Empire Conquest-Chapter 788 - 66: Armored Reprisal

Before the enemy attacked, their artillery preparation was not only swift but also extremely fierce.

In the blink of an eye, the fierce artillery fire covered the defensive positions of the Luosha Army in the east, turning the scorched hill into a hell of rampaging flames.

The feeling was like the end of the world, with the ground shaking and mountains trembling.

However, the duration was also very short-lived.

Overall, it lasted less than 10 minutes.

As for the effect of the shelling, it’s really hard to say!

In modern defensive operations, heavy troops are no longer deployed upfront, nor is human wave tactics relied upon. The number of troops is not the key factor in deciding victory or defeat, so for the attacking side, relying on artillery strikes to weaken the defender’s combat power is nearly impossible.

Often, the defenders place their troops behind the defense line.

Even when forced, they set up anti-artillery holes at reverse slope positions for soldiers to hide.

Worried about artillery reprisal, especially when facing opponents with artillery radar, mainly self-propelled artillery field units, there is a need to keep artillery far from the front line, so in actual combat, the attacking side’s artillery units can never be deployed up close.

Moreover, the widespread use of artillery radar strictly limits the continued firing time of artillery.

In most situations, 10 minutes is already the limit.

The defending artillery units, upon using artillery radar to locate enemy artillery positions, can launch a reprisal within 10 minutes at most.

In prepared situations, they can even fire within 5 minutes!

For the attacking side, they must control the firepower strike time within 10 minutes.

Before the enemy’s artillery preparation ended, the Luosha artillery units deployed in the rear already began reprisal, just without much intensity.

It’s not surprising, just one artillery battalion, equipped with only 2 batteries of self-propelled howitzers.

It must be said, the artillery of the Luosha Army is more reliable than that of the Empire Army.

Due to long-term facing military threats from the west Luosha, and primarily focusing on strategic defense, the Luosha Army pays great attention to supporting firepower.

Of course, it also directly relates to the insufficient strength of the Luosha Air Force.

While the Empire Army was still using 40-caliber, 150 mm howitzers, the Luosha Army was already equipped with 150 mm self-propelled howitzers with ZT-80 chassis, the power pack placed at the front, and a 45-caliber barrel, and they independently developed several types of range-extending shells.

Among them, the Rocket Boosted Range Extender reached a range of 40 kilometers, and the Bottom Ejection Range Extender reached 35 kilometers.

Because of their advanced performance, especially the range advantage, a few years ago, the Empire Army purchased a production license from Luosha and independently produced 150 units.

Interestingly, there was no follow-up afterwards.

These 150 self-propelled artillery pieces were soon entirely transferred to the Reserve Forces.

According to pre-war planning, these artillery pieces were already listed in the clearance inventory, eventually to be sold as second-hand equipment to less affluent Allies.

The reason is simple, the West Continent Group has started to develop 52-caliber self-propelled artillery.

Comparatively, the 45-caliber self-propelled artillery is obviously neither here nor there.

Because of this, the Empire Army decided to directly develop 55-caliber self-propelled artillery to replace all existing artillery.

Because the length of the barrel directly determines the external ballistics of the artillery, the equipment of artillery with different barrel lengths will inevitably affect logistical support and tactical regulations. Therefore, when the Eastern Group was established, the first-generation standard was set, specifying 40 caliber as the unified barrel length.

The second-generation standard is 55 caliber, not the 45 caliber first adopted by Luosha.

The subtleties involved also relate to the leadership within the Eastern Group.

Through mastering the formulation of group standards, improving status within the group, has never been an unusual thing.

More than 10 years ago, when determining the second-generation standard caliber ammunition of the Eastern Group, the Liangxia Empire’s hegemony was vividly demonstrated. Firstly, in the first round of public voting, rejecting the 5.45 mm small-caliber ammunition proposed by Luosha, then in the second round of supplemental voting, letting the most technologically promising 5.6 mm plan proposed by Gaoju Army exit, ultimately allowing the 6 mm plan led by the Empire Army to prevail.

Although retrospectively, this choice was farsighted, as the 6 mm cartridge’s power is greater, its development potential far exceeded the West Continent Group’s 5.45 mm cartridge and the Beigu Group’s 5.56 mm cartridge, its long-range performance comparable to that of the previous generation of large-caliber cartridges, yet under the circumstances at the time, that is, during the craze for small-caliber ammunition, the 6 mm cartridge with unchanged overall ammo mass winning out was inseparable from the Liangxia Empire’s authoritative influence within the Eastern Group, a classic example of political influence swaying military decisions.

However, the difficulty in artillery development is far greater than that in firearms.

The development work on new artillery is proceeding not smoothly, not just due to lack of funding, but also due to a vast number of technical hurdles.

Not to mention near-term delivery, achieving prototype artillery development within a few years would already be quite commendable.

At the rear of the front line, those 2 batteries providing supporting firepower are equipped with the Empire Army’s self-propelled howitzers dubbed ZS-86R.

Actually, the artillery reprisal was also remarkably brief.

Because of rear deployment of the artillery, even with artillery radar, there might not be sufficient range to fire at all detected enemy artillery positions.

To put it plainly, most enemy artillery positions are beyond the effective range of ZS-86R.