Chapter 412 Planning (End)

Yannick knew that there were three airborne tanks in the 1940s and 1950s of the original time and space.

The first one was the ASU-57 airborne tank destroyer, which was an ultra-light self-propelled artillery developed by the Soviet Union for its paratroopers in the early 1950s after World War II. At that time, the carrying capacity of Soviet transport aircraft was insufficient, and the design focus of the ASU-57 was to be as small and light as possible, weighing 4 tons. This vehicle has no turret and uses an open fighting compartment. The front armor is 6 mm thick and the side and rear armor is 4 mm thick. It is equipped with a CH-51 57mm anti-tank gun (a development model of the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun during World War II), and the power unit is an M-20E 4-cylinder water-cooled gasoline engine. Although the vehicle can be said to be small and exquisite, it also has many shortcomings. First, the armor is too thin and can only withstand rifle bullets and fragments. Secondly, the open fighting compartment is vulnerable to attack.

However, the biggest advantage of this thing is that it can be airdropped. When it is airdropped, it is fixed on a platform, which is connected to a pull-out parachute and 4 main parachutes with a diameter of 30 meters. And because of its small body, it can even be stuffed into a Mi-6 helicopter for air transport.

The second one is the M22 Cicada tank.

It was an airborne tank developed by the United States in the 1940s. At that time, it was suspended for a time because there was no suitable transport aircraft. After the British learned about this, they actively promoted it, and finally made the US military change its mind and continue the development work. The American Marmon-Wellington Company made the first prototype in May 1941, called the T9 light airborne tank. Later it was named the M22 "Cicada" airborne tank.

As the world's first specially designed airborne tank, the American M22 "Cicada" Locust is very suitable for the needs of airborne operations in terms of firepower, mobility and protection, and has important reference value for the development of airborne tanks in various countries in the world later.

Its combat weight is 72 tons, with a crew of 3 people, a vehicle length of 94 meters, a vehicle width of 25 meters, and a vehicle height of 84 meters, which can be regarded as small and exquisite. The turret is a cast homogeneous steel armored turret with an armor thickness of 25 mm all around; the body is a rolled steel armored welded structure with the thickest front armor of 25 mm and the rest of the armor of 10 to 13 mm. In order to ensure that the weight of the vehicle does not exceed 5 tons, the designers had to do everything possible to reduce the thickness of the armor. It can be said that weak protection is the fatal weakness of the M22.

In general, the M22 "Cicada" light airborne tank has good mobility, but its firepower is obviously insufficient, and its armor protection is also poor. In addition, it is troublesome to transport by air (the turret needs to be removed), and various congenital defects limit its use in actual combat. However, compared with the Soviet Union, Germany, Britain and other countries (their airborne tanks are all improved from ordinary light tanks), the M22 "Cicada" is the world's first specially designed airborne tank. At the beginning of its design, it fully considered the needs of airborne operations in terms of firepower, mobility and armor protection. This has important reference value for the development of airborne tanks in various countries in the world in the future and has had a far-reaching impact.

The third is Germany's own Type 1 C tank, with a combat weight of 8 tons, equipped with a 20mm 60-caliber gun and a 92mm machine gun. Its front armor reaches 30mm, and its side armor is about 5mm. The maximum speed can reach 75 kilometers per hour.

As for the British "Lord" airborne tank, Yannick simply denied it.

In Normandy, the mission of the "Lord" tank from beginning to end was to show what "囧" means. Some were lost during landing, some were damaged by mines, and they were even unable to move forward when encountering Germany's Type 4 tanks and Type 3 tank destroyers. The most competent job of the "Lord" tank is to provide fire support that is better than nothing when the British and German infantry fight.

In August 1944, most of the "Lord" tanks in the British airborne troops were replaced by the "Cromwell" cruiser tank. In November, the remaining "Lord" was replaced by the American M22 "Cicada" airborne tank.

Yannick wanted to airdrop the Jackal tank or the Hunter destroyer, but this was just a fantasy.

Even in later generations, the United States and Russia, which have the most thorough research on heavy-duty airdrop technology, the most advanced equipment technology, and the most practical operations, have an airdrop limit weight of only 18 tons. The maximum manned airdrop (man-vehicle integrated airdrop) weight is 5 tons. This is the only technology in the Russian airborne forces that can carry out man-vehicle integrated airdrop operations, which is unique in the world.

Heavy equipment airdrop technology has been developed from the 1940s to later generations. After more than 70 years of development, the latest progress is only the use of computer automatic control to achieve precise airdrop and rocket cushioning landing. There is no major breakthrough in the weight of airdrop. It can be said that 18 tons (the maximum single-piece airdrop capacity of the US military) is already the world's top heavy equipment airdrop limit weight in later generations. If it is a manned airdrop, it has to be reduced. The United States has no idea of ​​manned airdrops exceeding 15 tons, and even Russia, which is strong, dare not drop it - it's very simple. The result of dropping too heavy equipment is to break into a pile of scrap metal. Russia and the United States have experienced countless failed heavy equipment airdrops. It's really not allowed by technology. Otherwise, Russia would have done light tanks and vehicles in one airdrop.

Therefore, it is impossible to airdrop larger tanks with current technology. If you want to transport tanks, paratroopers have to seize the enemy's airport to expand the defense line, and then transport the tanks to the airport by transport planes. And even if the enemy airport is occupied, there is no large enough transport plane to transport the main tanks.

Germany currently has two large transport aircraft, the first of which is the Me323F "Giant" transport aircraft.

Its wingspan is 2 meters, its length is 46 meters, it uses 6 1350 horsepower Jumo 211R engines, and its maximum carrying capacity is 3 tons.

Although this large transport aircraft developed from a glider is the best prey for fighters due to its heavy body and slow speed, its large volume, low-floor cargo hold, openable nose door and multi-wheel landing gear design are considered to be the ancestor of modern military transport aircraft.

Another one is the Bv222 Viking seaplane, which is the largest military seaplane in World War II, with a wingspan of 46 meters, a fuselage height of 9 meters, a fuselage length of 37 meters, and a length of one and a half times that of the B-29. The engine is 6 1000 horsepower coaxial diesel engines, with a maximum carrying capacity of 5 tons.

Therefore, even if tanks are transported by air, they will not exceed the level of 20 tons.

The Zeppelin Company of the original time and space cooperated with the French SNCOSO Company to develop the ZSO523 "Super Giant". "ZSO" is the combination of the initials of the two companies. It has a wingspan of 70 meters, a length of 25 meters, a full weight of more than 50 tons, and is planned to carry 35 tons of cargo. It is powered by six 2,100-horsepower Grom-Rhone 14R engines, with a maximum speed of 340 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 3,800 meters, and a range of 2,000 kilometers at a cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour. When the German army fled from Paris, ZSO523 was in the stage of making a wooden model of the same size.