti-tank ammunition, as well as new engines and gearboxes.

Almost all of the most important parts of tank technology are covered by the French, who have worked hard to reach the level of World War II, and now that World War II has ended, seven years have passed, and these seven years are almost an era leap.

And the medium tank that the French created (by technical standards on paper) was just a crappy copycat of the German World War II Panther. Some of the weight was reduced, but at the same time the armor was weakened, and the firepower was barely up to the level of the Panther, but the quality and accuracy of the armor-piercing shells were poor, and the life of the gun barrel was quite limited. What's worse is the engine and gearbox, almost a copycat of the Panther engine that is not very reliable, and it is far from the current world's advanced level.

All in all, it will take about three or five years for the French to obtain a heavy tank at the level of 1943, and the gap with the world's advanced level will widen to more than ten years. Tell me, if you were De Gaulle, can you bear it?

It must be unbearable, so after witnessing the current situation of the French tank industry, de Gaulle felt that the only way to change this situation was to introduce technology and cooperate with the world's advanced level, and there were only a few so-called world-class companies, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.

Moreover, the cooperation method this time is also very ideal, with the guarantee of German precision machining, and the superb overall design of the Soviet Union and the experience of World War II as the backing, how bad can the tank be? What's more, Li Xiaofeng also explained to de Gaulle: "The first generation of European tanks is not a new research and development, but a technical improvement in the overall design of the T-55." ”

Let's put it this way, this so-called first-generation European tank is actually a built-up version of the Soviet shell with some German components. Without changing the overall design too much, it is to replace it with some German parts to strengthen it, so to speak, the Soviet-German combined version of the T-55.

Among them, the overall design of the T-55 is retained, only a little elongated chassis, in order to replace the 8V90 four-stroke diesel engine just developed by MTU, the maximum power of the diesel engine is 620 horsepower, the shape is rectangular, the structure adopts one cylinder and one cover, parallel connecting rod, push-tap transmission, and connected box, so it is convenient for disassembly and serial production; The mechanical pressurization and pre-combustion chamber combustion system are adopted, and the overall arrangement is compact. The transmission adopts a 4HP250 hydromechanical type with dual-flow double-radius differential steering from ZF (Zahnraederfabrik Friedrichshafen) (Friedrichshafen Gear Manufacturing Company), with 4 forward gears and 2 reverse gears (each gear has two specified steering radii, and the steering power loss is less due to the larger specified steering radius).

There may be comrades who want to ask, the B55 diesel engine on the T-54 is derived from the B2, the performance is reliable and compact, how good is it to continue to use, why change it?

Well, to tell you the truth, the B2 series is indeed a bit old, although the compactness is good, but the performance, especially the lifespan, is still far from the world's advanced level. Judging by later developments, it is not a good choice to continue hanging on the tree of B2. What's more, the B2 series is troublesome to disassemble and maintain (it cannot be hoisted as a whole).

In fact, the most critical problem is not in B2, but in the transmission device of the Soviet-made tank, although the T-55 fixed shaft mechanical transmission is simple and reliable, but the performance is really average, and the gap between the later hydraulic transmission is very large, and the French are still quite obsessed with mobility, and the requirements for mobility are very high, even if it is a genuine T-55, it is a little unable to meet the needs of the French. Therefore, Li Xiaofeng also instructed NORINCO to test advanced diesel engines and hydraulic transmissions on the French, and use the French as guinea pigs.

In addition to this, the firepower of the first generation of European tanks was also changed from the D-55T of the T-10 to the German carry. Because firstly, the D-10T is not exported to NATO for the time being, and secondly, the performance of the D-10T is also average. And the French are full of praise for the excellent tank guns of Germany in World War II, since the French like German goods so much, then give them German goods. Rheinmetall installed an improved version of the 88 gun of the Tiger tank directly on the first generation of European tanks, and through the appropriate improvement process, the tank gun was basically at the same level as the American-made 90mm tank guns on the M47 and M48, which was enough for the current French. Moreover, Rheinmetall also promised that once the newer large-caliber tank gun is developed, it can be easily modified for use on the first generation of European tanks.

De Gaulle was very satisfied with this, the freshly baked first-generation European tank weighed 39 tons (due to changes in the chassis and changes in the engine transmission system, slightly heavier), the maximum road speed of 65 km / h, the basic use of German armor technology, the defense level of the whole car was slightly lower than that of the T-55, the front of the turret was about 150 mm, and the front of the hull was also 150 mm level. However, this has far exceeded the expectations of the French, for whom they are satisfied with a hundred millimeters of frontal armor. In addition, KraussMaffei also promised that the first generation of additional armor under development will soon be put into service, and after installing this additional armor, the defense of the first generation of European tanks will be increased by 30 to 50 mm, and the weight of the vehicle will not increase significantly.

De Gaulle decided to invest without saying a word, and immediately announced to the public, he just wanted to tell the Americans: "Without you Zhang Butcher, Lao Tzu would not have to eat hairy pigs!" (To be continued.) )