Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 27: Meeting Friends (Part 2)
When Tan Renhao arrived at the testing workshop of the arsenal, several engineers and a group of technicians were inspecting three types of ammunition ordered by the Fifth Fleet.
The new aerial torpedo is much more advanced than the Tigerfish torpedo currently used by the naval aviation.
This torpedo named "Swordfish" is 3458 mm long, 550 mm in diameter, and weighs 1542 kg. The warhead is charged with 250 kg of explosives. It uses electric propulsion, has a speed of 35 knots, and a maximum effective range of eight kilometers.
Both in terms of performance and power, it is much better than the "Tigerfish" torpedo put into production at the end of the last war.
The most important thing is that the Swordfish torpedo was designed with the new generation of battleships of other powers as its target. Its performance requirements are that it can tear open the anti-torpedo armor belt of any battleship and sink any battleship in the world.
Both types of aerial bombs are high-explosive armor-piercing bombs. The 250-kilogram type is more suitable for equipping the Navy's current bombers, while the 500-kilogram type is mainly developed for the Navy's new generation of dive bombers.
This 500-kilogram aviation armor-piercing projectile is loaded with 150 kilograms of high explosives and is thrown at an altitude of 500 meters. It can penetrate 200 mm thick horizontal armor and then explode inside the hull to produce maximum destructive effect.
Obviously, the performance of this bomb is also determined based on the latest battleships developed and equipped by other powers. There is no battleship in the world whose horizontal armor can withstand the attack of this bomb!
"We have conducted more than thirty tests on these types of ammunition. Here is the test data sheet."
The engineer in charge of the development was a middle-aged man in his fifties. His name was Yin Hua and he was the deputy chief engineer of the ammunition division of the arsenal.
"Tomorrow, we will conduct the final three rounds of ground tests. If the design requirements are met, we will conduct the final drop test. The finalization can be completed by the end of this month at the earliest."
Tan Renhao nodded, and he quickly glanced through the test data sheet in his hand, and then said: "Boss Yin, I will come over early tomorrow morning. We need to equip the troops with these three types of ammunition as soon as possible."
"No problem. We'll start at nine tomorrow morning. I'll send someone to pick you up. The test site is in the suburbs, so I'm afraid you won't be able to find it."
After saying goodbye to Yin Hua, Tan Renhao returned to the hotel.
He first sent the test data back to the fleet headquarters.
Afterwards, he compared the data to make sure that the factory had not falsified the data.
That day, he did not go to see Lei Shaoqing, and Lei Shaoqing did not come to see him. Perhaps Lei Shaoqing was also busy with work.
The next morning, the staff sent by the factory took Tan Renhao away from the factory.
The jeep drove along the road eastwards towards the Laoshan mountain area.
After about an hour, the jeep stopped.
This is the outdoor experimental area of the arsenal. Almost half of the hillside is the experimental site, with dozens of target points. In addition, there is a deep water pool nearly 500 meters long at the foot of the hillside.
The most eye-catching thing in the entire test site is the catapult.
A catapult is used to launch artillery shells or bombs, eliminating the need to use artillery to launch artillery shells or use airplanes to drop bombs.
A 250 kg armor-piercing projectile has been fixed to the movable slide of the catapult.
The catapult will be accelerated by a small rocket, and when the slider reaches the end of the catapult's slightly upward track, the bomb fixed on it will fly out under the action of inertia and hit an armored steel plate more than 500 meters away.
When the bomb hit the target, its speed reached about two hundred meters per second, which is close to the speed of a bomb when it is dropped from a dive bomber and hits the target.
"The thickness of the steel plate is one hundred and fifty millimeters."
Yin Hua arrived early. "It's the standard surface-hardened armor plate used on naval warships. The surface hardness value reaches 35 to 38. Do you want to check it?"
Tan Renhao measured the thickness of the steel plate, but the hardness of the steel plate can only be tested in the laboratory. He could only take a piece of the steel plate back after the experiment and then ask the technical department to do another test.
The test was very successful. The 250 kg armor-piercing projectile was designed to have a maximum armor-piercing thickness of 175 mm. In the third test, the bomb even penetrated a 180 mm thick steel plate, which exceeded the basic requirements of the design.
Next was the test of 500 kg armor-piercing projectiles. All three experiments were successful. The third experiment penetrated 235 mm of armor plate, while its maximum designed armor-piercing thickness was 220 mm.
The highlight was the tank experiment of the Swordfish torpedo.
The method is to place the torpedo in the launch tube at one end of the tank, and then start its power system. The torpedo will accelerate in the 500-meter tank, which is the minimum range of the torpedo.
When it hit the armored plate at the other end of the tank, its speed had reached 35 knots.
Of course, such experiments are incomplete. The Swordfish torpedo is an aviation torpedo, and there was no plan to develop a ship-borne model at the time. (Later, due to its excellent performance, naval ships also began to carry Swordfish torpedoes with enhanced power systems.) If the experiment was carried out in full accordance with the standards, it should have been thrown into the water.
However, there was no throwing equipment at the test site at that time, so its power could only be measured in the manner of ship-borne torpedoes. The throwing test would be carried out by torpedo bombers in Jiaozhou Bay in the last experiment before finalization.
The entire test was very successful. The war mine head loaded with 250 kilograms of yellow explosive tore a large hole with a diameter of more than three meters in the 150 mm thick armored steel plate.
According to the design specifications of the Swordfish torpedo, its maximum penetration capability reaches 250 mm.
However, there was only one experimental torpedo at the time, and whether it could penetrate the 250 mm armor plate depended entirely on theoretical calculations by engineering and technical personnel.
"Mr. Yin, your design is very successful. I will submit the report as soon as possible. So, when will the next experiment start?"
"In five days, we will conduct the final experiment. I will send someone to inform you in advance!"
Yin Hua is a very pragmatic person. "Talking about the staff, your affirmation is very valuable to us. I believe that the final result will not disappoint the navy!"
Tan Renhao smiled and nodded. He was not the only naval officer who came to visit the experiment. In addition, the Navy Logistics Command and the Equipment Technology Office had sent relevant personnel to participate in the observation and testing of the finalization test.
Yin Hua was also busy taking care of those officers.
After Tan Renhao collected several pieces of steel plate fragments for testing, he called the driver who brought him here and returned to the hotel. He had to send back the relevant test parameters as soon as possible so that the fleet's technicians could determine whether there were any problems with these parameters.
