Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 327 is more cost-effective

Because it was so popular, Wang Gensheng learned about it and also knew the complete manufacturing method. So, with Wang Gensheng's slight modifications, the Zhuge Liang Repeating Crossbow, which originally required the bow arm to charge the fire, was transformed into the Underwater Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, which could be used underwater and charged with a rubber tube.

Actually, when Wang Gensheng was working on this underwater Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, he wanted to manufacture underwater firearms.

For example, Su Guo once developed the APS underwater rifle, even though Wang Gensheng really wanted to develop such an underwater rifle.

However, unlike the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, Wang Gensheng had heard of this underwater rifle and seen its appearance, but he knew nothing about its internal structure.

Unlike the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, Wang Gensheng knew its structure, making it quite easy for him to create one. However, besides not knowing the structure of the APS underwater rifle, Huaguo's industrial capabilities did not allow Wang Gensheng to spend too much energy on the research and development of underwater rifles, since he also had to train his carrier-based pilots!
So it's not that the APS underwater rifle is bad, but that the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow is more cost-effective.

Of course, the APS underwater assault rifle. This thing is not like an ordinary rifle; it is a "frogman-specific gun" specially designed for frogman units, and it was a weapon that struck fear into the hearts of the Beiyo frogmen back in the day.

The APS rifle stands for "Special Underwater Assault Rifle," which is simply a rifle that can fire underwater. It fires not ordinary bullets, but a 12-centimeter-long steel "needle," nicknamed the "arrow-shaped bullet."

These bullets can "swim" further and more steadily in water, just like the hidden arrows in martial arts movies, specifically designed to deal with enemy divers.

That's right, arrow-shaped bullets can travel farther underwater and store more kinetic energy than bullets shaped like warheads.

The Soviet Union's development of this underwater rifle was out of necessity. In the 1960s, North Korean frogmen frequently infiltrated the Soviet Black Sea Fleet base for reconnaissance. The Soviet Navy reasoned that they couldn't very well have frogmen fighting with daggers!
So in 1971, they first developed the SPP-1 underwater pistol, but later felt that its firepower was insufficient, and spent another four years developing the APS rifle.

The gun's designer, Simonov, directly copied the gas-operated principle of the AK, but changed the barrel to a smoothbore because the rifling in water would cause the bullet to spin.

The range of this underwater rifle is also quite good; it can hit targets 30 meters away in water five meters deep. This range may seem short, but it is sufficient underwater, since visibility is limited and you can't see very far.

As the water gets deeper, the water pressure increases, so the range also decreases. For example, at a depth of 20 meters, it can hit targets at a depth of 20 meters, but at a depth of 40 meters, the lethal range is only 11 meters.

However, this is much better than ordinary rifles. Ordinary rifles lose their effectiveness after shooting only one meter underwater, while APS underwater rifles extend the underwater range by ten or even dozens of times.

The underwater rifle also has considerable penetrating power, capable of piercing six millimeters of plexiglass and a diving suit, or a twenty-five-millimeter-thick pine board. If it were to penetrate an enemy frogman's oxygen tank, it would result in an "underwater explosion."

Of course, the most crucial factor is the rate of fire. The APS rifle can fire 600 rounds per minute on water and 500 rounds per minute underwater. Although its rate of fire is not as high as the AK, it is already a "spraying" firepower in water.

The APS underwater rifle uses an open bolt action. When firing, the barrel is filled with water, and the water pressure cushions the bolt movement, much like adding a speed bump to a spring to prevent parts from being damaged under high pressure.

It also features a tilted magazine, designed with an angled arc shape and a partition inside to separate two rows of bullets, preventing the twelve-centimeter-long arrow-shaped bullets from "colliding" during feeding and thus affecting firing.

However, the magazine is quite a nuisance in the water, and it's easy for the frogman to snag on seaweed when he turns around.

In addition, there is a retractable stock, made of steel wire that can be retracted to 61 centimeters, making it easy to operate in narrow underwater pipes or reef crevices, as flexible as a folding knife.

Of course, this kind of underwater firearm can also be fired on the surface of the water, but firing on the surface will severely damage the barrel.

The firing life in air is only 180 rounds because the friction between the bullet and the barrel is too great, causing it to smoke after only a few shots. Moreover, although the effective range on land is nominally 100 meters, in actual use, due to accuracy issues, it is usually controlled within 50 meters, making it "a dragon underwater, a sick cat on land." In addition, the APS underwater rifle is surprisingly heavy, weighing 3.4 kilograms with a magazine. The buoyancy in the water can offset some of this, but for divers carrying it and an oxygen tank, swimming feels like carrying a rock.

More importantly, it's troublesome to maintain. Although all parts are chrome-plated or nitrided, they still need to be rinsed with fresh water after each use, otherwise seawater will corrode them even faster. If not properly maintained, it might jam the next time it goes into the water.

Of course, the positioning of this APS underwater rifle is rather awkward.

Because the Sukhomlinsky frogmen preferred to carry SPP-1 pistols and AK rifles, the APS could only be used as a "backup". Later, the Sukhomlinsky developed the ASM-DT amphibious rifle, which could fire both water bullets and regular bullets, so the APS gradually took a backseat.

In addition to these, APS is also very expensive to manufacture; the cost of one APS is equivalent to that of several AKs, and the maintenance costs are also high.

Although the APS underwater rifle didn't become as popular as the AK, it was of great significance. It gave South Korea the world's first underwater assault rifle, enabling the establishment of a complete underwater firepower network covering everything from port defense to special operations.

Later, all underwater rifles developed by the nation were built upon the foundation laid by the APS. More importantly, it forced Beiyue to accelerate its underwater weapon development, driving innovation in global frogman equipment.

Although Wang Gensheng really wanted to develop the APS underwater rifle, his industrial capabilities were not up to par, and after he created an underwater version of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow...

After some experimentation, the results were found to be quite good, so the project was no longer pursued in the hope of developing an APS underwater rifle.

Those American soldiers who jumped into the water with daggers in hopes of gaining merit ended up suffering a double blow.

The first critical blow was naturally the impact of the icy seawater.

Although the port of Xingnan was not frozen, the seawater was only two or three degrees Celsius at night.

This immediately made the marines who had jumped into the water shiver with cold.

The second blow came when the American soldiers who jumped into the sea, enduring the icy water, approached the frogman special forces only to find that the frogman special forces had already aimed their repeating crossbows at them.

With a whooshing sound, several specially made arrows struck the chests of the American soldiers who had jumped into the water.

The specially designed triangular arrowheads, equipped with blood grooves, immediately stained a large area of ​​seawater red with the blood of American soldiers.

The massive blood loss, coupled with the icy cold seawater, caused the US soldiers to lose their strength and sink to the bottom of the sea before they could even surface.

So when the sailors on the ship saw that none of the soldiers who jumped into the sea had surfaced, and that the sea surface was covered in blood-red liquid, they all dared not go into the water and only dared to shoot into the water with their rifles.

However, these shots were completely useless, because the frogmen trained to dive to depths of more than three meters, so even the densest gunfire could not harm Wang Gensheng's frogman special forces team.

(End of this chapter)