While Wang Qi was thinking about strengthening the cannon fodder unit, the world evolution of the penal colony also entered a new stage.
The change of geological layers has tended to stop, or at least the rate of change has slowed down a lot.
The rate of change measured at the boundary between Xincheng and Hongshi has been reduced from the previous two meters per day to 0.3 meters per day after half a month of buffering. The rate of change at the junction of Fenggu and Pangxun plates has also been reduced to 0.5. meters per day. It seems that it is still slowing down, but I have doubts about the measurement accuracy of the edge. I need to wait a few more days to measure the average value.
The geological evolution has decreased. It should be said that the period of high risk of collapse of floating islands has passed. However, the material sources and structural embedding forms of geological changes are not fully understood, and the risks can only be guessed.
With obvious benefits, Xincheng and Pangxun Ropeway Stations will probably be able to operate stably for a few years.
Overseas, after a year and a half of changes, some sectors have taken on the shape of shallow disks, and they tend to fly relatively low.
The upturned edge terrain causes significant changes in the water storage capacity of these plates.
Take the northern region, which the military has a deeper understanding of, as an example. Although it is called a moist forest abroad, its surface water still accounts for less than 1% of the surface. It now accounts for about 3%.
Two and a few percentage points may not seem like much, but when you zoom into an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers, there are several more lake areas with an area of more than thirty square kilometers. The number of new lakes alone has exceeded that of the nameless lake of Elte. Lake Elte.
This water mainly comes from the newly added mountainous area with a height of barely one kilometer on the edge. The previous heavy rain that cooled down also played a major role.
Without intervention, it would probably end up being a lake area.
The demons also seemed to realize that something was not good. The patrol plane saw several places that seemed to be opening mountains in the distance.
The relationship between the Kingdom and the northern zone channel plate is now very delicate.
The reconnaissance operation was not interrupted, but the two engines maintained a certain tacit understanding. The reconnaissance plane did not enter directly above the passage plate, and the demons did not take off to chase it out.
Everyone has their own difficulties.
The passage section should have been fully taken over by the high-level demons. The level of rampantness of the little demons has been significantly reduced, and a group of chasing reconnaissance planes will almost never suddenly fly up.
The passage section controlled by the high-level demons did not show strong aggression. It should be that they realized from the previous clearing battle that they had the disadvantage of using flesh to fight steel.
For the Phoenix Kingdom, although it seems to have an advantage, if the passage cannot be destroyed, all attacks will just scratch the itch, and the current production capacity cannot satisfy simple large-scale air battles and bombing battles.
Therefore, after the demon clan was wiped out and the demons shrank, the air force changed to a patrol mode mainly equipped with magic weapons.
The cannon is also a magic weapon. It consumes only steel projectiles. One projectile of the 20mm cannon is 135 grams, and 20,000 rounds are only 2.7 tons. The processing threshold of this thing is low enough that ordinary metal processing workshops can make it, and there is no production pressure.
There's only one problem, weapon improvements.
Weapon improvements may optimize the shape of the warhead, or new sizes may appear. Therefore, existing weapons cannot be stocked at full production capacity, and can only be stocked a little.
Currently, only the 12th Regiment and the newly formed 13th Regiment that have not officially started fighting have 20mm cannons. The current standard is that the regiment headquarters stockpiles 500,000 rounds. Combined with the Tornado III prototype and the dual-engine hoisted cannon, it is about more than 300 sorties. . Then the headquarters stockpiled 3 million rounds.
It sounds like a lot, but in fact, when the demons really attack in full force, based on the three hundred kilometers combat radius of the two regiments, each aircraft dispatches four times a day and empties the bomb bay, which can only last less than five days.
Of course, in a specific battle, the aircraft will not really have to empty its bomb bay before turning back, and the actual consumption will be less, but it is still a fact that the overall stockpile is not high.
The reason why the headquarters stockpile is limited to two million is because we are really making new cannons.
Based on the feedback from pilots on weapons in the previous clearance battle, the Air Force felt that the density of cannon fire should be slightly higher.
