In this topic, I will use in-game missile data to show why the Type 81 (C) and Tan-SAM Kai are underperforming at their current Battle Rating, and why they are falling behind most SPAA of similar BR…
The Type 81 (C) (11.7) and Tan-SAM Kai (12.0) are the same SPAA platform, with the Tan-SAM Kai (reffered later on as TSK) being the multi-crew version, and together with the Type 03 (12.7) make up Japan’s entire top-tier SPAA lineup. Both shoots the same missile : the Type 81 C (= SAM-1C), an IR / TV guided missile, unique missile in-game with the 9M37M from the Strella.
TV guidance range is extremely dependent of the map : clear weather, day, and the terrain. a back-round behind the target reduces or even make the missile unable to use a photo-contrast mode. But when good condition are there, this gives the missile an extreme lethallity on medium altitude at short/close threats.
Tan-SAM Kai : multiple records in it’s name.
Theoricaly, the TSK is great; but in practice, the TSK is the current owner of multiples records :
- Only toptier tank with a k/d >0.6 the month it got out;
- longest and only SPAA in the top 15 worst k/d tanks in-game (6 month; entered in January 2026);
- record for the longest time worst k/d for ranks VII and VIII for 7 month (still ongoing, as of today, 3rd august 2026);
- Worst k/d of rank VIII for 13 month straights (Still ongoing; as of 3rd of August 2026, since it’s addition in-game.)
Stuck behind countless bugs that are destroying the gameplay, such as the infinite reload when changing missiles, said to be fixed since it was released a year ago, the radar slave that only works as the missile is on the rail but doesn’t as soon as it leaves it, and so on, I highly recommend to watch this video made 6 month after the release (so most of the bugs can be said to be fixed.)
One of the most important issue is the TV guidance detection zone being less than 3km if the target is <100m from the ground, making the feature anti-LDIRCM useless since absolutely no ones fly an heli above 50m.
Different important bugs significantly affecting the gameplay not fixed/said to be
Infinite reload trough the time. Notice the “fixed” a year ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR3Rq4_LhLY
Missing it’s ability to have the ARH and IR mounted the same time
Even the statcard is wrong about the missile.
Missile radar slaving not working (going for rockets/flares)
But to fix this problem about kills, we need to find the cause of it.
a multi-crew SPAA at 12.0, capable of shooting almost mach 3 TV guided missiles, or ARH missiles without even having the radar is promising. But there are problems as well.
The rotating speed of the radar
“It’s a lighthouse or a radar ?!”
-a friend of mine
Niche reference
A good part of the issue would be the rotating speed of the radar : The radar takes about 3-4 seconds to do a half turn (the radar have 2 scanning sides). It only makes you more subject to ARM missiles, but as well spots pretty badly. Then, since the revolution is slow, the radar will guess the position of the target, but of course will miss by a bit, but after 3 seconds, the slight error becomes too important. This makes the IR seeker not centered on the target, making you unable to have a correct lock.
Here, the Ka-50 just turned sharply, making my radar continuing to imagine the position of the helicopter; any missile shot during that moment will mostly not track or go for any flares/rockets/missiles. Coming from this video (showing how disastrous it is)
Most of the time, TSK player will just cut off the radar and eyeball when too many target are in the same time in the air : the imprecision of the radar make you lsoe time trying to get a good lock, will rotate the turrets on nothing (only missile that cannot pull a 90° turn with the FB-10 and 10A.), and get the seejker way out of the enemy that has turned in the last 3 seconds. Often, the radar can lose the lock because the new position is too far from the last one taken.
Lack of range at 11.7, 12.0 and above
Another problem is the lack of range : ARH missiles were supposed to fix it (as shown in statcards : a 5 km better range of lock (11 → 16), and a launch range going from 10 to 14km, even tho the missile is exactly the same; only the seeker have been changed.
even tho the drag coefficient ( IR: 2.075 / ARH: 1.75) is better on the ARH, and the ballistic coefficient (IR: 1462 / ARH: 1.75 )as well, Making it artificially slightly better at range, mainly because of the slight difference of shape of the 2 seekers.
pointy is scarier.
