The new grenade now also uses a new collision fuse, which is installed at the front end of the shell. After the shell hits the target, it detonates the internal charge to kill the enemy.
Since this kind of fuze can only be installed at the front end of the artillery shell, the traditional smoothbore cannon firing spherical artillery shells cannot be used. It can only be used for cylindrical artillery shells fired by the rifled artillery.
Because the cylindrical projectiles fired from rifled guns will rotate at high speed to maintain the stability of the projectile.
At present, this new type of fuze is already commonly installed on cylindrical shells used in rifled guns in the army and navy.
The new fuze and the cylindrical projectile can have a larger volume to increase the charge, making the explosive power of the new grenade extremely powerful.
The power is hard to say, and it has nothing to do with the giant cannon itself, because the power of a new type of grenade fired from a front-loading rifled gun is about the same.
As for the range, he believed the maximum range of eight thousand meters mentioned by Luo Guangjian and others, but he still knew very well that this maximum range of eight thousand meters was useless for a naval gun.
This is because this maximum range is obtained when testing on land at large elevation angles. However, on a warship that is constantly moving and is still in turbulence, it is impossible for the naval gun to obtain a stable shooting angle.
If you really have to aim at a target eight thousand meters away, only God knows where the shells will fly.
The effective range of naval guns has always been a relatively complicated thing. Now the Tang Navy cannot even break through the effective range of one thousand meters. The naval officers of the 11th Squadron train gunnery every day, but during live-fire exercises
At that time, when they were moving against each other, their hit rate when attacking a target ship eight hundred meters away was not high, and the hit rate at a distance of one thousand meters could only be said to be better than nothing.
Is it because the front-loading rifled guns they are equipped with are not accurate enough?
Is their gunnery not high enough?
No!
That was because the hull was unstable and the gun could not be stabilized when firing. It was also related to the poor aiming system.
So Wang Haiqing just ignored what they said about the maximum range of eight thousand meters and the explosive power. This was not what he cared about.
There were only two things he cared about. One was that it had to be loud and not explode. As long as it was usable, it would pass.
The second one is the rate of fire.
The reason why the Navy is obsessed with breech-loading guns is because breech-loading guns are easier to load and can effectively increase the rate of fire.
In this regard, the answer given by Luo Guangjian is that it can theoretically achieve one shot every four minutes.
How fast depends on the training and specific operations of the soldiers.
After hearing this data, Wang Haiqing also nodded.
It is not easy for a 300mm giant cannon to be able to fire one round in four minutes. The 300mm front-loading cannon previously developed by the Foshan Gun Factory cannot fire so fast.
After the visit, the explanation was almost finished. Wang Haiqing led the people to the observation platform, and then said to others: "Let's start, first reduce the charge, then standard charge, and finally strong charge!"
After the instructions were given, many workers and technicians in the giant cannon in front became busy. These are all people from the Shanghai Gun Factory. They are not professional soldiers, but they are all people who are very familiar with this artillery.
Therefore, although the loading process is slow, it is extremely skillful.
At this time, Wang Haiqing and others also picked up the earplugs they had prepared and stuffed them into their ears. At the same time, they all held binoculars, ready to watch the impact point of the bomb at any time.
Although the technician's loading speed was slow, it was completed after five or six minutes. Then Wang Haiqing nodded to others.
An engineer who was in charge of the test firing at the front saw the signal from the distant observation group that the shooting was allowed, and immediately led people to conduct a final inspection.
In the end, he took all the people and hid in the artillery-proof cave at the rear. It was a reinforced concrete artillery-proof cave. The side facing the artillery was more than two meters thick, and the depth was also deep enough.
After hiding inside, they also closed the thick iron door.
This is a huge 300mm cannon. If something goes wrong and the barrel explodes, if they don't have adequate protective measures, their bodies may be wiped out.
Therefore, they hid behind a safe anti-gun cave and then used the pull rope to fire the artillery!
Just a few seconds later, everyone in the shell-proof cave only felt the ground shaking, and the dull rumbling sound was so heart-stirring that they even felt the vibration.
What they couldn't see was that the moment the 300mm artillery was fired, in addition to the earth-shattering noise and vibration, the muzzle also released a huge muzzle flame, as if a hurricane was set off from the muzzle.
It swept across the front of the muzzle and around it. A piece of gravel near the muzzle was even blown away by the fierce muzzle wind and disappeared.
A wooden board more than ten meters away was lifted up and stuck in the soil behind like a sword.
This is the terrifying power of the 300mm cannon when fired!
But it is only the power of the artillery when it is fired, not the power of the artillery shells.
