Chapter 407 Planning (2)
After World War II, most Western countries did not develop intermediate-power bullets similar to the Soviet Union (Switzerland developed 75x3 in the 1920s, Germany developed 75x3 in World War II, Czech Republic developed 7×43mm in the UK, but these did not become popular); NATO's standard bullet is 57x99mm; other than that, they are all equipped by their own countries, such as the US .45 (45mm) pistol bullet, German ammunition, etc.
The 43 bullet was developed in the late World War II and was officially installed after the end of World War II. At that time, intermediate-power rifle bullets were considered a trend. Germany's Kurz bullets were also used in large quantities in World War II for Stg44 assault rifles; but after the war, only the 43 bullet was truly in service and widely popular.
This is due to the overall reasonable design and good performance of the M43 rifle bullet, as well as the huge influence of the Soviet Union after the war.
In the historical environment at that time, compared with various high-power rifle bullets during World War II and NATO rifle bullets that NATO still stubbornly insisted on, the full size and weight of the M43 intermediate power rifle bullet were significantly reduced, which was conducive to increasing the ammunition carrying capacity; the recoil during shooting was significantly reduced, the bullet power was sufficient to meet the combat within a distance of 400m, and the muzzle jump of continuous shooting was smaller than that of automatic rifles that fired large-power rifle bullets, which was conducive to exerting firepower at close range.
As for why NATO did not popularize intermediate power bullets, it has to start from the end of World War II.
Soon after the end of World War II, the East-West Cold War began. Western countries established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In order to save the cost of armament construction and standardize logistics materials during wartime, NATO proposed that a light weapons ammunition standard should be formulated and a NATO standard rifle bullet should be selected, so a noisy big fight broke out.
As a European old imperialist, Britain was seriously injured, but it did not fall down, and tried its best to recommend its 280-inch (7×43mm) intermediate power rifle bullet. It should be said that the basic design of this bullet is still very good, and its ballistic performance is better than that of the Soviet 43 rifle bullet, with relatively small recoil, muzzle noise and flame.
However, the United States, as the leader of NATO, strongly opposes the intermediate power rifle bullet.
In World War II, the US military was fully equipped with the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle. The firepower of the infantry squad was unrivaled at the time. Because it started early and took advantage, the United States was very conservative about light weapons. It believed that the M1 Garand rifle was already perfect, and adding a 20-round magazine and a burst function would be enough; as for ammunition, the 30-06 rifle bullet was also very good, and at most the shell length could be slightly shortened and made lighter, that would be enough!
For this reason, the United States directly made a T44 experimental rifle and T65 rifle bullet. The basic structure of the T44 is very similar to that of the M1 Garand. It can be seen as an M1 Garand with a shortened handguard, a 20-round magazine and a burst function, and eventually developed into the M14 rifle we are all familiar with. The design of the T65 rifle bullet is also very conservative. It is a shortened 30-06 rifle bullet. The shell length is still 848m/s from the initial velocity, which is still a traditional high-power rifle bullet.
After years of arguing, the final result was that the United States relied on its huge influence in Western countries to win, and the T65 rifle bullet was designated as the NATO standard rifle bullet, that is, the NATO rifle bullet; the British were stubborn for a while (mainly the Labour government), but in the end, considering the unanimous steps of Western allies, they gave up the 280-inch rifle bullet and switched to the NATO rifle bullet. As a result, NATO missed the historical opportunity of the intermediate-power rifle bullet and continued to use the traditional high-power rifle bullet in the 1950s.
At that time, the three mainstream rifles of NATO countries - the US M14 rifle, the Belgian FN FAL rifle, and the West German G3 rifle all used this caliber. There was a common problem of excessive recoil and difficulty in controlling continuous shooting. Therefore, most of the US M14s simply replaced the single-continuous shooting selector lever with a speed lock, locking it in a single-shot state. The British L1A1 (FAL rifle produced in the UK) also cancelled the continuous shooting function and could only shoot single shots.
The result of this tossing was that the firepower density of the infantry squad was not much improved compared with the World War II period (although the metric version of the FAL and the West German G3 retained the continuous shooting function, the short burst shooting was difficult to control due to the large recoil of the bullet, and it was very impractical. For the United States, replacing the M1 with the M14 locked in the semi-automatic state almost did not improve it), and the infantry squad light weapons system was obviously behind the Soviet Union.
During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the U.S. military used the M14 with full-power rifle bullets, but was beaten to pieces by the AK with intermediate rifle bullets in the jungle. They quickly replaced it with the M16, which was not fully prepared, even though it received poor reviews at the beginning due to reliability issues. But after it was improved to M16A1, the trend of small calibers instantly overwhelmed the intermediate rifle bullets, and set off a wave of small caliber rifles in the armies of various countries in the world.
Because all the advantages of the M43 intermediate power rifle bullet, the small caliber rifle bullet has, and even surpasses the M43 bullet.
1. In terms of weight and volume, the small caliber rifle bullet is lighter, smaller in volume, and has a larger ammunition capacity.
2. In terms of recoil, the small caliber rifle bullet has less recoil when shooting, and the muzzle jump is smaller and more stable when firing continuously.
Moreover, small-caliber rifle bullets have many advantages that M43 rifle bullets do not have: their trajectory is straighter and lower than that of M43 intermediate-power rifle bullets, and the bullet danger range is larger; high-speed flying bullets are more likely to become unstable after hitting the human body, and the bullets may break or roll, releasing energy more fully and causing greater injury effects.
Yannick wanted to jump directly to small-caliber rifle bullets, but the barrel length-to-diameter ratio of small-caliber rifles is large and requires high processing accuracy. The bullet has a high initial velocity and the barrel wears quickly, which greatly increases the technical difficulty of the processing process and materials of the barrel. The processing accuracy during World War II was no problem in manufacturing small-caliber guns and bullets. The key is the production under the wartime system. The manufacturing efficiency and manufacturing cost of small-caliber rifles are difficult to meet the needs of super-large production.
In addition, the emergence of small calibers is due to the continuous increase in artillery firepower, and the long-range function of rifles is no longer needed; during World War II, artillery firepower was not strong, and the long-range function of rifles was still a very necessary performance for the army; changing to small calibers greatly weakened the army's firepower, and it would only lose more miserably.
Although small-caliber bullets have the advantages of light weight, high shooting accuracy, and high ammunition carrying capacity, they also have shortcomings such as insufficient penetration and a sharp decrease in lethality outside the effective range. After many years, the military once again attached importance to the advantages of 62mm caliber bullets, and some countries' armies picked up 62mm rifles again.
For these reasons, Yannick could not give up the intermediate power bullet. He first used the German bullet of World War II, then changed to the Russian bullet, and finally settled on the British 280-inch (7×43mm) intermediate power rifle bullet.