Chapter 350: Introducing the E-25 Part II
After ensuring his blueprints arrived where he desired them to, Bruno spent the rest of the day with his family, but when he was up bright and early on the morrow, he was quick to get back to work. After all, the e-25 Chassis could be used to create multiple platforms that would replace the E-10s he already had in existence within the coming years.
The German 8th Army was currently serving as an example of future warfare, and while many nations would try to copy its exact layout over the course of the next few years, Bruno was already planning on how to vastly improve its performance.
Starting with the introduction of the E-25 Chassis, and the variations it could make use of. The e-10 Self Propelled Aircraft Guns he currently had in service were very primitive. They were essentially a tank chassis with a slightly modified flak gun bolted onto its top.
And while these had proven quite effective at counter allied air power thus far. They had a major flaw. And that was the exposure of the men utilizing the guns who sat on top of the tank chassis without any protection other than the basic gun shield on the flak gun.
Mounting a proper armored turret onto an E-10 Chassis would have required more time than Bruno had when designing his current SPAAG variants, and would be stressing the limits of the platform by adding unnecessary weight.
But the E-25, which was more or less an improved version of the Panzer V "Panther" Chassis was more than suited to handle such a load. And because of this, Bruno designed two distinctive variants to serve as his mobile anti-aircraft platforms.
The first design made use of a Zwillingsflak 30mm MK 103 twin anti-aircraft gun in an oscilating turret based upon the infamous Kugelblitz design, which saw limited service during the end of the second world war of Bruno’s past life.
While the second design made use of 2x 37mm Flak 341 mounted in a Coelian style turret. With the enemy aircraft Bruno and the German army would face in the coming years, these two designs should be sufficient to deal with any threats posed to a German combined armed force.
In addition to this, Bruno began developing designs for self-propelled anti-tank guns and self-propelled artillery. The first of which was what he called the Jagdpanzer. It was more or less a Jagdpanther from his previous life’s timeline, but both improved and simplified in design.
After finishing his SPAAGs and Jagdpanzers, Bruno drew up a basic concept for a self-propelled artillery making use of the 15cm sfh 18 field gun. The design was similar to the infamous "Hummel" system used by Germany during the second world war of Bruno’s past life, but made use of the e-25 Chassis, and an enclosed turret.
The last piece of technology that Bruno would currently be introducing based upon the E-25 Chassis was the Schützenpanzerwagen E-25 Kätze. This was an infantry fighting vehicle which made use of the E-25 to carry a squad into battle.
At the same time, it had a 20 mm HS 820 auto-cannon and turret inspired by the one used on the German cold war era Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30 from Bruno’s past life. It was his intent to make his Battalion Tactical Groups have 2x Mechanized Companies making use of these IFVs, 1x Tank Company with the E-25/Panzer II.