A brief history of artillery development
The smoothbore gun appeared in the Yuan Dynasty at the latest. In the Yuan Dynasty, China made the oldest firearms. The bronze gun of Yuan Dynasty (1332) exhibited in China History Museum weighs 6.94kg, is 35.3cm long and has a muzzle diameter of105mm. The gun body has inscriptions such as "Mashan, No.300 Koujun, on the edge of Jiri Sui in February of the third year". There are two square holes in the tail of the gun for mounting the trunnion. The Ming Dynasty government in China set up two bureaus of "Military Operation" and "Military Operation" to make firearms respectively. During the period from Zheng De to Jiajing (1506 ~ 1566), dozens of artillery pieces were manufactured. "Tiger Squatting Gun" uses iron claws to limit recoil. When shooting, the recoil is less than five inches (about 15.55 cm), and more than 100 small lead bullets can be loaded. The "attacking Rong cannon" is mounted on the car to launch, which is convenient for mules and horses to drag, and the recoil is limited by iron anchors. "Invincible General Gun" weighs 1000 kg (about 596.82 kg). It can hold 500 irons and hit the ball more than 20 feet (about 62.2 meters). "Poisonous fire flying cannon" and "flying blasting cannon" can launch explosive bombs. This kind of cannonball is an iron casting hollow body, which is filled with gunpowder and other drugs, and is equipped with a fuse, and the medicine thread is put into a bamboo tube. When launching, the projectile is loaded into the barrel, the fuse is ignited first, and then the propellant in the barrel is ignited, and the projectile explodes after reaching the target.
After China's gunpowder and firearms spread to the west, artillery began to develop in Europe. /kloc-in the first half of the 0/4th century, Europe began to manufacture artillery that fired stone bullets. /kloc-in the first half of the 6th century, the Italian mathematician N.F. tartaglia discovered the law of the maximum range of a shell when it was fired at an angle of 45 in vacuum, which laid a foundation for the theoretical research of artillery science. /kloc-in the mid-6th century, a bronze long-barrel gun with smaller caliber and a long-barrel gun forged with wrought iron appeared in Europe, replacing the previous mortar (a kind of large-caliber short-barrel gun). The front car is also used to facilitate quick action through ups and downs. At the end of 16, there appeared a shotgun made of bullets or metal fragments in an iron cylinder, which was used to kill people. 1600 or so, some countries began to use drug-coated propellant, which improved the firing rate and shooting accuracy. /kloc-in the 7th century, Italian physicist Galileo's ballistic parabola theory and British physicist I Newton's research on air resistance promoted the development of artillery. During the reign of Swedish King Gustav II Adolf (161~1632), the method of artillery weight reduction and standardization was adopted to improve the maneuverability of artillery. 1697, Europe replaced the bulk gunpowder in the ignition hole with a tube filled with gunpowder, which simplified the aiming and filling process. /kloc-at the end of 0/7, howitzers were used in most European countries.
/kloc-In the mid-8th century, King Friedrich II of Prussia and J-B V Degris Beaufort, director of French artillery, devoted themselves to improving the mobility and promoting the standardization of artillery. After many tests, Britain, France and other countries unified the caliber of the gun, making the metal weight ratio of each part of the gun more suitable; There is also a ballistic pendulum used to measure the initial velocity of the projectile. /kloc-at the beginning of the 9th century, shrapnel was used in Britain, which exploded in time by blowing fuse, thus improving the power of artillery. /kloc-before the end of 0/9 century, the gun body was connected with the gun mount through the trunnion, and the gun mount of this kind of gun was called rigid gun mount. When the gun is launched, the rigid gun mount is stressed heavily, the gun body is bulky, the maneuverability is poor, the aiming is destroyed when launching, and the launching speed is slow, which limits the improvement of power. Anti-recoil device appeared at the end of19th century, and the gun body was connected with the gun frame through it. The gun rack of this kind of gun is called elastic gun rack. 1897, France made a 75mm field gun with anti-recoil device (hydraulic gas recoil device), and other countries followed suit. When the gun with elastic gun frame is fired, the force acting on the gun frame is greatly reduced due to the buffer of recoil device, which reduces the weight of the gun, and the gun does not shift during firing, which improves the firing speed. The adoption of elastic gun mount has eased the contradiction between increasing the power and improving the maneuverability of artillery, and the structure of artillery tends to be perfect, which is a major breakthrough in the history of artillery development.
At the end of19th century, wire wound gun body, barrel sealed gun body, high strength gun steel and smokeless powder were adopted one after another, which improved the performance of the gun. High explosives and composite fuzes are used to increase the weight of projectiles and improve the fragmentation lethality of grenades. At the beginning of the 20th century, the general range of 75mm field guns was 6500m, that of105mm howitzer was 6000m, that of150mm howitzer was 7000m, and that of150mm cannon was10000m. Periscope, goniometer and fuse setter are also widely used in artillery. During the First World War, mortars and small-caliber flat-fire guns were widely used to shoot hidden targets and machine gun positions. Anti-aircraft guns are widely used to deal with air targets. Aircraft began to be equipped with air guns. With the use of tanks, tank guns appeared. The appearance of mechanical traction artillery and self-propelled artillery has an important influence on improving the maneuverability of artillery. Mule-horse towed artillery is still widely used. At that time, the Warring States not only used a large number of medium and small caliber guns, but also attached importance to the development of large-caliber long-range guns. Generally, 203 ~ 280mm howitzers and 220 ~ 240mm cannons are used. France1917 220mm cannon with a maximum range of 22km. The 420mm howitzer made in Germany 19 12 has a weight of 1200kg and a maximum range of 9300m. Many countries have also adopted railway guns that move and fire on railways.
