Chapter 341: with translation of chapter title

"Okay, I'll listen to you!" Zhu Lao nodded, very much agreeing with Qin Miao's suggestion.

"Then let's finally look at the turret part. To achieve a third‑generation tank, a stabilized fire‑control system is essential, and for us this system is also highly difficult."

Early tanks could fire only when stopped—not just because they couldn't adjust the gun's lead according to their own motion, but more importantly, while moving the gunner's sight was a jittery scene, making it impossible to see the target clearly, let alone aim.

Stabilized fire control was developed according to the gunner's needs; its feature is to mount the entire sighting device on an independent gyro‑stabilized platform and, via the fire‑control computer, adjust the servo system to achieve coaxial alignment with the tank gun.

To fire while on the move, a stabilized fire‑control system must be developed; for the East this is a blank slate, and producing a qualified one is not easy.

"The gyroscope can be handed over to us at Ha Gong Da; our developed strap‑down inertial navigation system already has a similar device. As for the various lenses, we need comrades from the relevant units to develop them. If you think the existing fire‑control system is too complicated, we could instead first develop a simple one."

"Simple?" Everybody knows Qin Miao is about to come up with another new trick!

Actually, this is also something we in the East invented ourselves.

In the West the reflecting mirror is mainly placed below, which has many advantages but a complex structure and great development difficulty; our Eastern tank designers had a brainwave, putting the reflecting mirror on top, thus creating a globally unique upward‑reflecting sight.

"The gyro assembly and servo mechanism stabilize the entire reflecting mirror above; night vision device, laser rangefinder, and white‑light telescope are all mounted below this mirror, sharing a stable view. This way the lens area on top is large and prone to damage, but there are also many advantages..."

Qin Miao drew out the optical path diagram, and everybody stared at it together, their eyes shining with excitement.

This design scheme is unheard of, but upon consideration it really does have many advantages; Qin Miao is truly impressive!

"Good, not bad, really not bad!" Zhu Lao nodded: "We'll design according to this route; this way our fire‑control problem will be solved, the drawings will be frozen within a week, and then we'll build the prototype!"

"Cough cough, everyone, for us the most important thing right now is still the engine, right? How come you didn't bring this up?"

Our biggest flaw in the East is the heart problem!

"Comrade Qin Miao, we've already solved this heart problem!" Zhu Lao said: "Following your suggestion, we increased the bore spacing of the 150 diesel engine; the new diesel engine is named 150HB, using the high‑pressure fuel pump, fuel injector, and turbocharger processed by Ha Gong Da. On the test bench it already outputs 1,200 horsepower! You didn't know?"

"Cough cough..." Qin Miao a bit embarrassed: "Everyone, not breaking down on the test bench doesn't mean it won't break down in actual use, after all, practice is the sole criterion for testing truth."

"That's right, we're mentally prepared; whatever fault appears, we'll fix it! With technical assistance from Ha Gong Da, any problem can be solved!"

Well, we still have to look to Ha Gong Da! But… Qin Miao also knows that at this moment we must boost everyone's confidence!

"Mm, Ha Gong Da will surely help with all our might!"

"Comrade Qin Miao, shall we continue looking at the autoloader? Although it's inherited from the T‑72 tank, we want to modify the design a bit to try to accommodate longer APFSDS rounds..."

Qin Miao nodded: "Sure!"

Although both are 125 mm guns, our use of electroslag remelted steel, autofrettage, etc., results in our tank gun chamber pressure far exceeding that of the old Maozi's guns, allowing the projectile to fly faster; however, the penetration depth of APFSDS depends not only on speed but also on the shape of the penetrator.

The ratio of penetrator length to diameter is called the length‑to‑diameter ratio; this figure directly determines penetration depth! Reducing diameter makes the penetrator more prone to breakage; with diameter unchanged, increasing length is the best choice.

The West uses fixed ammunition, requiring only a single load to complete pre‑fire preparation; this also means the APFSDS penetrator can go all the way through.

Externally, the APFSDS appears as a front pointed cone plus a saddle‑shaped sabot, with a shiny yellow cartridge case behind; actually, the penetrator keeps probing into the cartridge case interior, and at its deepest it can go all the way through—a feeling that's absolutely exhilarating!

Take the mainstream Western 120 mm round as an example: the Germans' DM33 APFSDS has a penetrator diameter of 28 mm and length 510 mm; developed into DM53, the penetrator length increased to 646 mm.

And the most formidable is, of course, the Americans' M829A3, whose penetrator length reaches a full 892 mm!

Meanwhile, the old Maozi uses separate‑loading ammunition, with projectile and propellant separated, meaning it cannot achieve a "one‑stroke‑to‑the‑bottom" penetrator.

In the mid‑1970s, when they learned that Germany's Rheinmetall was starting work on a 120 mm tank gun, the old Maozi felt the sky was falling; they launched a vigorous effort, first developing the 3BM32 depleted‑uranium APFSDS, with penetrator length 380 mm and diameter 30 mm.

Afterwards they kept pushing, producing 3BM42 with penetrator length 420 mm and diameter 18 mm—just barely catching up. By the end of the USSR, their strongest APFSDS, 3BM44, reached only 570 mm in length; that was already the limit, any longer and it wouldn't fit in the autoloader.

Looking at our East, early penetrator length was 460 mm; with the second‑generation round it increased to 650 mm, and the maximum possible is 700 mm!

Our limit is far higher than the old Maozi's!

Of course, we still can't compare to the West's fixed ammunition, but our propellant charge is ample and the caliber is large!

"We've already done our best, but… next we still have to look at materials; advances in penetrator material will significantly boost our tank gun's penetration capability. Comrade Qin Miao, what penetrator do you think is most suitable?"

"Well, if used abroad, it would be a depleted‑uranium penetrator; if used domestically, it would be a tungsten‑alloy penetrator made by liquid‑phase sintering..."

Wait, why are these people looking at me with such strange eyes?

"On the battlefield it's all about killing people; killing the enemy now or slowly makes no difference..."

"No, it's not a depleted‑uranium penetrator, but… these technologies, are you guys at Ha Gong Da always working on them?"

Once again we're making Ha Gong Da take on a research task!