Empire Conquest-Chapter 702 - 25 Dilution Treatment_2

On the contrary, the protective capability of the composite armor used on the "ZT-99A" had been confirmed.

After returning to the temporary base, the Marine Corps personnel discovered a "ZT-99AL" that had been struck by an armor-piercing bullet fired from an Iraqi tank. Although it was impossible to know whether the armor-piercing bullet came from a T-72M or a T-62, one thing was certain: the composite armor installed on the front of the "ZT-99AL" had almost perfectly blocked the shot, not only preventing penetration but also leaving the rear plate intact.

According to the tank driver, at the time he only felt the tank shake violently, and since it was not seriously damaged, he did not stop to inspect it.

Afterwards, the tank regained its combat capability once several armor plates on the front of the vehicle body were replaced.

But that was not all.

On the morning of the next day, the 5th, upon waking up, Ding Zhennan learned that the Marine Corps had towed back a T-72M, which had not suffered serious damage, the previous night.

In fact, the T-72M had merely encountered an engine failure and couldn’t restart after stopping.

Consequently, as the Marine Corps suddenly attacked and destroyed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, the crew members of the tank, terrified, all fled.

Coincidentally, in the chaos, the commander mistakenly threw an incendiary bomb instead of a smoke grenade into the tank cabin.

As a result, the tank practically fell into the hands of the Marine Corps undamaged.

Because the matter was of great significance and time was of the essence, Liu Zunshan did not immediately report it, but instead personally led several tanks across the border to tow the T-72M back. After hiding it, he then contacted Ding Zhennan to arrange for a transport plane to take away the seized tank.

That was, in fact, the Empire’s first complete version of a T-72 tank.

Ding Zhennan dared not take any risks, and immediately began to make arrangements.

That same morning, the tank was loaded onto a "Yun-10B" that transported the "Divine Archer" air defense system, outwardly claiming it as a combat-damaged tank.

After the news leaked, media agencies in the West Continent insisted that shortly after the war began, a "ZT-99AL" had been destroyed in combat by a T-72M, which the Liangxia Empire had always refused to admit, so as to promote this type of tank on the international market.

Later, through this T-72M tank, the Empire gained a more direct understanding of the tanks of the Luosha Democratic Republic, specifically the West Continent Group.

According to tests conducted by the Imperial Army, even using the Luosha Democratic Republic’s standard armor-piercing bullets, the T-72M needed to reduce the combat distance to 1200 meters to have about a 50% probability of piercing the body and turret frontal armor of the "ZT-99AL". If using exported armor-piercing bullets, even reducing the combat distance to 800 meters might not be enough to penetrate the frontal armor of the "ZT-99AL", let alone at 2000 meters. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Additionally, the exported version of the T-72M used what amounted to non-existent "sandwich cookie" style composite armor.

What was filled inside the layer was astonishingly quartz sand.

Yes, that’s right, it was glass!

Through live fire tests, the effective thickness of the frontal turret armor of the T-72M was only 300 millimeters, and the vehicle body was 250 millimeters, with a protection effect only equivalent to a second-generation main battle tank.

It could be said, even a second-generation main battle tank couldn’t match up.

The Empire’s "ZT-80DG", even without wearing reactive armor, had an effective frontal thickness of 400 millimeters on the turret and 350 millimeters on the vehicle body.

Furthermore, the 125 millimeter tank cannon of the T-72M was actually just a copy of the Empire’s 48-caliber tank cannon.

That was no secret.

After the great war, especially after the formation of a tripartite power, the West Continent Group always maintained a strategic offensive momentum on the eastern front.

It was not because the military power of the West Continent Group was stronger, but for the weaker party, offense might have a chance of success, while defense definitely did not.

As Lian Xusheng explained, if the West Continent Group initiated an offensive at the start of the war, it might still win time to complete war mobilization. If they started by focusing on passive defense, the Imperial Army’s armored forces could advance to the outskirts of Bailin City before they completed mobilization.

Indeed, the Luosha Democratic Republic always insisted on matching the caliber of the main battle weapons of the Liangxia Empire.

