Shane Freak
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Chapter 472 Two Battlefields (End)
🕑 Added 2023-08-19 06:42:41 +0000 UTCTransformers Begin : Table of Content/Chapter List
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The group quickly entered an indoor shipyard.
The North Dovinsk military port is located within the Arctic Circle, and because of the extremely cold and long winters, the harsh cold and blizzards would affect the shipyard's production. As a result, most of the dry docks at the Northern Shipbuilding Yard are indoor shipyards with steel roofs.
The indoor shipyard they arrived at had been completely transformed. All the old equipment in the original dock had been dismantled a long time ago. The Decepticon engineer now in charge of managing the shipyard clearly disdained the old equipment that had been in use since the 1970s and 1980s. After taking over the shipyard, they promptly packed up and shipped these outdated machines to the Russians, who were delighted to receive them cheaply.
After dismantling the old equipment, this indoor shipyard, like several others in the shipbuilding yard, was transformed into one of the processing plants of the base.
It seemed that this place had indeed been modified by the Decepticons. Sun Cheng didn't bother with these small matters. The shipyard now had a futuristic touch, with the original steel frame structure replaced by a new alloy for the walls and floors. Ordinary shells and explosions couldn't do much damage to the shipyard.
At first, Sun Cheng felt it was a bit wasteful, but after seeing it for a while, he had completely gotten used to it. As he learned more about the Decepticons and Autobots, he began to understand the reason behind it.
Cybertron, their home planet, was rich in various metals, and as a result, their buildings, whether Autobots or Decepticons, were mostly made of metal. Iron ore had substantial reserves on Earth, and it was even more abundant in the universe.
Iron ore was a common and extremely abundant metal ore. In Skyfire's memory, Cybertron once had an iron satellite slightly smaller than the moon. However, during the time of the Cybertronian Parliament's expansion, it was completely excavated, leaving behind some meteorite craters on Cybertron.
As they entered the shipyard, the group soon saw five combat vehicles neatly arranged inside the shipyard. On one side of the shipyard's wall, there were dozens of long, rectangular ammunition boxes stacked together.
Once Colonel Vasilyevich and the others entered the shipyard, Sun Cheng took a few steps forward and lightly patted one of the combat vehicles, which was not even waist-high, then proactively introduced it, "Colonel, your country previously requested us to design a special electromagnetic projectile compatible with your country's BM-30 self-propelled rocket launcher. After the efforts of my engineers, it has now been successfully designed."
"Colonel, please look here!"
A blue light flashed in Sun Cheng's eyes, and a heavy-duty robot next to him moved forward and lifted a long, heavy ammunition box, quickly bringing it to their side and placing it on the ground.
The BM-30 self-propelled rocket launcher was a follow-up improvement designed by the former Soviet Union's Alloy Precision Instrument Design Bureau after summarizing the shortcomings of the BM-21 rocket launcher from the 1980s. It was the largest caliber rocket launcher equipped by Russia and had been exported to many countries.
Although Russia had been surpassed by its former disciple in rocket artillery in the 21st century, the BM-30 self-propelled rocket launcher still ranked among the most powerful and advanced rocket launchers on Earth.
From the Soviet Union to Russia, they designed various rockets on the BM-30 platform, such as the 9M55K fragmentation warhead, 9M55K1 submunition, 9M55K4 anti-tank mine, 9M55K5 shaped charge fragmentation, 9M55F separable explosive fragmentation, 9M55S incendiary airburst, and 9M528 explosive fragmentation, and more.
The Russians were quite satisfied with their self-propelled rocket launchers all along, and their tornado system was still one of the best "salvo rocket systems" even now.
However, during the Autobots' invasion of North Dovinsk, although the Russian Army eventually repelled the invaders, the lack of a captive Autobot during the detailed investigation that followed left them with a troubling conclusion.
If the Russian Army engaged in all-out war with the mechanical beings, their class and platoon-level heavy firepower would pose almost no threat to them.
While the Russian Army's land and air heavy firepower could cause significant damage to the mechanical beings, the precision of their missiles, cannons, and rockets was not enough. The mechanical beings were not static robots; they could constantly use their speed to evade attacks. The Autobots that attempted to invade North Dovinsk had demonstrated this fact.