When the existing cannon is strafing the ground at a level flight of 100 kilometers, the average impact density is 2.1 meters per shot. Some highly agile advanced demons can find space to dodge.
Biological creatures are affected by the speed of nerve reflexes. In high-density battles, they cannot really achieve perfect continuous dodge. However, the cannon is also affected by the flight state. The ballistic dispersion is already higher than that on the ground. The two superimpose, resulting in the cannon's The effective strike rate cannot be improved, and the effective strike rate against high-level demons from 500 meters away is less than 3%.
From the perspective of equipment versatility, improvements such as increasing the rate of fire of existing cannons and suspension and shock absorbers should be considered.
However, there is a problem with the timing of the Air Force's request for weapon improvements. Most of the institute's personnel are invested in a project called "Spell Reconstruction", which will use the results brought by the Caroline-Lava formula to reconstruct some basic magic. , there is still a certain distance to the application level.
Therefore, the basic technical strength of research institutes and manufacturing bureaus has been stagnant recently.
There are only two ways to use existing projects to achieve the "increased effective strike rate" required by the Air Force - changing the shape of the missile body and shrinking the caliber.
The two are actually the same. The purpose of changing the shape of the projectile is also to increase the gun's rate of fire. As long as the basic technology remains unchanged, it can only be changed slightly. However, it is obvious that shortening the length of the projectile will make the projectile more susceptible to air resistance, so it is better to reduce the caliber.
So the research institute responded to the Air Force with a plan: while the total weight of the cannon remained unchanged, it was changed to a two-unit 15 mm caliber cannon with a fire rate of more than 1,400 rounds per minute and a total ammunition capacity of 0 rounds. .
The actual sacrifice is still huge.
The weight of the 15mm standard bullet is only 56 grams. Even if it is the same as the 20mm gun and comes out of the barrel at a speed of 1150 meters per second, the speed at a distance of one thousand meters will be lower, which will hit the target of one thousand meters. The kinetic energy dropped from more than 30,000 joules to less than 8,000 joules!
In this way, even if it can slightly increase the effective strike rate, it will be meaningless.
Of course, since it is a new weapon, it cannot have such a big disadvantage without any benefits.
First of all, it can directly use 15mm Python projectiles, which will not increase the logistical complexity.
Secondly, small projectiles are only at a disadvantage in long-distance strikes. If the distance is closer, the impact of the projectile weight is reduced and the impact of the muzzle velocity is increased. Compared with the 20mm gun at a certain distance, it will have a firepower advantage.
How close it is specifically, because there is no finished product yet, can only be calculated based on the existing 15mm bombs. The balance point is about 400 meters. The closer it is, the greater the advantage brought by the bomb delivery rate.
The Air Force wanted to give up, but was reluctant to do so.
Because in actual combat, machine guns are more often used to deal with small demons, while when fighting high-level demons, they are surrounded by a variety of magic weapons.
The 20mm cannon used to shoot small devils is actually a bit like a cannon used to shoot mosquitoes.
Therefore, even if the twin 15mm cannons are less powerful, they are not useless. They can replace some of the external cannons to adapt to different combat needs.
Wang Qi got the military's weapons development intention and asked Li Xiang to help him go to the research institute to understand the situation.
The advice given by the institute is that it is best to wait, and you can use the new magic to make firearms in half a year at most.
This is only limited to the firearms category, because transforming magic is already considered a type of basic research, and it will almost completely overthrow the existing magic model. It is normal for the progress to be slow.
Half a year later, Wang Qi decided not to wait and made a batch of 15mm external cannons first.
Making such a decision mainly involves the demonstration, research and development, equipment, adaptation, and improvement of new weapons. It is a relatively long process. When the effects of new magic are unknown, it is not suitable to place bets yet.
And it is speculated from this that it will have to wait two years or even longer before the entire army begins to install new guns and artillery. The 20mm cannon will probably be used for a long time.
Let’s increase the headquarters stockpile of 20mm artillery shells to 10 million rounds.
The 15mm ammunition is still used by infantry, so let’s increase it slightly, from 50 million rounds to two small targets.
