"This is..."

The sound of gunfire like tearing cloth echoed in the shooting range at the foot of Yuntai Mountain.

A machine gun on a tripod looks very crude. In fact, from anyone's perspective, such a machine gun is really a crude weapon, just a patchwork of some iron sheets and an iron pipe.

And last year, when Mo Fan's Erqing Machinery Company produced a sample of this machine gun for the first time, Mo Fan, an assistant engineer who participated in the production of the 2016-type general-purpose machine gun, was also shocked by the shoddy manufacturing of the weapon.

.

But when that crude-looking 2-year-old general-purpose machine gun was carried to the shooting range, everyone was stunned by its performance.

The most impressive thing is its high rate of fire, which exceeds 1,200 rounds per minute. This high rate of fire makes it an impressive and terrifying fire suppression weapon. Because of such a high rate of fire,

The human ear cannot distinguish the sound of a single bullet in a shooting, so the gunshot sounds like the sound of tearing cloth. At the test site, company engineer Frederic Simpson once vividly called it the "sound of tearing oilcloth."

However, such a weapon has an insurmountable shortcoming.

When the sound of gunfire suddenly disappeared like tearing cloth, Mo Fan, who was standing aside, saw the shooter behind the machine gun who was originally operating the machine gun. The assistant shooter was busy, changing the ammunition chain and the barrel.

"Because the 2-year-old general-purpose machine gun uses a very thin barrel in order to reduce weight, the problem of barrel heating is very serious. In order to overcome this shortcoming, a design that can quickly replace the barrel is adopted in the design. Although skilled shooters can replace

The barrel replacement only takes a few seconds to complete, but it still reduces the continuous firepower. Therefore, in the 2008-2015 General Machine Gun Operation Manual, it is forbidden to fire more than 250 rounds with continuous burst fire, and it is listed that the actual rate of fire should not exceed

300 to 350 rounds per minute to minimize bore wear and overheating problems."

Mo Fan's explanation was just that Han Wu and others nodded. This is exactly the biggest shortcoming of the two-year-old general-purpose machine gun they mentioned in the "Investigation Report on the Use of Jiangsu Army Weapons and Equipment" - poor firepower sustainability.

"The 2-year-old machine gun is pretty good, at least it's more convenient than a water-cooled machine gun!"

Zhao Qiyun, the Jiangsu Army Joint Logistics Minister, said truthfully that compared to water-cooled machine guns, the most convenient thing about the 2-year-old machine gun is that it does not need to carry a bucket to find water. However, the price of this advantage has become its biggest disadvantage.

The reason for the deficiency is,

"To solve the problem of barrel overheating, you have designed a barrel that can be quickly replaced. However, this speed is relative. According to the army's tests, a skilled shooter can change the barrel in three seconds, while an unskilled shooter can spend seven seconds.

Seconds, these seven seconds can cost lives on the battlefield!"

If there was a person from the machine gun team here, I'm afraid they would think so and nod quickly. The machine gun team is almost equal to the "Lao Niu" team in the Jiangsu Army. The Jiangsu Army's company and platoon tactics are completely based on machine guns.

Squads and platoons fight entirely around machine guns, and the importance of machine guns is self-evident.

In actual use, a standard machine gun team requires 6 people to maintain, including: machine gun commander, No. 1 is responsible for shooting, No. 2 is responsible for carrying the tripod, No. 3, 4, and 5 are responsible for carrying ammunition, backup barrels, and trenching tools

and other items. In order to protect the commander, No. 1 and No. 2 are equipped with pistols, and the remaining three carry German 79 rifles. Due to the alarming consumption of ammunition of the machine gun, all soldiers who are close to the machine gun team in combat are obliged to

Machine guns carry ammunition.

The reason for carrying pistols and rifles is to change the barrel. This is to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the machine gun team to change the barrel. The machine gun, spare barrel, ammunition plus self-defense weapons and self-defense weapons ammunition, machine gun

The team became an overburdened old team.

“That’s why we designed the Type 2 Type A machine gun based on the Type 2 machine gun!”

"Year 2 Type A machine gun?"