More than 99% of the missiles launched by the Russian Army's aircraft, as well as the shells and rockets fired by their heavy artillery, missed their targets.
They couldn't accurately hit the Autobots, and the damage caused by the shockwaves and fragments from the explosions on the surface armor of the mechanical beings was not as severe as the damage inflicted on humans.
The report of the Russian Army's investigation sent to Moscow shook the Kremlin.
Along with that report, there was also the test report of some electromagnetic weapons that the Russian Army had previously purchased from Sun Cheng.
The weapons experts of the Russian Army were pleasantly surprised to find that these electromagnetic weapons, while expensive, were indeed powerful.
Sun Cheng had specifically selected these electromagnetic weapons for trading with Moscow, and from the beginning, he had not considered their practicality. He focused solely on creating weapons with maximum power, and this resulted in some problems.
For example, the Russian Army found that the electromagnetic weapons he put up for trade had a coverage area of at least three to five square kilometers, with power comparable to that of a small tactical nuclear warhead. They could cause devastating damage to all electronic devices within the coverage area, but they posed little threat to human bodies.
As a result, the Russians became even more interested in electromagnetic weapons.
Due to the expensive cost and considerable power of the previously purchased electromagnetic weapons, the Russian Army, apart from keeping some for defense in case of another mechanical invasion, sent the rest to various weapon research institutions in an attempt to reverse-engineer the relevant manufacturing technology.
Initially, they would have needed about four to five years to make progress through their routine research. However, last year, after the change of president in Russia, and with NATO starting to stir up trouble, Georgia continually sent troops to provoke on the border with South Ossetia. One day, they killed several patrol soldiers; the next day, they destroyed a post, and the day after, they engaged in cross-border shelling. While this kept provoking Russia, NATO's main member countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the always trouble-making Poland, sent military observers and even special forces to Georgia under the guise of military exchanges.
Seeing that there was about to be trouble in the Caucasus region, Moscow couldn't sit idly by. They couldn't be sure if NATO only wanted to test their strength in South Ossetia or if they intended to test Moscow's bottom line.
The former was acceptable; as long as they quelled Georgia's arrogance, it would be enough. But if it was the latter, Moscow had to be fully prepared.
As for concessions, Moscow had never considered that option.
The planner of the Georgian war was Russia's new Prime Minister, Vladimir. Though he had just stepped down from the presidency, he had already started to plan his campaign for re-election as president in four years. He needed a major victory to prove himself, and this war, which began with Georgia's provocations, had already been set in stone.
The appearance of Sun Cheng, along with North Dovinsk being invaded twice, had made the Russian Army, as a warring party, personally experience and understand the strength of the mechanical beings.
Although Sun Cheng repeatedly assured them that as long as they didn't appear on the battlefield, the Autobots would not interfere in human wars, the European countries, as the main battleground of modern warfare, had already caught up with their understanding of national and military strategies.
The long, rectangular ammunition box was quickly opened, revealing cylindrical projectiles that appeared to be only half a meter long. These were the electromagnetic projectiles designed by the Decepticon engineers for the BM-30 self-propelled rocket launcher.
Through the internal network, Sun Cheng had already learned all the information about these electromagnetic projectiles, so he personally introduced them to Colonel Vasilyevich and the others.
"These electromagnetic projectiles can be launched from your country's BM-30 self-propelled rocket launcher. Each projectile has a coverage area of 280,000 square meters and can destroy all electronic devices within that range."
This was already quite remarkable. Colonel Vasilyevich seemed to have already learned about it and knew that a salvo of the BM-30's cluster fragmentation warhead rocket could only cover an area of 600,000 to 700,000 square meters.
Colonel Vasilyevich didn't seem surprised by the price; it was well within Moscow's expectations. He didn't bother contacting Moscow for consultation and directly requested to test the weapon's power at an old military training ground in the suburbs.
Sun Cheng readily agreed.
What he didn't know was that at the same time he had just concluded a deal with Moscow, his name was frequently mentioned in a heated discussion in the Indian Ocean.
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Next Chapter >>Chapter 473: Storm is Coming
