Yeah I would 1000% recommend to chaps it might take more effort and time, but grinding the modules for the hawk T.1a in GRB is a far more safer for your brain task vs going into constant 8.3/7s right now with the bomber spam.
Even stock, its more than serviceable fighting anything you will meet at 7.0, even in a full uptier its only against planes you would fight on BR in air RB anyway and you can also nibble the targets I mean soft SPAA on the enemy team.
Source: Me using the Marut at 8.7 constantly getting full downtiers grinding out the hawk.
On another note, DVD2026 is coming to a close and we have seen some pretty interesting new vehicles and technologies:
1. AS21 Redback hull mounted with the Lockheed Martin UK CT40 Turret
it’s unclear if this is an export vehicle or a proposal to replace/supplement Ajax/Warrior at the moment. This uses a very similar turret to Ajax, just mounted on an existing South Korean designed hull, in use with Australia.
Compared to Ajax it has a more powerful engine (1000 vs 800hp), composite rubber tracks and a new panoramic sight as well as the obvious fact the entire hull is new.
A boxer was shown with the Moog RIwP turret with a M230 30mm autocannon, Stingers (?) and a 16x LGR4 laser guided rocket launcher intended for close range air defence.
I don’t have an image for this one, however, MBDA made a press release stating:
“AKERON MBT 120– MBDA has developed this capability to bring a non-line of sight, cost-effective complex weapon onto the British Army’s Challenger 3 MBT, increasing efficiency and survivability.”
This is a non line of sight ATGM, so it is quite interesting.
This is awesome and I’ve been spitballing a UK bespoke variant to kill of Ajax:
British Redback
The “British Redback” (LMUK/Blackjax Concept)
A 42–45t heavy IFV designed to replace the troubled Ajax program. It pairs a mature South Korean Hanwha chassis with sovereign UK IP, allowing local assembly and veto-free exports.
Armor & Hull: Hanwha welded chassis with an unbroken floor for elite mine/IED protection, fitted with UK Farnham (composite) and Epsom (reactive) armor.
Mobility: 1,000-hp Rolls-Royce MTU engine, RENK transmission, British Horstman suspension, and composite rubber tracks (CRT) to cut vibration.
Lethality: LMUK Blackjax turret with a 40mm CTA cannon (85° elevation for C-UAS/urban support) and dual Spike-LR2 or Akeron ATGMs.
Systems: Thales Orion sights, Leonardo MIPS electronic defense, and 20 Gbit/s Open GVA.
Capacity: 3 crew + 8 equipped infantry in blast-attenuated seats.
Cost: ~£6.5M–£7.3M per unit (roughly 30% cheaper than Ajax).
Those are APKWS missiles, not stingers, the pod is also compatible with that Thales missile alternative to APKWS.
Kinda cool, but I’ll remain a hater until that thing finally gets a new hull that’s not terrible
Another one worth noting is the Thales Rapidranger turret mounted on the Patria 6x6 for the first time - this combination is looking the most likely to be the long term replacement of the Stormer HVM in the short range air defence role
It seems odd as the vehicle already has a 16x launcher for LGR4 laser guided rockets on the other side, why add APKWS. It looks a lot more like a Stinger launcher to me personally, but I would be wrong.
The UK defence journal said:
“The configuration on display carries the XM914 30x113mm cannon, an M240 7.62mm machine gun, a four-missile canister of Stinger and a sixteen-missile canister of 70mm laser-guided rockets.”
I completely misread your paragraph and thought you were referring to the four pods of four LGR4 cannisters, yes the pod of 4 is stingers and the other group is of APKWS
TBH I just bruted through in GRB, using my aden to clap light tanks and enemy air for a few games to get le bombs.
Though friendly SPAA not being friendly has been an issue ha.
Currently at 64% win rate, 19 kills and 2 deaths from flying like a silly idiot testing how well the plane pulls up in battle vs in a test room xD. Not been shot down by enemy (or friendly) fire. If I wasnt silly with flying, this would be a pretty good kill loss ratio eh xD
Ah they need more time to loft to make it even easier for the enemy to intercept them?
You must not have been playing against any SAMs who were awake.
One awake SM-SV can shut down any attempt to use them and easily intercept every single munition.
The cone of silence yes.
You do realise that the SM-SV has no dead zone in the radar yes?
On top of that regardless you’re not going to be firing them from directly above any SAM, and they will get intercepted if the person in the SAM is awake and looking at their radar screen.
I’m not saying you can’t get kills with them, because you absolutely can against people that don’t know what they’re doing. Against anyone able to tie their own shoe laces though, you’re never going to kill them.
It does.
It’s radar covers 90, but spread it -10 +80. Then when it comes to tracking, radar caps out at +75, while IRST does at +82. You have some space, but not much, and you are not getting there.