Mo Fan nodded to the shooter next to him. After receiving the instruction, the shooter opened the tripod covered with canvas and saw that the tripod was a tripod... The eyes of Han Wu, Zhao Qiyun and others opened.

Year 2 machine gun?

No, even though the gun frame is that of a 2000-type machine gun, and the rear part of the gun is also the familiar 2000-type machine gun, the front part of the gun... the cooling cylinder? Water-cooled 2000-type?

"The 2-year-old receiver and barrel guard are a whole, made of a piece of steel that is extruded, cut and stamped, then welded and riveted, and finally form a long gun body with a rectangular cross-section. The front part is the barrel guard

, there are some oval-shaped heat sinks, and there is a long slot on the right side for disassembling the barrel. This is a characteristic of the 2002-type machine gun. After receiving feedback from the Army Staff at the beginning of the year, we started targeting the 2016-2020 machine gun.

Key improvements have been made to the shortcomings.”

Focus on improvement. Looking at the extra cooling tube in front of the tripod's Type 2 machine gun, Mo Fan was really confused. Is this water-cooled Type 2 machine gun a technological advancement or a technological regression?

But at least one thing is certain. He has met the Army's requirements and can shoot continuously. In fact, as long as there is enough cooling water, it can...

At this time, gunshots rang out, and the 2009-2009 Type A machine gun with the cooling tube connected to the water tank still made a tearing sound like the 2016-2012 machine gun. But what was different from the 2016-2012 machine gun was that next to the gun frame

But there was a large ammunition box with a thousand bullets in it, and in the box next to it, bullet chains filled with bullets were waiting.

"This is..."

The sound of gunfire like tearing cloth echoed in the shooting range. The funnel at the water injection hole in the water-cooling tube continuously sprayed out steam. The water in the tube boiled, while the shooter next to him kept injecting cooling water.

A thousand rounds!

Two thousand rounds!

Three thousand rounds!

Four thousand rounds...

In everyone's jaw-dropping surprise, the machine gun roared. It no longer needed to change the ammunition chain in the middle. It only needed to connect the ammunition chain when there were still a few bullets left. There was no need to replace the barrel, and only needed to replenish the cooling water.

"call……"

Finally, after the forty bullet belts were empty, the shooter let out a sigh of relief. In less than a minute, all ten thousand bullets were fired.

"As long as there is cooling water and bullets, it can keep shooting!"

There was no pride or other emotions in Mo Fan's expression. In fact, he had very complicated emotions about this machine gun, because no one knew what this water-cooled two-year-old machine gun was...

Swallowing his saliva, Zhao Qiyun quickly shouted loudly.

"My dear, I want this thing and replace all the Jiangsu Army's machine guns with it,"

Its continuous shooting capability is the dream of military personnel. It can be said that it has completely overcome the shortcomings of the two-year-old model! It needs water, and water is no problem. Is it possible that there is no water in a land of fish and rice like Jiangsu?

"The continuous shooting ability is good, but..."

Frowning and staring at the 2-year-old machine gun, Han Wu took a while to utter a word.

"What if the battlefield is in the desert?"

desert……

This is exactly what Han Wu considered. In fact, deserts are not the only places that are short of water. A waterless hill is a dead end for water-cooled machine guns.

Regarding Han Wu's concerns, Mo Fan just shrugged helplessly. Problems are always like this. When one problem is solved, new problems will arise. This problem should be left to them to worry about. As for himself...

"Director Han, there are a few more weapons here!"

Just like a child showing off a toy, Mo Fan was eager to show off his "toy".

"This is a nine millimeter pistol,"

"German oar?"

Han Wu and others picked up the well-made pistol on the table. When they held it in their hands, they realized that the pistol was completely different from the German oar. Although the appearance was somewhat similar, it fired with an exposed hammer. They took off the magazine and observed

The bullet turned out to be the same 9mm bullet as a submachine gun. In the past, they had always used Browning pistols. After each person fired a few rounds, they all nodded with satisfaction. They were very satisfied with this pistol, which was at least more powerful than

Browning pistols are larger.