In 1930s, the performance of artillery was further improved. By improving ammunition, increasing shooting angle, lengthening barrel and increasing range. The range of light howitzer increases to about 12 km, heavy howitzer increases to about 15 km, and 150 mm cannon increases to 20 ~ 25 km. The performance of bolt and loading mechanism is improved, and the firing speed is increased. Open frame is adopted, and mechanical traction is widely used to reduce the weight of artillery and improve its maneuverability. Due to the increase of gun power, self-tightening gun body and movable gun body are used to control the gun body to solve the problems of insufficient strength and short life of the gun body. Anti-aircraft guns improve the muzzle velocity and shooting height, and improve the time fuse. The caliber and direct range of anti-tank guns are increasing. In World War II, due to the increase of aircraft flying height, large caliber anti-aircraft guns, proximity fuzes and fire control systems including gun aiming radar appeared. Because tanks and other armored targets have become the main threat of the army, recoilless guns and more powerful anti-tank guns have emerged. Since the 1960s, due to the development of science and technology and the improvement of production technology, the range, firing rate, power and maneuverability of artillery have been obviously improved. In terms of increasing the range of artillery, we mainly use high-energy propellant, increase the charge, lengthen the barrel, increase the bore pressure and increase the muzzle velocity, and correspondingly adopt self-tightening gun body to develop new types of ammunition (such as undercut ammunition, bottom-spraying ammunition, rocket extended-range ammunition and jujube nuclear bomb). The range of105mm howitzer increased from1~12km in World War II to15 ~17km, and the range of155mm howitzer increased from14. In order to improve the firing rate of artillery, semi-automatic bolt, hydraulic transmission aiming mechanism, combustible cartridge case and automatic loading mechanism are adopted. Swedish FH77-A 155mm howitzer with a maximum firing rate of 3 rounds /6 ~ 8 seconds. The American M204 105mm howitzer uses the forward thrust principle to shorten the recoil force, and the recoil time is reduced from 2.5 seconds to 1.4 seconds, and the recoil distance is reduced from 1 184 mm to 430 mm In order to improve the projectile power, measures are taken to increase the projectile strength, reduce the projectile wall thickness and increase the recoil distance. The killing effect of American105mm Grenade is equivalent to that of155mm Grenade during World War II. In improving the mobility of artillery, many countries adopt new structures, new principles and new materials to reduce the weight of artillery, and attach importance to the development of new self-propelled artillery. The American M 102 105mm howitzer integrates the upper shelf, the lower shelf and the large shelf, the upper and lower machines and the balancing machine, and adopts the bird sternum closed shelf and mortar seat plate, which simplifies the structure and improves the stress conditions. Except for the recoil part, most of them are made of aluminum. The gun weight was reduced from 2260 kg to 1400 kg. The American M204 105 mm howitzer adopts the principle of forward propulsion, and its weight is reduced from 2260 kg to 2027 kg. The American M 109A 1 model 155mm self-propelled howitzer adopts special aluminum alloy body, which is small in size, light in weight and good in maneuverability. Adopt closed rotating turret, which has floating ability; Using a hydraulic folding hoe, the boundary 360 is shot directionally. Swedish FH77 155mm howitzer and FH70 155mm howitzer jointly developed by Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy are equipped with auxiliary propulsion devices, which further improves the maneuverability of the artillery. Su д-30 122 mm howitzer adopts a gun frame with a 360 directional firing boundary, which improves the firepower maneuverability of the gun.
In order to improve the life of gun barrel, many countries adopt refining processes such as electroslag remelting to improve the mechanical properties and thermal cracking resistance of gun barrel steel. The adoption of self-tightening technology improves the effective strength and fatigue life of gun body. Chromium plating on the surface of the gun bore improves the thermal wear resistance of the gun bore. Using high energy and low erosion propellant or new corrosion inhibitor can reduce the erosion of gun barrel. The 120mm tank gun of the Federal Republic of Germany adopts self-tightening chrome plating with a smooth bore. Although the muzzle velocity is 1330m/s and the bore pressure is 5.4× 105kPa, the life of the gun still reaches 1000 rounds.
In order to improve the adaptability of artillery firepower, the artillery is equipped with various long-range grenades, anti-tank mines, anti-tank submunitions, artillery-guided projectiles, chemical projectiles and nuclear bombs (see nuclear weapons) in addition to ordinary grenades, armor-piercing projectiles, armor-piercing projectiles, flares and smoke bombs, so that the artillery can suppress and destroy various targets ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of meters.
The gun will further improve the muzzle velocity and firing rate, increase the range, prolong the service life, improve the shooting accuracy and maneuverability, adopt new missiles to increase the power and enhance the anti-armor ability, and integrate with reconnaissance system and shooting command system to further improve the response ability.