Chapter 662: German-Soviet War (19)

"Your Highness, our missile project is going very smoothly. We have successfully developed ship-to-ground, surface-to-ground, and air-to-ground cruise missiles with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers."

"Yes, how accurate are these missiles?" Although the question was asked, Yannick already had the answer in his mind.

Later generations of cruise missiles usually use combined guidance methods such as inertial navigation, terrain matching, GPS and digital scene matching; the hit accuracy can reach 10-30 meters, and some high-precision missiles can even reach less than 1 meter; and can achieve covert flight, Fly around obstacles and effectively attack targets.

At this time, the cruise missile only had inertial guidance as a guidance method, and its flight method was also a straight flight. It did not have advanced functions such as obstacle avoidance flight, and its accuracy was naturally not much better.

"I'm very sorry, Your Highness." A trace of embarrassment flashed across Dr. Braun's face. "The hit accuracy of these cruise missiles cannot reach 300 meters. We are stepping up the development of fiber optic gyroscopes." These cruise missiles are loaded with warheads weighing 500 to 700 kilograms. Even with a 700-kilogram warhead, the kill radius cannot reach 300 meters, which means that these cruise missiles cannot accurately destroy a designated target.

The accuracy of mechanical gyroscopes cannot be improved. Later, the United States invented an inertial guidance system called AIRS. This system is extremely complex. Its core mechanical gyroscope alone consists of 19,000 parts. It can be called the pinnacle of the mechanical gyroscope era. This inertial guidance system can make the circular probability error of the US military's "Peacekeeper" intercontinental missile less than 40 meters, which is in no way inferior to early satellite guidance.

But the cost of this thing is also astronomical. AIRS has three accelerometers. The cost of one accelerometer is as high as 300,000 US dollars. It takes 6 months to complete. The development cost of the entire AIRS can be imagined. Such expensive equipment was unaffordable for the US military. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "Peace Guards" were immediately disbanded. Later, advanced gyroscopes such as fiber optic gyroscopes and laser resonant gyroscopes were developed. The complexity, advancement, and high precision of the technology used in the development of AIRS can be called a miracle in the history of human science and technology.

Yannick had no intention of researching this extreme gyroscope at all, so he didn't have high expectations for the accuracy of these missiles. "As long as it can hit a city, it is considered a success. The accuracy can be gradually improved. What about ballistic missiles?"

Now that satellite rockets have been launched, even intercontinental missiles are not a big problem.

As far as rockets are concerned, they can be used as weapons or for space launches. The only difference lies in the payload on the rocket. If the rocket carries a warhead, then it is a ballistic missile; if it carries a satellite or spacecraft, then it is a space launch. If a country has the ability to launch satellites, it is equivalent to possessing ballistic missiles with medium range or above.

However, ballistic missiles have to re-enter the atmosphere after entering space, so they are different from space vehicles in terms of guidance and control procedures and warhead high temperature resistance.

Precisely because there is a strong common relationship between rockets and ballistic missiles, early rockets and ballistic missiles are all connected, and many space launch vehicles are derived from ballistic missiles. For example, the same Soviet rocket launched intercontinental missiles and artificial satellites into the sky in August and October 1957 respectively. The Soviet Union's first intercontinental missile, SS-6, was quickly retired due to low combat effectiveness and was used for space launches; launching the U.S. The Cupid C-type launch vehicle of the first man-made satellite was derived from the "Redstone" medium-range missile. After the retirement of "Thor", "Hercules", "Cosmos" and other missiles, they were turned into launch vehicles and used to launch various space vehicle.

Later, as ballistic missiles began to use solid propellants that were more convenient and more effective in combat, the situation of early rockets being used by both military and civilians also changed. Space launches continue to use liquid propellants because they focus more on thrust.

"Your Highness, we have successfully developed short-range ballistic missiles with a range of 500 kilometers, medium-range missiles with a range of 1,500 kilometers, long-range missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers and intercontinental missiles with a range of 12,000 kilometers."

Later generations classified ballistic missiles into intercontinental, long-range, medium-range and short-range ballistic missiles according to their range. The general international practice is: a range of more than 8000km is an intercontinental ballistic missile; a range of 3000 to 8000km is a long-range ballistic missile; a range of 1000 to 3000km is a medium-range ballistic missile; a range of less than 1000km is a short-range ballistic missile.

"However, long-range missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers and intercontinental missiles with a range of 12,000 kilometers do not have actual combat value for the time being. Not to mention their cost is too expensive, and the accuracy error can reach several kilometers."

This was also expected by Yannick. Inertial guidance is affected by the accuracy of the gyroscope, and the longer it works, the greater the error.

At this time Annie came over and reported something. "Your Highness, there is a call from Commander Kruger on the Eastern Front. The Russian troops in the encirclement want to surrender. What are you going to do?"

"Are these Russians going to surrender?" Yannick couldn't help but fell into thought.

During World War II, the German army basically treated British, French and American prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Convention, providing them with food and water. As long as the German guards were not mentally ill, there would generally be no problem. In addition, the German army also gave preferential treatment to officer prisoners of war, and they did not have to do forced labor, even ordinary officers. However, in the late stage of World War II, Germany was bombed by the Allies and various resources became very tight. It did not have much food supply, and it was even more impossible to feed the prisoners of war.

But the German army had a different attitude on the Eastern Front. Both the Soviet Union and Germany were bloodthirsty, and this was even more true for the treatment of each other's prisoners of war. Germany used the reason that the Soviet Union did not sign the Geneva Convention and had no intention of supporting them at all. The treatment of the Soviet army was not a level lower. British and American prisoners of war could not stand the German army's torture of Soviet prisoners of war, and protested against it, but were retorted by German officers. Who told them not to join the Geneva Convention?

In fact, Stalin's treatment of German prisoners of war was not much better. In the Battle of Stalingrad alone, more than 100,000 German prisoners of war were allowed to freeze to death, and most of the Russians died before sending the remaining prisoners to Siberian concentration camps to do hard labor.

Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the Germans tortured Soviet prisoners of war: because they knew the fate of themselves or their comrades after being captured, they would treat Soviet prisoners of war in revenge.

It can be said that the Soviet army's bravery in World War II was largely due to "no retreat". Soviet soldiers understood that after being captured, not only would there be some domestic policies to punish them, but even if they fell into the hands of the enemy, they would not have a good end, so they could only choose to fight desperately. The harsh environment inspired the combat effectiveness of Soviet soldiers, which was a major guarantee for the Soviet Union to turn defeat into victory.

If they could be given normal prisoner treatment, would it be different?