The reason was that during large-scale strategic offenses, the ground forces of the Luosha Democratic Republic might not receive sufficient logistics support and were bound to face the issue of inadequate ammunition supplies. If they could use captured ammunition, it would greatly ease the burden of logistics support.

Of course, this also led to a very interesting phenomenon.

The West Continent Group had two sets of standard ammunition.

In the strategic rear of the Tiaoman Empire and in the countries like Locke, Raleigh Kingdom, and Sban Kingdom, they used the caliber system established by the Tiaoman military.

As for the reason, it naturally related to defense.

If the offensive of the Luosha Democratic Republic failed or was forced to switch from offense to defense, it could at least ensure that the Liangxia Army wouldn’t be able to use the captured ammunition.

This also reflected from one side that the Luosha Democratic Republic never truly felt at home in the West Continent group.

After handling the shipment of the T-72M, Ding Zhennan casually inquired about the situation of the "Divine Archer" air defense system.

To Ding Zhennan’s slight surprise, the Saudi military was very proactive, not only providing a launch site but also sending a senior general over.

The key was, he was indeed a prince.

Of course, the one thing Saudi Arabia did not lack was princes; the descendants of the founding king had already exceeded 1,000 and were expected to surpass 5,000 in the next 20 years.

In fact, Saudi Arabia had been wanting to purchase this advanced air defense system.

Unfortunately, due to its limited production and the Liangxia Army’s own unmet needs, coupled with stringent controls on the export of many advanced technologies, the Imperial High Command had not yet made a decision on exporting the "Divine Archer," let alone carry out export negotiations.

That day, the first missile battalion to arrive had already completed its combat deployment.

Although it was just one battalion and could not withstand high-intensity consumption battles, it was still manageable against a small number of ballistic missiles.

Actually, the Liangxia Army and Air Force had never relied on air defense systems for air defense.

After waiting throughout the day and approaching evening, the Iraq authorities had not announced last night’s battle.

It was only then that Ding Zhennan breathed a sigh of relief.

Being defeated again and Hussein’s obsession with face being so severe, unless he planned to immediately invade Saudi Arabia, silence was the only option.

A brigade-sized armored force was routed without inflicting significant damage on the opponent, which was certainly not a glorious matter.

After dinner, Ding Zhennan went to report the situation to Shi Shouliang.

Actually, it was normal to report at this time as, after dinner, Shi Shouliang would usually spend half an hour drinking a cup of tea.

There wasn’t much to report.

Throughout the entire day, other than a few symbolic Iraqi fighter jets entering the no-fly zone and turning away before being intercepted, there was nothing worth boasting about. As for Kuwait, organized resistance had ended with the surrender of the Kuwaiti forces.

Relatively speaking, the evacuation operations conducted through neutral countries still counted as a significant event.

According to the information received, all personnel holding passports of the Liangxia Empire had left Kuwait; only some citizens from allied countries remained.

Ding Zhennan came to see Shi Shouliang primarily to discuss operational matters.

"What you’ve said has been considered by those above. Based on the performance of the Iraqi forces, this war won’t have much suspense. Although there is some exaggeration in the propaganda, well, propaganda naturally needs to be somewhat exaggerated," Shi Shouliang was also waiting for Ding Zhennan. "According to their intentions, the duration of the first phase of combat operations has been shortened to three days, to start executing the second phase of the combat mission possibly the day after tomorrow early in the morning. However, the Grand Secretary hasn’t issued the orders yet; judging by the current situation, there might still be some hesitations."

"You mean..."

"Hussein is just a clown jumping around; we don’t need to beat a mouthpiece to death. Thus, to a large extent, we need to consider factors outside the battlefield."

"The Tiaoman Empire?"

"Do you think the Tiaoman Empire still has the capital to confront us?"

"The Newland Republic?"

Shi Shouliang smiled and said, "These are not issues for us to worry about; they are matters for the Grand Secretary. Our task is to make adequate preparations."

"I will go adjust the combat deployment now."

"Tomorrow morning, a meeting for all the Joint Forces is scheduled; don’t forget."

Ding Zhennan nodded and agreed.

Upon leaving the room, he let out a long breath.

The information leaked by Shi Shouliang made him very anxious and even gave rise to a very bad premonition.