Steel Soviet Union

Fortunately, Poreshev's next answer did not disappoint Malashenko.

"It's not too heavy, Comrade General. You should be worried about mobility. In fact, we took this into consideration at the beginning of the project design. Comrade Kejing has never relaxed his emphasis on mobility."

When Polyshev said this, Malashenko remembered the interesting story that Kotin was beaten by his loving father Comrade Stalin because of the mobility problem of the heavy tank. The last time he was in front of him, Kotin was particularly attentive and concerned about mobility issues. Malashenko was not surprised when Polyshev said this now.

"Under the premise of strict weight restrictions, a complete set of fully loaded modular composite armor weighs 6 tons in total. We think this is a relatively acceptable number, and it is worthwhile compared with the improvement in protection it brings. Because it is It adopts focused protection rather than all-round mounting, so the weight is not too exaggerated.”

"According to the different armor protection weights of the IS6 heavy tank, we set the key protection parts of the modular composite armor upgrade kit on the sides of the vehicle body, especially the running gear area. The new modular composite armor replaces the old single-layer homogeneous Steel skirt, which can ensure that the vertical armor area on the inner side of the IS6’s weakest running gear will not be plagued by penetration problems.”

“In the lateral direction of the turret, we have considered a new protection enhancement solution to protect the sides and rear part of the turret through a three-way grille that can be quickly assembled. At the same time, this quickly assembled three-way grille Not only can it be easily mounted outside the turret, but it can also be equipped with additional modular composite armor to further enhance the protection effect.”

If you just rely on words, it is actually quite difficult to imagine the appearance of such an IS6 heavy tank that has changed so much.

But a big advantage is that there is a real vehicle on display in front of Malashenko. This IS6 heavy tank is covered with pieces of modular composite armor. The intuitive visual feeling is that it has gained a lot of weight. Circle, really fattened up a lot.

Malashenko, who was not excited enough by looking at it, walked forward and came to the side of the car. He stretched out his two arms and made some gestures. He estimated that the width of a piece of composite armor was about half a meter, and the length was about half a meter. It's less than one meter, but the thickness is quite a bit thicker, about five centimeters.

However, it is definitely not solid inside. There may be a lot of rubber poured into it, and there is a huge weight difference between it and a solid piece of iron.

The first scene that catches the eye on the turret is the left, right and back of the head surrounded by grille armor. An additional layer of modular composite armor is hung outside the grille armor.

It looks a bit like the 99A turret grille mounted on the outside of the turret by the 21st century homebody, but the grille is mounted on non-explosive reactive armor. It is just similar in appearance.

"Six tons of six tons, in exchange for being able to be immune to at least one Iron Fist bombardment without relying on base armor, it sounds like a good deal. Anyway, this thing is detachable, so you can remove it when it is not needed for field attacks or cross-country maneuvers. That’s all. When it comes to street fighting, it won’t require much mobility. This is a pretty good deal.”

Reaching out to pat this new and thicker composite skirt than before, Malashenko suddenly thought that he almost forgot something.

"By the way, Comrade Polyshev. Has the basic armor composition of the new IS6 heavy tanks you sent changed? Is it the original appearance without any changes, or does it also use a composite armor design?"

Malashenko remembered that he had suggested to Kogin that the base armor design should also be changed, so that it could be applied to new tanks produced as early as possible.

Now that the upgrade kits for the modular composite armor are now available, there is no reason why the base armor should still be the same homogeneous steel as before. There must be some changes no matter what, right?

"Yes, Comrade General, you guessed it right. These newly delivered IS6 improved models are all new vehicles that have upgraded and strengthened the basic armor and are made of brand-new composite armor. They are not based on the original old vehicles. Based on the transformation.”

"We have collected enough battlefield feedback reports that the main armor protection belt on the front of the IS6 heavy tank, especially the large-angle sloping armor area above and below the front of the car body, can be absolutely immune to bombardment by any existing anti-armor weapons of the enemy. , whether it is a kinetic energy armor-piercing weapon or a chemical energy armor-piercing weapon, and the level of protection greatly exceeds the enemy's armor-piercing firepower limit."

"According to this situation, we adjusted the composition ratio of the armor on the premise of building new composite armor. The new composite armor on the front of the car body and the front of the car body is 20% smaller than the original armor. The thickness of the steel is uniform, but the inclination remains the same. Instead, a new layer of rubber is added, sandwiched between two layers of homogeneous steel armor, as you suggested.”

"Based on the results of calculating equivalent protection according to the formula, the protection against kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles has indeed declined, but in exchange for this, the protection against chemical energy armor-piercing weapons has been greatly improved."

"And because the proportion of homogeneous steel armor has been reduced, the overall armor weight is lower than the original pure homogeneous steel armor. This can just make up for the additional weight brought by some additional upgrade kits for composite armor. Although this Not too much.”

"We built a 1:1 protection test target based on the armor inclination of the IS6 heavy tank, and received strong cooperation from comrades in the relevant departments. Not only did we find all types of captured German anti-tank guns, including the most powerful long-range 88, and even used the main anti-tank guns of our Red Army for testing.”

"The test results are as we expected. Neither the enemy nor any of our current kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles can effectively penetrate the composite armor main armor belt constructed with this new ratio. The protective effect against kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles is still very strong. , and there has been no substantial change due to the reduction in the proportion of homogeneous steel. What could not be penetrated before is still impossible to penetrate now. "

"As for chemical armor-piercing weapons, we can't find any type of weapon that can be tested for extreme defense. No chemical armor-piercing weapon can completely penetrate it. The German's iron fist can only barely break through it. The first layer of outermost homogeneous steel armor cannot even penetrate the inner rubber interlayer, let alone the innermost layer of homogeneous steel armor.”

He reached out and patted the cold and solid armor on the front of the car body. With a proud expression on his face, Polyshev continued his explanation.

"Data collected from the front line confirm that the turret is the part with the highest probability of being hit in actual combat. The protection of the turret needs to be paid special attention to and considered for the future. Therefore, for the sake of caution, Comrade Kojing advocated not reducing the homogeneous steel armor of the turret. The thickness is just a matter of adding an appropriate amount of rubber interlayer to improve the protective effect against chemical armor-piercing weapons.”

"So the weight of the turret will be heavier than before. That is the weight of the newly added rubber, but it is insignificant compared to the reduced weight of the homogeneous steel armor on the front of the vehicle. The total weight of the base armor of the entire vehicle is compared to the previous IS6 The heavy tank is still more than one ton lighter. Comrade Kojing believes that this is a very commendable armor optimization design, and it is all due to the new composite armor concept.”

"Thank Malashenko for me, and tell him that when he comes next time, I will prepare a double portion of barbecue for him and treat him to drink the best wine in my collection. This is what Comrade Kotin asked me to tell you, General Comrade."