Chapter 578: Steel Collision
The 1st Cavalry Division is simply a professional firefighting unit. When the war broke out in the island country, it was transferred from the United States to the island country. After that, the war in the island country failed and it was temporarily transferred to South Korea. Soon after, it was transferred to Pakistan. In Pakistan, it participated in the long-distance attack on Tehran. After that, the war ended and it retreated to Pakistan. It did not return to its original base like other troops, but continued to stay in Pakistan. Now, there are problems in Saudi Arabia, and it is the first batch of troops transferred from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.
Although the 1st Cavalry Division has suffered repeated defeats, they are still the most elite army!
Although it is called the Cavalry Division, they are still a heavily equipped unit. The main weapon of the 1st Cavalry Division is the M1 tank!
In the battle of Hokkaido, the M1 tank rushed to the battlefield, thinking that it could turn the tide in one fell swoop, but unexpectedly, the M1 tank could not withstand the shooting of the T72 armor-piercing shells! Therefore, the United States learned from its mistakes and improved its own M1 tank.
The 105mm tank gun is outdated, so the new M1A1 tank uses the 120mm smoothbore gun from Germany's Rheinmetall. This tank gun is the largest caliber tank gun in the West and can be said to be a new generation of standard weapons. The United States directly uses this tank gun authorized by Rheinmetall, but still follows the original practice of producing advanced ammunition on its own to achieve greater penetration.
At the same time, it was also urgent to increase the protection of the M1 tank. At this time, the depleted uranium armor had not yet been developed, and there were many problems that needed to be overcome. Therefore, the M1 tank still used the original composite armor, but it was thicker, which increased the weight of the tank.
The weight of the M1 tank is 54.5 tons, and the current M1A1 tank has increased dramatically to 65 tons! The extra 10 tons of weight is almost all added to the armor protection! The United States is very confident that it will not be penetrated if it encounters the T-72 again this time! Moreover, it is the monkey version of the T-72 exported by the Soviet Union!
However, due to the increase in the weight of the M1 tank, the ground pressure has further increased. It doesn't matter in other areas, but now in the desert, the disadvantages are revealed. The tracks of this tank are almost stuck in the sand! Its mobility has also dropped a lot!
However, this did not affect the fighting in the desert. After the battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, under the 1st Cavalry Brigade, discovered the Iraqi army ahead through the commander's periscope, he immediately issued a combat order.
Enter combat mode!
The 120mm armor-piercing shell was stuffed into the barrel by the big loader, and the gunner took aim at the target. Due to the advanced aiming system, this tank gun still had a very good first-shot hit rate at a distance of two thousand meters!
Now, the distance between the two sides is 5,000 meters, and they are rushing against each other quickly, and will soon be close to 2,000 meters! And the Soviet tanks basically did not observe the firing from a distance of 1,000 meters! This is our advantage!
At first, the 105mm tank gun was unable to penetrate the enemy, but now that it has been replaced with a 120mm tank gun, it can finally hold its head high!
The desert is the most suitable position for tank battles. Both sides have laid out a wide offensive surface, and the collision of steel against steel is about to begin!
Just when the **** battalion commander gave the order to continue approaching, he discovered a cloud of black smoke coming out of the barrel of the Iraqi tank gun opposite.
What's going on? Are the Iraqis opening fire now? How is this possible? Now, the distance between the two sides is four thousand meters!
Although Iraq's T-72 tanks use a 125mm tank gun, which is larger than the caliber of the American tank gun, due to various limitations, the accurate hit range of the 125mm tank gun is indeed less than two kilometers. However, Soviet tanks still have other advantages, that is, gun-launched missiles!
The United States was the first country to study artillery-launched missiles. They put a lot of effort into developing the Oak Stick artillery-launched missile. At the same time, in order to make this missile usable, they also developed the M551 Sheridan light tank. This thing can both fire cannons and launch artillery-launched missiles, but in the end it turned out to be a scam.
The United States turned back long ago when it hit the wall, but at the same time it continued to fool the Soviets and show off the advanced nature of its gun-launched missiles. The Soviets were indeed fooled, and through continuous improvement and development, gun-launched missiles eventually became ubiquitous in the Soviet equipment sequence.
The earliest 9M112 artillery-launched missile used radio command guidance, and its performance was seriously outdated. Therefore, the Soviet Union improved and successfully developed the latest 9M119 Reed Flute, NATO codenamed AT-11 Sniper. Compared with the original missile, its biggest feature is the use of semi-active laser guidance and tandem warhead!
In order to enable the Iraqi army to sweep across the Middle East, the Soviet Union spent a huge amount of money and even provided Iraq with this kind of artillery-launched missile. However, Iraq could not produce it itself, and every time it was used, it would be one less.
Now, this kind of artillery-launched missile has exerted its greatest power! After discovering that the American M1 tanks were coming, Ali immediately ordered the artillery-launched missiles to attack first!
Just like that, at a distance of four thousand meters, the Iraqi tanks roared, and 9M119 gun-launched missiles flew out from the muzzle of the 125mm tank gun!
The missile's rocket engine spewed flames, pushing the missile to continue accelerating, reaching a speed of 800 meters per second, controlling the laser beam and constantly modifying its own forward trajectory.
Missiles fired from the cannon! **** finally realized what it was, and he shouted an order: "Stop!"
That missile is coming! At this time, if we suddenly stop the car, we may be able to make the other side miss the target!
Hearing his order, the tank driver stepped on the brakes, and the tank, which was speeding just now, stopped instantly. The body of the tank tilted forward, and the gun barrel of the tank almost hit the sand dune in front!
At this moment, all the tank drivers heard a terrible sound, but they still did not dodge. The missile had already collided closely with their own tanks!
The first-stage hollow armor-piercing charge cap in front ignited first, and the hot metal heat flow began to drill the armor of the M1 turret. Then, in the second-stage hollow armor-piercing charge cap located behind the rocket engine, the main charge turned into a metal heat flow and continued to bombard!
Compared with the original 9M112's 600 mm static vertical penetration, the current 9M119 has a maximum penetration of 800 mm!
As a result, under this metal heat flow, the main armor of the M1 tank was directly penetrated! The hot metal heat flow penetrated into the interior of the tank, and the ammunition inside was instantly detonated!