I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

However, although it was called a 7.62–33㎜ round, once the trial production came out, the military was not very satisfied with the penetration and power of this cartridge.

Although the 33㎜ case theoretically enhanced power while maintaining a certain degree of accuracy, the real threat they faced had always been heavily armored Mechanical Soldiers charging forward with armor and shields.

No offense, although the soldiers wielding submachine guns fired enthusiastically, once the Mechanical Bodies closed in, the round-nosed pistol rounds their weapons used became almost useless. Those weapons could be completely removed.

Accuracy was not actually a particularly important requirement for them; power was. Of course, if great power could be maintained while still keeping a high rate of fire, that would be ideal.

Therefore, after the trial of the 33㎜ rifle round, it was subsequently changed to 39㎜. The tail of the bullet was redesigned into a boat-tail shape, the casing length was shortened, and the bullet tip was extended for better streamlining.

With a new bullet, they naturally needed a completely new weapon capable of handling it. The simple and crude blowback firing mechanism of the earlier Sten-type submachine gun now appeared before the experts.

They hoped to design an assault rifle using high-power ammunition based on this principle.

This was when Mitia stepped in—mainly because of the Sten’s layout. She truly feared that they would end up going astray and produce some long-stroke barrel-moving monstrosity like the Chauchat, the “ace among rubbish,” shaking all over the moment it was fired.

For the 39㎜ rifle round, she already had an excellent choice: a gas-operated rifle using a gas tube above the chamber to absorb the explosive gas energy and cycle the action.

In fact, the principle of an assault rifle was not that complicated; one sentence could explain the core requirement a rifle needed to solve.

【That was: how to make the bolt perform automatic reciprocating fire?】

As long as that problem was solved, the foundation for making an assault rifle existed. For example, the long-stroke gas-piston system—the configuration used by the AK-47.

In terms of craftsmanship, the Seris Federation had already reached the level required. They could not do it before, but the emergence of new alloys solved the problem of barrel lifespan.

After the propellant burned and fired the bullet, a port was opened on the part of the barrel that affected the bullet least. Most gases pushed the bullet out of the muzzle, while part of the gases entered the upper gas tube to drive the piston rearward.

As the piston moved back, it extracted the spent casing; under the counterforce of the compressed spring behind it, it pushed a new round into the chamber, locked by rotation, and fired—repeating in cycles.

In fact, each round was exactly the same as the previous bolt-action rifles: after each shot, one had to pull the bolt, rotate, lock, and fire. It was just that the gas system borrowed energy to complete the pulling and returning of the bolt.

It continued this cycle until firing the last round in the magazine. This was also why every time a new magazine was inserted one needed to pull the bolt again: the first round had no gas assistance and required manual force to chamber it.

However, because continuous firing overheated the barrel, a handguard had to be installed beneath the barrel for stable handling.

The magazine adopted a front-hook, rear-latch method, and the trigger assembly was simplified as much as possible.

However, the recoil of the 7.62–39㎜ rifle round was quite large, and the barrel would rise during firing. The front of the barrel required an angled cut muzzle device.

This allowed gas to vent upward first at the moment the bullet left the muzzle, suppressing muzzle climb—similar to the counterforce mechanism of recoilless cannons.

After manufacturing the assault rifle, the submachine-gun units would naturally be abolished, as their roles essentially overlapped. At the same time, the dense firepower and increased mobility brought by the assault rifle forced the old machine-gun teams within infantry squads to undergo complete replacement.

The Hotchkiss-type had been fine in every way, except its ammunition was incompatible. Moreover, the requirements for machine guns had changed. The army now needed a fully automatic, general-purpose, heavier model, preferably with ammunition compatibility.

So they simply redesigned the machine gun using a long-stroke gas-operated system like the AK, and developed a sustained-fire general-purpose machine gun—the PKM.

It fired 750 rounds per minute and used 100-, 150-, and 200-round drums for feeding. It provided long-term suppression, and a strong soldier could even fire it while holding it up alone.

They also needed to design a new heavy machine gun to replace the original Maxim and Hotchkiss heavy machine guns—one using 12.7–108㎜ large-caliber rounds, the DShK-type heavy machine gun specialized for mounting on tanks and armored vehicles.

Originally, the Seris Army infantry squad configuration consisted of ten people per squad—one squad leader, one sergeant, a three-man machine-gun team, and five infantrymen, along with two Cat-type All-terrain Vehicles.

Now, although the number of people in each squad did not change, the firepower configuration was redesigned. The reorganized infantry squad now had a four-man machine-gun team equipped with two PKMs, arranged according to the physical condition of the squad members.

【The machine-gun team became four people: a primary and secondary gunner responsible for one PKM, an additional marksman equipped with an LB-11 optical sight, and the remaining members were assault infantry.】

At the same time, the number of squad vehicles increased to three, with reinforced engines. One vehicle had a DShK mounted on the rear platform for heavy fire support.

Mitia also established stricter training standards for machine-gunners, significantly increasing training intensity and raising their food allowance to the highest level in the Army.

Her requirements for machine-gunners were even stricter than in her previous life, and the expenditure was the greatest.

Each PKM gunner was equipped with a backpack containing a flexible feed chute, a red-dot sight, and a magnified optic.

Inside the backpack were 1,500 rounds on belts. The assistant gunner also carried an additional 850 rounds. They carried an AK with four to five magazines as their personal defense weapon.

The reorganized and modernized infantry divisions were truly “logistics-happy soldiers.”

However, Mitia had already helped simplify logistics as much as possible. In the future, the entire army would use two universal ammunition standards: 7.62–39㎜ and 12.7–108㎜. Submachine guns, pistols, and similar weapons would withdraw from military service and be handed over to local guard units.

At the same time, all 108㎜ artillery pieces in the artillery units would be abolished, leaving only the 75㎜ and 152㎜ calibers for a light-heavy combination.

Development of a medium tank also began. Previous light tank combat had provided a wealth of real combat data, and many exposed issues needed urgent solutions.

For example, tank operating hours should not be wasted on meaningless long-distance marches. A specialized tank transporter was needed to carry them, preserving the tanks’ combat capability.

Honestly, in a single Paria war, more tanks were lost to breakdowns on the road than were destroyed by the enemy… Such losses were unacceptable to Mitia.

Still, it was not too bad—so long as lessons were learned, it was not without value.

If nothing exceptional occurred, war was always the fastest driver of technological iteration.

The Dmitria Church and the Seris Federation had reconciled. This undoubtedly gave Mitia an excellent adjustment period to further optimize the structure of the army’s weaponry.

Universality, modularity, and durability were the core concepts of Seris Federation weapon design.

With large manpower came the need to use that manpower advantage.

Of course, top-tier individual weapons, expensive high-quality equipment, and even decisive-battle black-tech would also be developed—but not in large quantities.