The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 759 - 568: Browning Light Machine Gun_1

What Arthur didn’t expect was that not long after the arms trade with the Philippines began, the Australasian military factories welcomed new clients.

These clients came from East Asia and were not far from the Island Nation. Their purpose was simple: to purchase Australasian armaments and the corresponding production technology.

East Asia is an immense market with substantial cooperation in grain, meat, and even armaments with Australasia.

Moreover, the arms trade was beneficial for Australasia, and naturally, Arthur couldn’t possibly decline this unsolicited order.

In the end, the clients signed a contract with Australasia for 300,000 Rifles, one billion bullets, 200 Heavy Machine Guns, 150 M1897 75mm cannons, 120 CA-1 37mm Machine Guns, and 15 Krupp 105mm Howitzers, coupled with the corresponding machine gun bullets and shells.

The other party wanted to purchase the production lines for rifles and bullets. After much consideration, Arthur sold them the production line of the Gew-98 Rifle at a price slightly above cost, along with the appropriate bullet production line.

In addition, the production line of the AS-1898 semi-rifle was also outdated, being a product phased out in Australasia, and was sold to the other party at cost as a goodwill gesture by Arthur.

This substantial arms trade brought the Royal Military Factory an income of 2 million Australian dollars, making it a win-win for both parties.

Beyond this arms trade, the other party even proposed purchasing Australasian Tanks and Airplanes and using these weapons and equipment to rearm the Australasia Mechanized Brigade.

The concept of the Australasia Mechanized Brigade had emerged over a decade ago, back when the Great Qing Dynasty had not yet fallen.

However, that army was only equipped with Australasian weapons and equipment; their soul was still that of a backward military.

When the other party proposed rebuilding the Australasia Mechanized Brigade, they clearly intended to invite Australasian Military Experts to guide them and learn the combat capabilities of the Australasian Army.

Arthur was unsurprised by this and even willing to foster good relations with this country.

For one, it could avoid sanctions from the "hegemon," and for another, it could secure a reliable market for the upcoming economic crisis.

Moreover, the Island Nation’s expansion plans would be severely limited, as a much stronger opponent could fully keep the Island Nation occupied in Asia.

Besides, this trade was a complete win for Australasia, as they earned what they could, and who would refuse a substantial business opportunity?

The Tanks and Airplanes sold overseas by Australasia were all first-generation products, already many generations outdated, so selling any number of them did not affect Australasia; it brought only endless financial gains.

Amidst the jovial conversations, another large arms trade order was confirmed, delighting the experts in the military factories, as they received large sums of research funding to improve Australasian weapons.

March 1922, at the testing site outside the Royal Military Factory.

This was a meticulously prepared arms test by the Royal Military Factory, not only inviting important Military and Ministry of Defense Officers but also Arthur for a personal inspection.

The reason for such a grand mobilization was that the Royal Military Factory had made significant progress in military technology, leading to certain advancements in military weapons.

First up were the machine guns.

Before World War I, the well-known Maxim heavy machine gun had proven quite effective during the war.

However, the Maxim heavy machine gun required several people to operate and was a burden to transport, which made it high-performing but not convenient.

This prompted experts at the factory to consider that if they could retain the firepower of machine guns while minimizing their weight, thereby creating a weapon that one or two people could operate and transport, wouldn’t that significantly alleviate logistic pressure?

Such improved machine guns could also be massively issued to troops, equipping the combat units at the squad level and dramatically enhancing the firepower of the Australasian Army.

Guided by this conjecture, military industry experts began to intensively develop light machine guns.

Compared to heavy machine guns, light machine guns place more emphasis on flexibility and portability, necessitating a change in the entire concept of machine guns.

Firstly, the feeding method needed to be addressed. As opposed to the cloth belt used by heavy machine guns, designing a portable and easily replaceable magazine was the optimal choice for light machine guns.

As a well-known small arms shooting expert, Browning conducted extensive experiments with Arthur’s backing and finally designed a disc-shaped magazine specifically for light machine gun use. At the cost of slightly obstructing the gunner’s view, Browning successfully achieved a capacity of 36 rounds.

This newly improved and redesigned light machine gun was named by the factory as Browning-1 Gas-operated Light Machine Gun, abbreviated as the BLN-1 machine gun.

While its ammunition capacity far exceeded that of rifles, the mere 36 rounds was a significant reduction in firepower compared to the belt-fed heavy machine guns.

