Empire Conquest-Chapter 700 - 24 Armored Assault_2
The reason is simple, the "Crossbow Cannon-8" Heavy Anti-Tank Missile utilizes a cold launch principle driven by high-pressure gas, and only ignites the engine after it has left the launch tube.
As a result, by the time the engine emits visible light, the missile had already left the vehicle and traveled several dozens of meters.
This design was specifically to keep the Cavalry Chariot concealed.
Over ten seconds later, a deafening roar arrived.
Clearly, the sound of a tank cannon firing is exceptionally loud.
Ding Zhennan clearly saw that out of the several shells fired by the Iraq tank, almost all landed directly in front of a Cavalry Chariot hidden behind a dune.
Moreover, that Cavalry Chariot hadn’t moved at all.
While launching the missile, the Cavalry Chariot had only exposed its turret, and the vehicle’s body was hidden behind the dune, making it less likely to be hit by shells.
To start moving could possibly result in taking hits.
Of course, the Cavalry Chariot could not move until the missile hit the target.
As mentioned earlier, the "Crossbow Cannon-8" Anti-Tank Missile used a wire-guided system, which needed to be controlled by the shooter until it hit its target.
The missile’s average flying speed was less than 200 meters per second, so shooting at a target several kilometers away took a significant amount of time.
After the tank cannon’s roaring sound came, near the border, a BMP-1 battle vehicle that had been running wildly suddenly exploded.
It was extremely violent, and the fiery explosion illuminated the nearby Iraqi tanks and battle vehicles.
In fact, the missile’s power wasn’t so great; it seemed like the vehicle’s ammunition had detonated inside. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
In a flash, over 30 "ZT-99AL" tanks roared almost simultaneously, to be precise, within a few seconds of each other.
It came so suddenly, it was even a bit frightening.
When the deafening sound of artillery fire arrived, even Ding Zhennan couldn’t help but shudder.
Additionally, the muzzle flash from the tank cannon firing was incredibly dazzling.
Mainly because it was close, giving a more intense direct experience.
In the blink of an eye, just over a second, over 30 Iraqi tank vehicles across the border were "named" by Armor-Piercing Bullets.
Most were tanks, and nearly all were the foremost T-72Ms.
"Commander!"
After the firing, over 30 "ZT-99AL" tanks surged out from behind the sand dune.
At the border’s opposite side, when the BMP-1 battle vehicle was destroyed by an Anti-Tank Missile, the previously halted tanks began to move again.
Unfortunately, the reaction speed of the Iraqi tanks was too slow.
Perhaps it was the Iraqi tanks restarting that prompted Liu Zunshan to issue the firing command, as most Iraqi tanks were moving south rather than reversing.
In the first round of combat, nearly 30 tank vehicles were destroyed.
The intensity of this attack was clearly too fierce.
In less than 10 seconds, the second round of strikes followed closely.
Arguably, this was a great advantage of the Marine Corps "ZT-99AL."
Opting for the 52-caliber 125 mm Smoothbore Cannon, the Marine Corps’s "ZT-99AL" employed the B model’s unique tail compartment autoloader to accommodate longer, integral rounds, increasing the rate of fire over the "ZT-99A"’s semi-automatic loader and the "ZT-99AG"’s export version’s carousel loader, theoretically reaching one shot every six seconds, with an actual combat firing rate of about one shot every ten seconds.
Just like this, the Marine Corps’s "ZT-99AL" closely resembled the "ZT-99B" in appearance, and had often been mistakenly identified as the Army’s Main Battle Tank.
In fact, the tail compartment autoloader was a significant innovation within the "ZT-99" series.
This invention had also won the Empire’s Award for Technological Innovation.
Apart from enhancing safety, the greatest value of the tail compartment autoloader was solving the issue of the carousel autoloader’s inability to handle larger-size, especially longer rounds, paving the way for the use of more powerful Armor-Piercing Bullets, and future adoption of larger caliber tank cannons.
The 125 mm integral armor-piercing bullet weighed nearly 30 kilograms, already surpassing the limit that human strength could handle.
In the designed next-generation tank cannons, whether the 145 mm being developed by the Liangxia Empire, the 140 mm that the Newland Republic was actively constructing, or the 152 mm by the West Continent group, all used integral rounds, with the weight of each round exceeding 50 kilograms.
