"Are you Yang Xuefeng, the commander of the synthetic battalion?" Zheng Liangqiang looked at me with some surprise. It was obvious that he had heard of my name... But this is also necessary. The helicopter formation he led is now under my command.
Well, how could you not know my name?
But I think... He may not have expected that this mysterious commander of the synthetic battalion would be such a young man... That's why he was surprised!
It is no exaggeration to say that our combined battalion is mysterious... The reason is naturally to keep it secret... Our training is usually conducted under the protection of the security forces, and ordinary troops know very little about our unit...
...but it doesn’t mean that I don’t understand it at all.
Most of this understanding came from the 40th Division... Firstly, it is because when we go to the battlefield, we participate in the battle in the name of the 40th Division. Secondly, we have very close contact with the 40th Division. For example, most of our troops come from the 40th Division.
Some equipment and tactics will also be passed on to the 40th Division through the soldiers who were eliminated and sent back to the original unit... So this spread from ten to ten, but because the means of communication in this era are very poor... the Internet has not yet appeared, and television has not yet appeared.
There are only a few, and not many people read the newspaper... so the main method of communication is word of mouth. In the process, a lot of personal emotions are added, and the real information becomes less and less.
In the end, what other troops learned was that...the combined battalion is an independent unit, possessing my country's most advanced equipment and the best soldiers...but no one knows what this combined battalion does!
It’s not surprising that they don’t know... For example, if we go to Afghanistan to fight in the war... can we let them know about such things? It can even be said that the heads of each unit don’t know much!
"I am!" I answered as I took out a map and unfolded it in front of Zheng Liangqiang. I pointed at a point on the map and said, "This is the location of our battalion headquarters. You have thirty minutes to report to Deputy Battalion Commander Zhang Zuoliang."
Report, are the tasks clear?"
"The mission is clear!" Zheng Liangqiang stepped forward!
"Set off!"
"Yes!" At this time, Zheng Liangqiang didn't dare to neglect. He turned around and issued a series of instructions to the pilots behind him, and then hurried towards the airport gate while looking at the map!
It's just that... during this process, I found that many pilots who had just learned the news were running over from all directions to join the team. There were even some pilots who found that their comrades were not there and rushed out of the queue to inform... the entire team.
It was as chaotic as a pot of porridge, and it didn’t look like an army capable of going to the battlefield at all. It only made me frown!
"It's quite majestic!" Li Li did not hide the admiration on her face and said with a smile: "You are not a bad battalion commander... I didn't expect that the deputy commander was like a mouse seeing a cat when he heard your title.
!”
I just smiled... What does a deputy commander mean? There are already too many people in the combined camp who are older than the deputy commander!
Ignoring the group of pilots running out of the airport, we refocused our attention on the Z-5 parked in front of us.
"This is the Z-5 helicopter!" Li Li introduced at the side: "The range is 520 kilometers, the combat radius is 250 kilometers, and it can carry 1.2 tons of cargo..."
"How many people can be accommodated?" I casually opened the side cabin door and asked looking at the small space inside.
"It can carry eleven fully armed soldiers!" Li Li replied: "If it is overloaded...it can barely carry fifteen soldiers, and eight wounded and one medical staff can be transported!"
I couldn't help but frown after hearing this... A helicopter can only carry eleven armed personnel. This is a huge gap compared to the Soviet Union's Mi-8, which can carry a platoon.
"What kind of weapons can be mounted!" I asked.
These are the two issues that concern me the most, because on the battlefield in Afghanistan...the fire cover of Soviet helicopters left a deep impression on me!
"There is a 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun on the belly of the aircraft!" Li Li replied: "There is a rocket launcher on each side!"
"Yeah!" I nodded.
Although the firepower is much different from the Soviet gunship's Gatling gun plus four rocket launchers plus missiles, it's better than nothing!
I discovered the problem when I walked into the cabin...
"Why is there no opening in the floor?" I asked.
Li Li shrugged: "This kind of helicopter just doesn't exist!"
"Can it be modified?" I said: "This is very useful in actual combat... It's big. Make a hole one meter and 600 mm wide! Add an electric winch... Only in this way can it be possible to rappel.
In case of emergency, people can also be retrieved through the rope ladder!”
"There should be no problem!" Li Li nodded: "This is a good idea... In the past, this helicopter basically only considered landing directly on the ground or airborne, so the issue of the opening in the floor was not considered... If you do this,
It will be more flexible tactically!"
After a pause, Li Li asked: "Didn't you find the biggest problem with this helicopter?"
