The AKMS and its variations have received mild weight reductions from the move towards lighter aluminum magazines but a far more comprehensive overhaul is still necessary. The current contest is still underway with rifles ranging from conventional layouts to more advanced recoil management systems to provide more effective fire in unstable positions. All of the designs are based on the 5.45x39 cartridge so that far more ammunition can be carried by the average soldier especially when combined with a steel-reinforced fiberglass magazine. Side rails have been mandated, deriving from the SVD system as a reliable platform for the mounting of complex optics. Expected combat-zeroing ranges of the new rifle system are over four hundred meters, providing extended capacity for engagement under frontline conditions.
So the folding stock is standard now, and... oh neat. AKM didn't get siderails until night vision scopes got added. We're definitely ahead of the West in this regard... if it can hold zero. If it's crap that's gonna jiggle around, it's just gonna get ripped off.
Modernizations to the RPG-18 complex have involved the replacement of the sighting system for improved ranging and increasing the reliability of engagements outside one hundred meters. In a high armor environment, it is expected that all riflemen will carry the newly modernized RPG-18M.
.... OK, hold a sec, need to pop off.
Who let Comrade Dipshit here play Helldivers 2? You two are going to be running a race to Siberia, winner gets to lie in the grave that the loser digs!/s
No. Just no. I don't care how light the launcher is, I don't care what folded Stalinium you make it out of, that's
weight. A basic, rifle-toting infantryman is already carrying just shy of a hundred pounds of equipment. And that's stuff he needs to exist on deployment. Now someone got a visit from the Good Idea Fairy, and wants everyone to have a rocket launcher. Also, no they're not going to be riding everywhere like a celebrity, there'll be plenty of walking around, especially if they are sent to Afghanistan or some place that isn't friendly to vehicles. And when you're doing that much walking around, even a few pounds can feel terrible. A big part of the reason the Marines got clever to adopt a modified HK416: It's significantly lighter than everything else going around.
I can absolutely guarantee that soldiers are going to dump that shit and its new heavier sight on the side of the road, or just make the newest guy carry everyone else's until he looks like the world's smallest MLRS.
The largest lessons learned from the Second Algerian War have involved the use of anti-tank missiles and the effect of their presence on the battlefield. Infantry has received a weapon that can threaten armor at long range that is both portable and capable of accurately engaging with few options available to armored forces to fight against it. The 9M111 system has proven to be adequate as a light ATGM but limited in that a three-man team is still required for the transport of the full system. To address several issues in the design and enhance close-in fire capability an in-container booster has been added to the system bringing it in line with the 9M113. This has extended the range of the missile to almost two and a half kilometers while avoiding changing the necessary layout of anti-tank teams despite a weight addition. On the heavy end, a kinetic improvement to the 9M113 has yielded a range extension to almost four kilometers along with a greater resistance to slat armor schemes. With the booster incorporated, both systems can confidently engage targets at ranges beyond one hundred meters, minimizing the threat from close in armor.
Hm... Like, I'm not mad they want one guy to carry the system and one guy to haul the ammo like an LMG team. It's just... if they're going to all that extent, what about mortars? Soviet army loves its mortars to help infantry move and attack, so wouldn't making a system that a smaller team can handle be a good thing?
Also, this is pretty much the performance of both missile systems in their modern/90s configuration. Except the Konkurs, that's a new thing. Unless "Kinetic improvement" is meant to refer to the tandem charge probe model.
The large promise of a 100mm gun on an amphibious platform with better protection is expected to be revolutionary for airborne, marine, and recon units. The largest gains of the new vehicle involve improved protection, offering defense against armor-piercing 20mm across the frontal arc and defense against 12.7mm American armor piercing from the sides and rear at ranges above three hundred meters.
That's cool and all. But question for the airborne version: what aircraft are you dropping that new heavier vehicle out of?
With the rising Western combat potential and likely adoption of the 120mm British gun across all chassis with updated munitions a new generation of armor is necessary. As Germany has already re-developed a competent armor industry in the aftermath of the war, the project itself has been pushed ahead as a cooperative measure with several guidelines.
1. Oh no, I can already hear the J- *Propoganda Intensifies*
2. Out of concern for 'certain trends' continuing from the pre-war establishment, a sign has been hung over the break room for the design engineers. "Before you put in a gun or armor scheme the transmission cannot support, remember that we know where your father is buried."
Continuous modernization has further not spared the limited number of 130mm guns in service as their exceptionally long range has not justified the use of a unique caliber. To address the issue a long barrel 152mm gun has been developed to share some shell commonality with the D20 gun. The new 2S7 system is effectively the 2A36 gun mounted to an enclosed mechanized platform based on an effectively unarmored T52 suspension with an enlarged engine. Enlarged charges enable the new system to engage at ranges never before used with conventional gun artillery, allowing several conventionally resistant positions in the second echelon to be brought under fire. The assisted turret loader has allowed for the reduction of crew to a five-man setup, allowing a continuity of fire until stores are depleted or a relocation is ordered to move to a new fire position. Nuclear munitions have also started development to provide additional fire capability though they are not expected to be technically mature for at least a few more years.
Damn, that pretty modern! An enclosed, rotating self-propelled gun basically didn't exist between the 2S3 and the 2S19. A
1989 vehicle.
Most ambitiously, Balakirev in his report argues for the offsetting of conventional energy resources through new technologies, with nuclear energy advanced in tandem with modern gas plants.
... If you build them
properly, and operate them
correctly, then nuclear power's great.
But if you fuck up, pop in your Fallout soundtrack.
To conduct a viable Mars landing and return a sufficient number of samples to Earth a launch system larger than previously conceived of will have to be used. The mission itself has been planned with an orbital rendezvous of a boosting section that will propel a heavy lander into an intercept trajectory with a pre-prepared return vehicle. After landing the mission plan calls for the drilling of two separate samples across parallel drills to a few meters in depth, providing material for analysis through the entire crust and bringing back several kilograms of samples for earth-based analysis. Flying the mission itself will inherently be technically ambitious but without either a nuclear engine or heavier rocket a single launch sample return of sufficient volume is unlikely to be possible.
... Fuck it. We Ball. Get Jebadiah, let's KSP this shit!
Expansion of the block program of launch has gone ahead with few issues, opening payload slots on additional RLA rockets and effectively allowing the free bidding for launch capacity from any CMEA nations. The Germans have so far led the effort with several scientific payloads booked out on launches through 1973 and 1974 through a Czechoslovak and Polish payload that is expected to be launched fairly shortly after, bringing the nations in the block space access.
The Germans have so far led the effort with several scientific payloads
... Can I make an Von Braun joke on this, or did the Germans not invent the V2 in this timeline? I seem to forget.