This meant that autoloader was a necessity.
In fact, it was the development of the tail compartment autoloader that allowed the Liangxia Empire to take a crucial step in expanding the caliber of tank cannons.
The planned "ZT-99C" would employ a 145 mm tank cannon.
Of course, to fully unleash the power of the 145mm tank cannon, the next generation of tanks is needed, namely the still-in-development ZTX.
In actual combat, the most important value of an autoloader is to ensure the rate of fire during combat.
Whether moving rapidly or on rough terrain, unless there is a malfunction in the loader, the rate of fire is guaranteed.
Clearly, this can’t be achieved with a manual loader.
Even the strongest manual loaders would struggle to maintain efficiency when the tank is advancing rapidly in the field.
In a field combat scenario, the "ZT-99A" has a rate of fire of fewer than 4 rounds per minute, whereas its designed rate is one round every 7 seconds.
The difference lies with the manual loaders. The "ZT-99A" employs a semi-automatic loader, requiring only that the loader push the propellant charges into the breech.
This time, more than 10 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed.
It was not that the hit rate had decreased significantly, but that there were no more targets worthy of armor-piercing bullets; several Iraqi tanks were hit by multiple armor-piercing bullets.
According to post-battle statistics, during this battle, one T-72M was hit by 4 armor-piercing bullets!
Only then did the last few surviving Iraqi tanks begin to fire in retaliation.
Unfortunately, it was basically a waste of ammunition.
Not only were the shots inaccurate, but they were also firing armor-piercing shells or fragmentation shells.
Clearly, these Iraqi tanks had initially prepared to fire at cavalry chariots, choosing armor-piercing and fragmentation shells, and had not switched to armor-piercing bullets designed for tanks in time.
It’s no surprise that any tank wouldn’t carry many armor-piercing bullets.
By unspoken rule, armor-piercing bullets are only used against enemy tanks; other targets are dealt with using armor-piercing shells or multipurpose fragmentation shells.
The reason is simple; armor-piercing bullets have a very specific use and are very expensive.
The Marine Corps’ "ZT-99AL", with a base load of 42 rounds, typically carries only 8 armor-piercing bullets; the rest are multipurpose fragmentation shells.
Additionally, some tanks carry a few rounds of specialty ammunition like illumination shells.
Only when the mission specifics call for it will the quantity of armor-piercing bullets be increased.
For example, this time, the number of armor-piercing bullets was doubled.
This is entirely understandable.
On the battlefield, encountering enemy tanks is actually a low probability event; most of the time, tanks are actually facing non-armored targets.
When facing targets like bunkers and street barriers, expensive armor-piercing bullets are not necessary.
While returning fire, the remaining Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles began to retreat.
The Marine Corps’ tank cluster didn’t stop; they continued to advance northward, continuing to fire at the fleeing enemy.
The battle had already erupted; who cared about the border line anymore?
The enemy was right there; as long as they still posed a threat, the fight would continue until all the enemies were annihilated or no longer posed a threat.
But this was a matter of just about ten more minutes.
Ding Zhennan was the first to react. Seeing the tank cluster charge out, he immediately ordered the battalion staff to return to the command vehicle and contact Liu Zunshan, making sure not to cross the border.
As long as the troops were on this side of the border, any method of fighting was acceptable.
Regardless, it was indeed Iraqi armored vehicles that had first crossed the border, and Iraqi tanks had opened fire in reprisal, landing shells on Saudi Arabian soil.
No matter the ruckus, there was still a rationale to cling to.
If the Marine Corps’ tanks had crossed the border into Iraq, leaving evidence such as being destroyed, then there would be no rationale left.
Let’s not forget, the Empire was striking at invaders; it definitely couldn’t invade other nations without cause, at least not before formally declaring war on Iraq.
That’s exactly why, about ten minutes later, the battle was declared over.
At least 80 Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed, and not a single Marine Corps tank was lost, to be precise, there were no combat losses.
The only loss was a cavalry chariot that had moved ahead of the frontline at the start of the reprisal and ended up in front of the tank formation, sadly suffering a friendly fire accident that injured the vehicle commander and gunner.
Fortunately, this cavalry chariot wasn’t carrying infantry.
Otherwise, this one shot would have undoubtedly resulted in the first casualties of the Imperial Army in this war.