Although it was easy to carry, it was far behind the role of heavy machine guns in trench warfare, and it did not achieve the expectation that Browning could combine the firepower of heavy machine guns.

Therefore, based on this, Browning made improvements to the ammunition feeding method, developing a light machine gun that used ammunition belts to feed and named it the BLN-2 machine gun.

There wasn’t much difference in appearance; the disc-shaped magazine was discarded in favor of using an ammunition belt.

Ammunition belt feeding could bring about a revolutionary change in the firepower of the BLN-2 machine gun, allowing it to far surpass the BLN-1 machine gun.

The only drawback was that, as it was still essentially a light machine gun design, prolonged firing could cause the barrel to overheat and even cause the entire machine gun to burst.

However, providing long-range suppressive fire against the enemy and firepower suppression for an entire army group were tasks for heavy machine guns; light machine guns were primarily responsible for firepower output against small-scale troops, and there generally wouldn’t be situations of prolonged firing.

It was virtually impossible for light machine guns to completely replace heavy machine guns. These two types of machine guns had their application scenarios, but undoubtedly, both could significantly enrich the weapons system of Australasia.

The first test today was for these two new types of machine guns.

Actually, calling it a test was somewhat of a misnomer; it was more of a demonstration for Arthur and the military’s upper echelons.

Because during the Military Factory testing period, these two machine guns’ performance had been extensively experimented with and assured to be problem-free before officially inviting the military’s high-ranking officers and Arthur to come and watch.

Otherwise, Arthur would not have personally come to witness an unnecessary test for a machine gun that had not undergone experimentation.

After watching the entire machine gun test, everyone present, including Arthur, was very clear about the strengths and weaknesses of these two new machine guns.

The BLN-1 machine gun was designed to be quite portable, even maintaining a weight below ten kilograms, which a soldier could easily carry.

But the drawback was also clear. Due to only having a 36-round magazine capacity, rapid firing would necessitate a magazine change.

In combat, a machine gun is a very powerful and reliable source of firepower. The interruption of machine gun fire due to magazine changes is a serious issue in combat.

Minister Raul also offered his suggestion, which was to match magazines with different capacities to avoid the enemy, after gaining experience, predicting machine gun magazine changes. Your journey continues with empire

Of course, this still required the gunner to make adjustments based on the actual situation. Sometimes, it isn’t best to wait until all bullets are fired before changing the magazine.

Though doing so would lessen the logistics burden, it would make it easier for the enemy to predict when the magazine would be changed during war.

Making the timing of magazine changes uncertain could prevent the enemy from easily predicting when to change magazines, and the presence of the machine gun would also make the enemy apprehensive.

After all, as long as it is unclear whether there are bullets left, the enemy must assume there are. Besides suppressive fire, a machine gun’s deterrent power is also very important.

The BLN-2 machine gun significantly improved on this weakness. The belt-fed ammunition method significantly reduced the need to change magazines and made it harder for the firepower to be interrupted.

However, prolonged firing was a burden for light machine gun design. Despite having a belt-fed design, gunners still needed to be reminded not to fire for extended periods and to preferably use controlled bursts.

However, the belt-fed ammunition did strengthen the light machine gun’s firepower, but it also significantly reduced the portability of the entire machine gun.

Overall, these two types of machine guns, along with heavy machine guns, could be respectively considered light, medium, and heavy machine guns.

The design of these three types of machine guns varied in their areas of application but all played a crucial role.

Arthur, Minister Raul, and many high-ranking military officials were very satisfied with the performance of these two new machine guns.

Especially the portability of the light machine gun, which meant that the gun could be equipped to combat units at a squad level, significantly strengthening the firepower of the Australasian military.

Especially in scenarios where heavy machine guns are not easily carried, equipping a large number of light machine guns ensures that the military’s firepower doesn’t drop significantly, potentially turning the tide of the war under certain circumstances.

If some of the raids in World War I could have carried a large number of light machine guns, it could have minimized military casualties.

Moreover, light machine guns are easier to equip on airplanes, tanks, and cars, serving as auxiliary weapons for these types of equipment.

Once it was confirmed that both types of machine guns could be mass-produced, Minister Raul made an immediate decision to equip light weapons to the Australasia Army at the squad level and to start large-scale procurement of light machine guns in order to strengthen the military’s firepower as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Defense had just secured a sizable fund of 47 million Australian dollars from Arthur, so placing the order for the light machine guns wasn’t an issue, and Minister Raul didn’t feel any pinch.