British ATGM carriers review (2/2025)
I wanted to make this short review of British ATGM carriers to hopefully help players who want to play them.
Swingfire (8.0)
Pros:
+ exceptionally high maneuverable ATGM
+ fairly good gun sight depression
+ can sometimes lob missiles over obstacle and hit target hidden behind them
+ 2 ATGMs in ready-to-shoot position which are individualy reloaded
Cons:
- launcher is fixed in place
- somewhat lackluster mobility
- low flight speed of ATGM (only 185 m/s)
- weak armor that will only stop rifle caliber machine guns
- missiles launched at upward angle create dead zone around vehicle and make it nearly impossible to fight at close range
My thoughts:
Decent vehicle that excells at fighting in hilly terrain, high maneuverability of ATGMs helps at fights at close-ish to mid range but low flight speed makes them easy to spot and dodge at longer ranges, excells at hilly maps but struggles at CQC maps such as Sweden and other urban maps
Tip: You can gain extra gun sight depression by “changing range” on sight (even though there are no range marks on ATGM scope)
ZT3A2 (8.3)
Pros:
+ launcher placed on fully rotating turret
+ 3 ATGMs in ready-to-shoot position
+ ability to guide all 3 ATGMs at once (first can be used to bait enemy to peek for second one to hit them)
+ very good penetration on both ATGMs (650 mm on ZT3 and 1000 mm on ZT3A2)
+ decent flight speed of ATGMs (345 m/s on ZT3 and 342 m/s ZT3A2)
+ good optics (4.0x–12.0x) and HQ thermals
+ Can carry 15 ATGMs in total
Cons:
- quite underwhelming mobility
- large size in combination with high profile
- weak armor that will only stop rifle caliber machine guns
- only 5 degrees of launcher depression
My thoughts:
In past it used to be extremely bad and rightfully called one of worst ground vehicles in whole game but since its ATGM flight handling was fixed and missile speed was buffed (used to be around 200 m/s) in combination with good optics it is actually fairly enjoyable vehicle, though it is still fairly situational vehicle as all ATGM carriers
Striker (8.3)
Pros:
+ exceptionally high maneuverable ATGM
+ very good mobility
+ can sometimes lob missiles over obstacle and hit target hidden behind them
+ 5 ATGMs in ready-to-shoot position
+ Gen 1 thermals can be usefull for finding targets
+ fast reaload rate
+ ability to equip more powerful Swingfire Mk.2 missiles (700 mm pen in comparison to 535 mm)
Cons:
- launcher is fixed in place
- low placement of gun sight means you have to expose larger part of vehicle in comparison to Swingfire
- low flight speed of ATGM (only 185 m/s)
- weak armor that will only stop rifle caliber machine guns
- can only reload once all 5 missiles have been launched
- missiles launched at upward angle create dead zone around vehicle and make it nearly impossible to fight at close range
My thoughts:
Although Stiker is less useful in hilly terrain in comparison to Swingfire, I personally prefer Striker due to its ability to get in good positions fairly fast, its smaller size and more powerful Swingfire Mk.2 missiles
This about sums up my review of British ATGM vehicles. They are kinda peculiar in comparison to most other ATGM carriers but still fairly effective vehicles that can hold their own when it comes to it. Swingfire and Striker excell at fighting in more open hilly maps while ZT3A2 is usefull in more level maps and can be of use even in urban enviroment. I hope this review was useful to you and helpe you play to strenght of these vehicles.
(I am not including ADATS (M113) as its role was changed to SPAA and so it would make sense to include it in SPAA review that I may make in future when I get over that anoying russian truck that got dumped into UK tree)