I smiled and replied: "How come I didn't find it? But... is there a way to solve it?"
In fact, all these shortcomings...such as insufficient loading personnel, insufficient firepower, even insufficient speed, flying height cannot exceed two thousand meters, etc....these are not big problems for us. If there are insufficient loading personnel, we can use a few more
As for helicopters, if the firepower is not enough, you can also send a few more helicopters to coordinate. As for the speed not being fast enough and the height not being high enough... what we are facing now are Vietnamese Japanese... In the environment in Vietnam, there is no need to have fast speed or high speed.
It has a very high flight limit... Of course, this kind of helicopter cannot fly in the mountainous areas of Afghanistan where the altitude is always 3,000 meters. From this point, we can also see the gap between our military helicopters and Soviet helicopters in this era!
However, its most serious problem...is that its bottom armor is not thick!
This is the experience I gained when dealing with Soviet helicopters on the Afghan battlefield... The most important thing about a helicopter is the bottom armor. Because most of the time the threat comes from the firepower below, the thickness of the bottom armor can basically represent its
How about the defense ability!
But... I made a preliminary estimate... The bottom armor of the Z-5 is only a dozen millimeters thick... You must know that an anti-aircraft machine gun can penetrate 20MM armor within a range of 100 meters... In other words, the Z-5
The bottom armor can only protect against ordinary bullets. It can't even protect against anti-aircraft machine guns!
This creates a big problem... You must know that anti-aircraft machine guns are not a high-tech gadget nowadays. Any infantry team can have several of them. Some infantry even use these anti-aircraft machine guns as heavy machine guns.
For infantry...and the anti-aircraft machine gun is easy to carry when separated.
In other words... we are flying straight out, and once we reach the enemy's position... we have to be careful at all times. An anti-aircraft machine gun hidden in the grass may pose a fatal threat to our fleet!
But this seems normal... Helicopters were developed in the 1950s. The anti-aircraft machine guns at that time were used to deal with such aircraft... If the helicopters could defend against high-altitude aircraft, I am afraid that the high-altitude aircraft would no longer be called high-altitude aircraft.
It’s a chance!
"It can't be solved!" Li Li shook her head helplessly: "Actually, if you want to solve it... it can be solved. The solution is also very simple, which is to thicken the bottom armor to increase its defense... However, the power of the straight-five engine
If it is not enough, this will greatly affect its flight speed and load capacity...The result is likely to be more loss than gain!"
Of course what Li Li said makes sense... This is actually the same as the principle between armored vehicles and tanks. The armored vehicle has thin armor and poor defense, but it is fast... It is also difficult for the enemy to hit the armored vehicle that is moving at high speed. Although the tank is slow,
But the armor is not as thick as ordinary weapons, and ordinary weapons can't do anything to it!
Obviously... even if the bottom armor of the Z-5 is thickened, it will not be able to achieve the level of defense of a tank. Instead, it will become more dangerous because of the reduced speed and load capacity.
So... a better choice would be to use the Z-5 as an aerial armored vehicle, which is a tool for rapid maneuvering and assisting the attack, rather than being the main force of the attack like a tank or Mi-8 or Mi-24!
Then Li Li introduced me to the avionics and communication equipment of the Z-5... Only then did I realize that the Z-5 in front of me was actually a Z-5 that had undergone major changes... This major change
Of course it started in 1979.
The main changes include the rotors... The original rotors of the Z-5 were still made of steel beams and wood structures, but now they are all replaced with metal structures. This will undoubtedly improve the life of the helicopter to a great extent!
Another example is the fuel tank... The fuel tank of the previous straight-five was in the cockpit... Good guy, the space in the cockpit of this helicopter is already very small, and two large fuel tanks have to be stuffed inside... I didn't say it, but it was changed to an external plug-in...
…This allows the space inside to hold eleven fully armed soldiers!
There are also many changes to the throttle handle, pressure indicator, etc... These are not what I care about. In short, I know that our military's military industry has not been idle in the past few years. This is not... these changes should be said
They all meet our actual needs!
On the other hand... I also realized that there is another reason why these helicopters are equipped with our army... that is our previous mission: to experiment with new equipment as guinea pigs. But we also use this guinea pig.
Just do it if you are willing to do it!
So... when my jeep left the airport, my hanging heart slowly relaxed... Although there is still a big gap between our straight-five and the Soviet helicopters, if we really want to
In comparison... it is not an exaggeration to say that there is a gap of several decades, but the important thing is... I know that our military industry and our country... are already moving in the right direction, making progress, and catching up.