(Every other parameter is the same, because they are. Fin distance to the center of mass, maximum fin angle of attack, wing area multiplier, …).
11.7 and especially 12.0 faces long range air-to ground munitions, and can be uptiered to the highest br’s for GRB, facing aircraft and helicopter made to engage from 10 to 15km away. Facing those, with missiles that don’t really reach further than 8km for a transonic plateform is not useful. And don’t try to intercept incoming missiles; the missiles is so heavy and lack trust that it cannot maneuver enough in the range where you can have a lock on the munition coming.
Photo-contrast mode : the false good idea
When added in the game (development news of October 2023) in the same time as the Type 81 (C), it was very userful when multipathing wasn’t as used as today : the toptier SPAA where SACLOS missiles with VT-1’s launcher, ADATS, and the brand new Pantsir-S1 (March 2023).
Those SPAA were at 11.7 and moved to 12.0 in October 2024; while the Type 81 and Strella were both sitting in a BR braquet that couldn’t face them; CAS was just eyeballing target at medium altitude, then use laser guided Kh25/29, or mavericks under 6km. This was the perfect window for this new missiles that established a big change in the way of approaching a battlefield for CAS that is now common over 10.0. This drastic change was hard; Type 81 and Strella quickly went up.
“Let’s note two vehicles, the Type 81 (C) and AGS. The Type 81 (C) will be increased from 10.0 to 11.0 Battle Rating. This is because at the moment, in terms of effectiveness, this vehicle is the undisputed leader amongst all air defense systems and effectively fights against aircraft both at a Battle Rating of 10.0 and at 11.0 and higher.”
“Planned Battle Rating changes for January 2024”
But with the first multi-crew SPAA and the ARH invading toptier, optical tracking was now useless; anything flying under 100m was drastically affecting the range, turning it into a 0-2km.
Pop-ups attack with IR missile then leaving at supersonic speed meta was the coup de grace : the missile couldn’t catch up, and the Optical track was now unusable.
Now, only the IR is very mutch used, and not the TV track: but it is easily defeated with MAWS or supersonic speed as the missile cannot catch up, but is a reason to give a higher BR.
In conclusion, PC mode is lacking the improvement made trough the years, making the contrast mode a reason to put it higher : it makes the missiles way more effective against lower BR’s (A-10, Su-25, Me-262, Alpha-Jet, but the missile worst in general against low flying targets.
The overwhelming race to armament of 11.3 +
In the same updates or the following, multiple new anti-air system were added around 12.0, or some moved there. Those new ‘concurrent’ (vehicles as good/better at the same BR range, leading often to teammates that will spot and shoot first.) This is where the problem start. Enemies were as well better and better; such as Su-30 SM2, ARM missiles, MITL, …
At 12.0 (Same BR as the TSK), we can find, some added after the TSK :
12.0 concurrents
- Pantsir-S1 (18 missiles ready to fire, 16km range, mach 3.8, simultaneous engagements possible)
- ItO 90M (FRA/SWE) ( mach 3.64, 12km range, 8 ready to fire, insane G turns, smokes, no more amo after.)
- Elde 98 (10km range IRIS-T missile)
- CS/SA5 (30mm rotating gun paired with good radar and FB-10A, IR+IOG+DL)
- NOMADS system (aim-9X-II)
11.7 concurrents
- FlaRakRad (Mach 3.7 missiles, 12km range, insane G turns, good radar, only 2, 5s reload, smokes)
- ADATS (mach 3.1 missiles, 10km range, missiles anti-tank as well, 30mm APDS canon, good radar)
- HQ17 (Very good radar, simultaneous engagements possible, 15km range, slow missile (850m/s)
12.3 concurrent
Only the CLAWS.
- aim-9X-II → closed air space for the first 4km radius;
- aim-120 C-7 for long range. Fast, mobile, good range compared to the Type 81, but very visible launch and multipathing possible. Better Type 81 ARH, in short. Seeker are almost the same (C-7 better against jamming)
All of them have better missiles, especially trough the IR ones.
