Chapter 2787: New Equipment (Part 2)

"Perfectly suitable, perfectly easy to use—you lot who always crave the new and discard the old!" Comrade Thorpe remarked. "How many years has the Hall rifle even been in service?"

Despite Joint Logistics' mockery about the Navy's fickleness toward new equipment, the Navy proved highly supportive of adopting the Type 1637. This was only natural. The spare ammunition allocation for sailors' rifles was negligible compared to the massive quantities required for warships, and sailors rarely used their rifles anyway, making ammunition consumption a non-issue. As for the Base Force and Marines, the former was stationed for defense with warehouses immediately behind them, while the latter operated primarily along coastlines and rivers, seldom venturing beyond the reach of naval supply lines. Moreover, their establishment numbers were small, their self-sustained combat duration was short, and most of their actions were small-unit raids. Such operations placed specific demands on rifle rate of fire and range.

The General Staff Political Department also submitted a report. In it, the General Political Department pointed out that troops using the new rifles would require more complex tactics, which in turn placed higher demands on the cultural and educational level of officers. Only with greater literacy could they properly comprehend and apply these new tactical doctrines.

The intellectual talent cultivated through the Senate's own education system remained woefully insufficient. Various departments were also reluctant to release their personnel to the army. The Political Department expressed that the quality of officers urgently needed improvement.

Thus, two opposing opinions formed within the army. The industrial department found itself equally conflicted. On one hand, Senators from the industrial sector held extremely strong interest in product upgrades. After all, the Hall rifle's performance since entering production could hardly be considered "perfectly satisfactory." If the Type 1637 could be launched, it would herald industrial upgrading across the sector. The fixed ammunition required by the Type 1637 would particularly force advances in metal stamping and the chemical industry.

On the other hand, producing the Type 1637 posed new challenges to current mechanical processing capabilities. The structure of the Minié rifle was simple to the extreme; strictly speaking, its core component was merely a barrel, with the trigger mechanism being the most complex part. There were extremely few parts and processing was straightforward. The caliber of more than ten millimeters also made it insensitive to tolerance variations—the same applied to ammunition.

Although the Hall rifle represented some improvement, what had been added was merely a movable breechblock, hardly a substantial advancement.

But the Type 1637 was an entirely modern breech-loading rifle. It featured a more complex structure, more parts, tighter tolerances, and demanded higher quality materials. Given the current machining and material capabilities of the industrial sector, stable mass production would prove extremely difficult.

Since this was a brand-new rifle, the existing equipment and tooling could not be shared with old rifle production lines. A new factory would need to be built, along with supporting ammunition production facilities. Even if the supply of raw materials and skilled workers could be guaranteed without hindrance, stable mass production would likely take three or four years.

"Producing while constructing is certainly possible, but we face two main problems," Zhan Wuya expressed his opinion to Wu De, who had come to consult after reviewing the rifle's complete specifications. "First, quality will be somewhat unstable. Second, output will be very low."

"How many can be produced in the first year?"

"With incomplete equipment and tooling, relying on skilled fitters to hand-file and assemble, the first year could probably yield around three to five hundred qualified products. Once equipment and tooling support is complete, mass production will accelerate quickly—an annual output of ten thousand shouldn't be a problem, provided you can guarantee the investment." He paused. "Oh, and there's also ammunition. That requires chemical industry support. Black powder propellant can be used, but smokeless powder would be preferable. Additionally, we haven't developed the deep drawing process for brass cartridge cases—though that shouldn't prove too difficult. Speaking of which, can copper supply be guaranteed?"

"Japanese copper..."

"To speak frankly, the meager output of Japanese copper is nowhere near sufficient. Not just for bullets—even for current industrial needs, Japanese copper is already stretched to its limit. New sources must be opened as soon as possible."

"Looking at it this way, it really isn't easy."

"Actually, everyone knows the benefits of this undertaking, but implementation faces formidable obstacles." Zhan Wuya laughed. "Those artillery fellows in the Army shout every day about throwing Napoleon cannons into the garbage heap of history, yet to this day they still rely on those 'iron tubes' to maintain firepower. Who doesn't appreciate good equipment? But it's expensive! The Trial 32 Battalion Gun has been tested since 1632 until now; the few issued to the Marines are nearly scrapped, yet it still hasn't entered mass production. Do you think the Army doesn't want it?"

Of course, it wasn't that the Army didn't want it—the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Academy simply deemed it unnecessary. Wu De understood his meaning. Regarding artillery equipment, it had always been the case that the Navy's artillery technology outpaced the Army's. Being technically inferior was one thing, but the Navy happened to require particularly large numbers of cannons for ships and fortresses, crowding out a substantial amount of funds and industrial resources and leaving the Army with endless grievances.

"Let's set that matter aside. If the Type 37 rifle is to enter mass production, do you think it's feasible?"

"Certainly feasible." Zhan Wuya nodded. "As I said before—as long as you can guarantee the investment, I can make it happen on my end."

Thus the consultation opinion paper returned to the desk of the General Staff. Rifles were of no use to the Navy, so they cared little about dominance over this matter. The attitude of the largest potential user would therefore determine the weapon's future.