"The pistol is good. As a combat pistol, it is more suitable than the Browning, and the bullets can be used with submachine guns..."

Zhao Qiyun praised the "oar" in his hand from a logistics perspective. The current Jiangsu Army is no longer like the past. When it was first reorganized, the Jiangsu Army had five or six types of rifles and fired more bullets.

There are up to five types, and the German 79 caliber has round bullets and pointed bullets, plus Mannlicher, 30 gold hook, and American .30, the weapons and equipment cannot be said to be complicated.

In the past six months, it can be said that the Jiangsu Army has been committed to the unification of weapons. Finally, through a one-time purchase, it used the Mauser 9 rifle as the main equipment, and at the same time rechambered the old miscellaneous weapons in the Jiangsu Army.

Although the ammunition for rifled machine guns is unified, there are differences between submachine guns and pistols. The submachine gun uses 9 mm and the pistol uses 9 mm, but the bullets are not universal. The submachine gun uses 919 mm German pistol bullets, but the pistol uses 919 mm German pistol bullets.

917mm Browning ammunition.

There may not be any trouble in peacetime, but during the war, when the operator's ears were deafened by the sound of gunfire, and the operator who had not slept for several nights loudly conveyed various incomprehensible orders to the phone, what would happen in this situation?

It all happens. At this time, a certain division received a batch of 9mm bullets, but the officer was suddenly shocked to find that the batch was all pistol bullets! The hundreds of submachine guns in his division did not receive a single bullet, but the pistols had a surprising

Fuyu, this seemingly minor problem has been plaguing the Jiangsu Army. Now this problem is no longer a problem. As for the Browning pistols in the past, well, they can be eliminated and given to the police.

"This is a three-year-old rifle made on the basis of the German Mauser 98 rifle. The length of the barrel is similar to the US .30 rifle..."

The next few weapons didn't seem to have anything outstanding. They were familiar with rifles. Han Wu got the pistol and played with it. The rifle was the same as the American rifle. It used a short gun and the handle of the bolt was bent downward. Well, this is also beautiful.

The characteristics of the standard rifle, it seems that they learned from the characteristics of American rifles when manufacturing the rifle.

Seeing that the pistol and rifle did not attract their attention at all as he expected, Mo Fan just grinned. Another piece of canvas was lifted off the table, and a long gun with a bipod appeared in people's sight.

"This is a three-year-old automatic rifle!"

He picked up the automatic rifle from the table with one hand. After pulling the bolt, Mo Fan easily held it on his waist, then pointed at the front and pulled the trigger. The rapid gunfire only made everyone stunned.

Once empty, Mo Fan held the gun at his waist.

"The 2000-type machine gun is too heavy. The bipod-type empty gun weighs 5 kilograms. If you add a 50-round magazine, the weight exceeds 500 pounds. In team sports, the 2000-year-old machine gun has always been a burden for the machine gunner..."

At this time, Han Wu just looked at the weapon Mo Fan had on his waist. What he said was true. The second-year machine gun was too heavy, so it was only used in the company's machine gun platoon. The infantry squad's firepower relied entirely on the rifle and the squad leader's and deputy squad leader's firepower.

Two submachine guns, Han Wu even considered whether to introduce the Madsen light machine gun to strengthen the firepower of the rifle squad.

"Compared to the two-year-old machine gun, the three-year-old automatic rifle weighs only 5.5 kilograms. Even if the 30-round magazine is full, it is only 6.5 kilograms. It is not much heavier than a rifle, but..."

He easily removed the bullet on the left side with his left hand, pulled the bolt again, and after the butt of the gun reached his shoulder, Mo Fan pulled the trigger again.

"The firepower is not inferior to that of a machine gun. The most important thing is that it fires rifle bullets. It has the firepower of a submachine gun, the range of a rifle, and the power of a rifle! It is a light enough automatic weapon!"

Showing the weapon in his hand, Mo Fan looked a little proud. After manufacturing this automatic rifle according to the drawings, he always regarded it as his achievement because he made some detailed improvements to this weapon.
To be continued...