The fired artillery shell drew a black line in the air, and landed on the slope of the mountain about a kilometer away in just a few seconds. Then a huge plume of smoke and dust rose directly from the impact point, and its impact swept hundreds of people nearby.
meters, and there was a loud "boom" sound.
Although the people in the observation group were more than a thousand meters apart, they still felt the earth-shattering power.
With such brutal power, if it were to bombard an enemy's port, it wouldn't take more than a few shots to paralyze a port.
If one fired at the Europeans' thousand-ton wooden battleships with sails, one shot would probably knock them to pieces.
Even the most advanced Guangxi-class battleship currently in service in the Tang Navy might not be able to withstand such a shot!
Even if this grenade fails to penetrate the armor of the Guangxi-class battleship, as long as it hits and explodes, it is estimated that the huge power can sweep away the superstructure of the Guangxi-class battleship!
It is impossible to resist such a giant cannon!
When there was another test firing ahead, Wang Haiqing was still thinking about the first shelling.
No wonder that old guy Dong Quankun wants a 300mm cannon to his death. It’s impossible not to have such a powerful cannon!
In the future, if the equipment is installed on the Luzon, the 10,000-ton giant ship is equipped with a 300-millimeter cannon, and it can pull down the army and fire a cannon in front of it, I am afraid it will scare the shit out of them.
When the scheduled five test shots were completed, Wang Haiqing applauded directly:
"good!"
"good!"
"good!"
Wang Haiqing said hello three times in a row, and then paused and said: "Your Shanghai Gun Factory did a good job this time. You will be well prepared when you go back. If nothing else happens, you will need to work overtime and increase production!"
Wang Haiqing did not say it too directly. He did not have the authority to place an order on the spot. The main gun of the battleship could only be decided after discussing it with other senior officials.
However, he thought that this matter was almost certain, and those old guys like Dong Quankun were more anxious than him.
Now that the hull has been built, the Guangdong is still waiting for its main guns in Hong Kong, and it is expected that the Luzon's hull will be almost completed this winter, and the main guns will also be installed by then.
At this time, Ji Haifan walked up and said to Wang Haiqing: "General, you see, we also brought a 150mm breech-loading cannon today, which is also the same as this 300mm breech-loading cannon.
Same, it uses a new type of gun bolt, and its performance is much better than the previous breech-loading gun of the same specifications. Do you want to take a look too!"
As soon as Ji Haifan saw that the test results of the 300 mm cannon were good, he immediately began to promote their flagship product, the 150 mm breech-mounted naval gun.
Whether we can get a large order from the Navy depends on today.
Unlike the 300mm breech-loading cannon, the technical difficulty of small and medium-caliber breech-loading cannons such as 150mm is not very high. Even when lock bolts were still used before, in fact, the Shanghai Gun Factory had already
There are two caliber breech-loading guns available, the 200 mm and the 150 mm, but they cost too much, and although they can be used, they are not very easy to use.
In actual use, the actual combat performance is actually not as good as a front-loading rifled gun!
Therefore, the Navy has never made the decision to formally equip it.
But today, Wang Haiqing is in a good mood, and he has confidence in the new gun bolt, so he said: "Okay, since you are all here, let's watch it together!"
The Shanghai Gun Factory has been working overtime during this period. The main attack is naturally the 300mm breech-loading cannon. At the same time, it still squeezed out the time to produce a 150mm breech-loading cannon with a caliber of 30 times the barrel.
Come out, as for breech-loading guns of other calibers, we haven’t had time to develop them yet.
The Shanghai Gun Factory's idea is to first win the order for the 150mm breech-mounted naval gun, which is the most demanded by the navy and also the most profitable, and then develop other artillery pieces.
Since the Shanghai Gun Factory dared to put it out for test firing today, it was naturally confident. Wang Haiqing was quite happy to watch it during the test.
If the 300mm breech-loading cannon gave him a feeling of shock, then this 150mm breech-loading cannon gave him a feeling of surprise.
At first glance, this artillery seems quite satisfactory, with nothing too special about it, but it is simple and convenient to operate, and its rate of fire is not slow. It is much stronger than the Navy's existing front-loading rifled guns of the same caliber.
Seeing that Wang Haiqing was satisfied, Ji Haifan also had a smile on his face.
Today’s test can be described as a complete success!
The naval observation group headed by Wang Haiqing came with expectations and left with satisfaction. When they left, Ji Haifan heard several naval generals saying that they must be equipped, they must be equipped.
I’m afraid there will be a lot of orders in the future!
And his guess was not wrong. Wang Haiqing returned to Jinling City, and after discussing with several other senior naval officials, he placed an order for these two artillery pieces with the Shanghai Gun Factory without hesitation, which Ji Haifan saw.