Notice that the only missile of 12.0 that cannot intercept correctly an incoming trans-sonic/supersonic missile is the Type 81.
Here you can see the difference between multiples IR missiles;
notice than any SACLOS (VT-1, 95Ya6,MIM-146, TKB-1055, 95Ya6M) would have hit the target.
The missile spec falling behind
After looking rtrough the data’s of the game, the biggest issue is the seeker.
Table of comparison :
| Property | FB‑10 | FB‑10A | RB 98 | Type 81C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field of view [°] | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 (worst) |
| Gimbal limit [°] | 75 | 75 | 90 | 30 (worst, Stinger-K have 40) |
| Track rate [°/s] | 60 | 60 | 60 | 15 (4x worst, Stinger-K have 20.4) |
| Seeker warm‑up [s] | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 (worst) |
| Max lock angle before launch [°] | 75 | 75 | 90 | 15 (worst, Stinger-K have 40) |
| Baseline all‑aspect lock range [km] | 9 | 9 | 9 | 6 (worst) |
| Max lock range, hard limit [km] | 20 | 20 | 20 | 11 (worst, ~half) |
| Guidance duration [s] | 30 | 60 | 40 | 22.5 (worst) |
| Max break‑lock time [s] | 30 | 60 | 40 | 3 (worst — breaks lock almost immediately under jamming) |
| IRCCM field of view [°] | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.5 (worst, wider = easier to spoof) |
| Datalink | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Can lock after launch | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (only one that can’t) |
The seeker is indeed the worst by far; and the TV guidance is easily flared for some reason.
As for the Type 81 ARH, the seeker is very close to the aim-120 C-7, in slighty worst. The guidance starts 0.3 second earlier on the Type 81, but the max break-lock time is divided by 2 (60 for the Type 81 ARH, 100 for the C-7.). But it is still by far the worst ARH of all SAM in the game.
| Property | SAM‑1C (ARH) | Next-worst ARH | Best ARH |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guidance duration [s] | 22.5 | 60 (HQ‑11) — more than 2.5x longer | 210 (Aster 30) |
| Flight range limit [km] | 14 | 20 (I‑Derby SR) | 100 (Aster 30) |
| Loft trajectory | / | / | every others have loft |
| Max break-lock time [s] | 60 | 70 (HQ‑11) | 210 (Aster 30) |
AS we can see, the main issue with the missile is the range : It’w weight and max speed make it harder to energy bleed, but the missile
Type 81 (C) overall efficency trough the BR’s.
added in October 2023 at 10.0, facing Mig-23, 27 and su-25. It was then considered a menace with an absurd k/d; most players and youtuber said that it could move to 10.7 without problem.Going to 11.3 2 years ago facing the brand new Su-25T and facing as well A-10.
It has shown it’s proof against subsonic targets flying above a given altitude (1-2km or higher).
But it’s k/d dropped as soon as faster and further threats appeared because of it’s BR going up.
MITL ( 3 years later), Kh-38 (13month later), and others quickly showed that the SAM-1C was obsolete against such modern missiles.
Since April 2025: 11.0 → 11.3 → 11.7. We clearly see the k/d dropping by .5 every BR change. Note that scouts drone are counted, making in lower.
But not only BR changed : the enemies as well. Su-34 was added after,
At 11.0, the Type 81 (C) could still face TV guided and IR guided armament but at much lower range, and less possible to face Vhikirs and Hellfires that can take it out way out of it’s range if the heli is using it as it should. The TV guidance won’t work since it’s close to the ground, and the IR won’t have a lock on an heli with IRCM and other system further than 4km away.
And above would be the Tan-SAM Kai, at 11.3, would make it’s first ever BR change, making it just under modern SACLOS slingers and won’t be beside / facing IRIS-T, Pantsir SM-SV, or other SPAA that ares way better, nor face F&F heli that can just abuse it’s range, or long range ARM and F&F missiles from 13.0 aircraft that just can not be hit by any Type 81 C missiles.
- 11.0 and 11.3
- 11.3 and 11.7
- No changes, already good there.
- guys, guys, hold on, hold on, stop, stop… I’m a potato