Chapter 1303: Who Knows？  

At New Moon Island located northwest of Coro City.

Since the establishment of the High-Tech Industrial Park on Ange Island, the production line of the Phantom was moved from the nearby offshore platform to Ange Island.

This offshore platform had been transformed into a deep water port, used to dock the Guardian-class frigates that were upgraded by Future Military’s dark technologies, as well as experimental equipment such as submarines designed by Future Heavy Industries.

On top of the platform, off of New Moon Island, Ivan showed Jiang Chen the latest equipment of Celestial Trade Marine Corps.

“This is the latest innovation from Future Military, the ‘Crocodile-20’ Amphibious Assault Vehicle. It can submerge up to ten meters underwater, quickly attack the coastline, and provide cover fire for the landing infantry…”

The short and compact cross-section made the vehicle resemble more of a tank than an armored vehicle, but the weapon layout was nearly identical to a general armored vehicle. The circular tubular external tanks that hung on both sides of the armor were used to control the depth by draining water, and the tail end was equipped with a propulsion device to provide power for the amphibious assault vehicle.

The top of the armored vehicle was equipped with an electromagnetic pulse rapid-fire cannon, and the mass projectile accelerated to the limit could easily penetrate through the light armor of a general infantry fighting vehicle. The auto-loading rockets that suspended on both sides of the turret could fire both armor-piercing and high-explosive rockets.

With both high penetration and firepower, whether it was fighting in city terrains or amphibious conditions, the amphibious assault vehicle named “Crocodile” could easily handle any battle conditions.

Jiang Chen nodded at the weapon tailor-made for Celestial Trade Marine Corps and provided a two-word response.

“Not bad.”

With armored vehicles and mechanized infantries as the main battle force, and Tiger IIs and other penetrative and high-damaging main battle tanks as the supporting force aligned with the tactical strategy of Celestial Trade, which emphasized fast attack and soft target killing. Future Military’s research and development of weapons were also based on this strategy.

The most evident example was the lack of a main battle tank in all of the research and development projects.

There was naturally a reason for this phenomenon.

Since the advent of electromagnetic pulse cannons, the asymmetry of offense and defense of armored units was pushed to the extreme. A mass projectile accelerated to ten times the speed of sound would not only easily penetrate the front armor of the M1A2 main battle tank, but the projectile would also come out from the back.

In fact, even without a next era weapon like the electromagnetic pulse cannon, the asymmetry of offense and defense of modern main battle tanks was starting to become more apparent

Disregarding the dark technologies of Celestial Trade, let’s take a very simple example.

The standard 125mm armor-piercing ammunition of Hua has a penetration depth of 1000mm as reported by the media (there was mention of 1800mm, but it should be disregarded as being too unrealistic and not used for reference). Its imaginary enemy, the M1A2 tank, has the strongest armor at the front of the turret, and the horizontal anti-ballistic ability is equivalent to 850 mm rolled homogeneous armor, and the inclination coefficient is 1.3. The equivalent thickness of the Chobham armor may be higher, but it will not exceed 1000mm rolled homogeneous steel.

What does this mean?

Even if M1A2 took the hit at the strongest point, it may not be able to resist a single shot.

Of course, the reverse is also true.

In an encounter within “2000 meters”, whether it was a tank or a squishy, one shot was enough.

It was also the reason why Europe had been reluctant to equip 140mm tank guns. Apart from the military expenditure issue, the most fundamental reason was the lack of necessity.

Even against the front armor of the latest main battle tank, a 120mm tank gun with an armor-piercing shell could easily penetrate within 2000 meters. And if you want to effectively defend against 120mm (including Russia’s 125mm) tank guns, you must greatly increase defense at the expense of sacrificing mobility.

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However, in the modern warfare era with diverse anti-tank methods, loss of mobility is often more deadly than the loss of armor.

The current developmental thinking of Future Military followed the guidelines established by Jiang Chen, and Jiang Chen referenced the apocalypse. From the middle of the 21st century to the early 22nd century, the main battle tanks were indeed unfavored for an extended period of time.

It was not until the emergence of giant brain-hole designs such as the Wanderer and Spider Tank did main battle tanks regain their purpose. But by that time, the boundary between tanks and armored vehicles was actually quite blurred.

The Wanderer may still be able to count as a tank. As for the Spider Tank… what aspect of that design resembled a tank?

After a tour on the offshore platform, they returned to New Moon Island, and Jiang Chen asked Ivan.

“How many Crocodiles do we have?”

“We have only ordered twenty vehicles from Future Military,” Ivan replied.

“How do you think they work?” Jiang Chen asked again.

Without exactly understanding what Jiang Chen meant, Ivan hesitated a little, and said truthfully, “The performance in several exercises has been quite positive. It has indeed greatly improved the Marine Corps’ landing combat capabilities.”

“Then buy five hundred of it,” Jiang Chen laughed and said casually, “What can twenty vehicles do? It’s too few.”

Ivan silently remembered these words. He planned to get someone on this task right away.

“Right,” Jiang Chen suddenly turned around and looked at Ivan, “How big is our reserve?”

It seemed that he felt he was not being accurate so he added another sentence.

“You know, I mean those mercenaries.”

“Counting the recruits in training, there are 30,000 people!”

“Too few,” Jiang Chen shook his head, “I think it is necessary to increase the number of ‘contractors’.”

Ivan looked at him, lowered his voice, and asked.

“Is there going to be a war?”

When the Russian asked this sentence, his pupils flashed with excitement.

Since the establishment of the Aerospace Department, Celestial Trade’s Space Defense Force had been designated into the responsibilities of the Aerospace Department. Including the orbital airborne brigade and the power armor brigade, although they were all referred to as Celestial Trade Marine Corps out of habit, they were two completely different systems from the Celestial Trade Navy and Marine Corps currently commanded by Ivan.

It was precisely this reason that, although Celestial Trade had engaged in warfare, for Ivan, nothing much changed.

Although he never considered war to be a good thing, he still couldn’t help the fact that he craved battle. Whenever he heard that an orbital airborne brigade achieved victory somewhere, he always felt somewhat frustrated.

From the tone in the boss’s voice, he heard a subtle hint of unusualness.

Including the sudden visit of the boss to New Moon Island, who had always focused on space issues, to make a rare inspection of the military training. All these actions were intriguing.

Because the last time he frequently visited the New Moon Island Military Base, the Battle of MLL Island that shocked the world broke out shortly after.

However, Jiang Chen did not give a clear answer to Ivan’s question. He only smiled and gave an ambiguous answer.

“Who knows, especially with a war?”