Although the official position of the General Staff was against re-equipment, individual Senator officers held their own views. Both "re-equip" and "do not re-equip" had their supporters. In the General Staff conference room, Senator officers of the Army erupted into intense debate. This debate stretched on for two or three days. Both sides set out sand tables, maps, and videos filmed at the frontlines, conducting repeated demonstrations. For this purpose, Marine Corps Commander Shi Zhiqi, whose unit had been among the first issued Type 37 rifles for trial use, was summoned to "testify."

Senator Shi was a devoted enthusiast of the 1637 rifle. During the trial period, he had documented every combat example. His conclusion: the biggest drawback of this gun was that it hadn't been issued to the troops earlier.

Naturally, during the proceedings, the question of whether infantry should be equipped with breastplates was dragged into the discussion, sparking another round of off-topic debate with characteristically Senate-style tangents.

The consultation opinion paper finally landed after circulating through the Senate. The final conclusion was classic Senate-style compromise. Secretary of State Ma delivered a concluding speech at the State Council meeting, affirming that the Type 1637 rifle "is advanced, is progressive, and represents the new military trend," while acknowledging that "large-scale mass production of this gun will take time." Since the gun had been finalized, putting it into mass production for re-equipment was indeed entirely necessary.

The meeting therefore decided to build a new rifle factory in Danzhou Industrial Park. As for the ammunition factory, it would not be established immediately, but would instead share facilities with the Minié bullet production factory, gradually transitioning to fixed ammunition production.

Of course, the new rifle factory would require time to develop production capacity. To allow the troops to familiarize themselves as soon as possible, the 1637 rifle would be issued in "small quantities, multiple batches."

The first batch of troops to be equipped would be the Lingao Garrison Battalion commanded by the General Guard Bureau of the Senate. The Reconnaissance General Bureau's Special Reconnaissance Team would also purchase a small quantity. The Marines currently possessed about a platoon's worth of "trial products." The meeting decided that this rifle would fully equip the First Expeditionary Force of the Marines, replacing their existing Hall rifles.

Among Army troops, the initial recipients would be Mountain Companies and Light Infantry Companies, gradually expanding to Line Infantry. Simultaneously, the Type 1637 would also be produced in short-barrel variants for artillery crews, cavalry, and naval personnel.

This proposal was considered settled. For the opposition, gradual re-equipment would not disrupt the existing force structure. For proponents, this represented approval of rifle re-equipment at the legal level. Moreover, with ordering units now identified, rifle orders were guaranteed—for even though it was an arsenal, costs and profits still had to be calculated.

Now the matter of Factory No. 37's establishment naturally landed before Dongmen Chuiyu's eyes. Although this was an industrial sector matter, it involved an arsenal yet again, and many aspects required his approval.

Judging from the incoming document's contents, several Senators involved in designing the 1637 rifle had arrived in Danzhou, preparing to roll up their sleeves and work hard. After all, this was their brainchild—they had to fully demonstrate its "excellence."

As everyone knew, whether a weapon performed well depended not only on design specifications; organizing production was the main event. Countless weapons throughout history had boasted seemingly beautiful design indicators only to end in complete failure due to production deficiencies. Experience and lessons in this regard were especially numerous for light weapons.

The rifles currently issued to the Marines and General Guard Bureau for trial use had all been carefully manufactured and processed by mechanical sector Senators leading technical experts, using materials selected with painstaking care. Naturally, they performed excellently. But mass manufacturing, relying on hastily trained workers with limited skills, would inevitably see quality decline.

"This Li Yiwo didn't design the 1637. Why is he joining in?" Looking further, Dongmen Chuiyu discovered that Joint Logistics Factory 37 was to be established using the "Reconnaissance General Bureau Repair Workshop" as its foundation.

The so-called "Reconnaissance General Bureau Repair Workshop" was actually a small workshop for making guns—specifically for Li Yiwo to hand-craft various "modern" light weapons, satisfying certain Senators' obsession with particular firearms. For instance, Senate versions of hand-crafted Tokarev TT33s, Brownings, and Lugers—quite a few Senators owned one of these—all came from this repair workshop.

"So that's it!" Dongmen Chuiyu realized why they wanted to bring Li Yiwo into the partnership.

The first reason was naturally that Li Yiwo himself possessed excellent craftsmanship. He was quite an accomplished fitter, familiar with the structures of various light weapons, and highly experienced. The second reason was that this repair workshop had received various firearm equipment shipped from the North American Sub-helm over the years. Although in the old space-time such equipment would only qualify as hobbyist playthings, in this space-time they represented high-grade, precision, advanced technology. The equipment manufactured in this space-time that the workshop possessed was also the newest and finest. Furthermore, the workshop had long performed weapon maintenance, repair, and refurbishment work for the Special Reconnaissance Team, cultivating dozens of technical workers with rich experience in modern weapon repair. This was rare and precious wealth for a new factory.

"Clever thinking!" He couldn't help but smile, musing that since they had such initiative, he would see what miracles they could produce. In any case, this was now Wu De's headache.

Dongmen Chuiyu pondered for a moment, then wrote at the end of the incoming letter: "The General Staff has no other opinions regarding the land, equipment, and personnel allocation required by Joint Logistics Factory 37. All arrangements shall be subject to the Planning Academy's plan."

(End of Chapter)