U-SH 405 M20 - USH with a very special crew member

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The Landsverk U-SH 405 was a Swedish armored car based on the Unimog 404 truck chassis developed in the late 1950s.

The U-SH 405 in game, the one with the 81 mm rocket launchers was only a prototype, and there isn’t much information about the vehicle. However, we do know that the APC version was sold to the Belgian armed forces, where it found its way to the Congo.

At least one of them was then armed with the M20 recoilless rifle, as shown on the picture below.
It was used by Belgian paratroopers or mercenaries for some time in the Congo, but the fate of the recoilless rifle-armed U-SH 405 is unknown.

No changes appear to have been made to the rest of the vehicle, apart from some relatively thick appliqué armor on the right side of the nose.
Otherwise, it retains the same armor and mobility, but the armament is vastly different!
In game, it would warrant a drastic drop in BR, since the recoilless rifle only penetrates about 100 mm of armor.

Some vehicles originally built for Belgium were instead sold to the Irish and also found their way to Ethiopia.

And this one also gets a very special extra crew member!

The U-SH in question, with its Belgian crew and a “BIG BILL” decal:

image

Specifications - U-SH 405 M20

Armament:

  • M20 75 mm recoilless rifle
    • 75 mm HEAT: 100 mm of penetration, 300 m/s
    • Reloading rate: ~10 → 7 s

Armor:

8-10 mm RHA

Mobility:

M180 6-cylinder engine (90 hp)
Max. speed: 73 km/h
6-speed transmission
Power to weight ratio: 15.8 hp per ton

Crew:

2+1 (Driver, Gunner + Emotional Support Doll™)

Dimensions:

Mass: ~5.7 t

Whilst having objectively worse armament than its Swedish counterpart, this little fella and its extra crew member can run around the enemy at a lower BR and a very fun vehicle to play! but not to face.

It has little to no armor, and the HEAT shell, while it could potentially overpressure some things, still has low penetration and low muzzle velocity, so you have to rely on your mobility to get in close range and flank the enemy!

It could be a nice Belgian vehicle in a Benelux tree or it could maybe be a Swedish premium, it all depends on what Gaijin has in mind. Tell me what you think about it!

Sources

Spoiler

U-SH 405 - War Thunder Wiki
75mm M20 | Weaponsystems.net
Unimog U 404 S [1955 bis 1980] - Unimog-Community.de

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This is… uh… interesting…

I do indeed support the vehicle though! +1

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It might be that this vehicle was one of the nine U-SH cars provided to the Ethiopian forces by the UN when they served in The Congo Crisis. They subsequentially abandoned all of them when they [Ethiopia] circulated out. The Landsverk wiki article also mentions that the Ethiopian forces mounted the M20 recoilless rifle on their U-SH cars.

The photo used here seems to be dated to 1965 [source 1, 2], so this would make sense time-wise to be an ex-Ethiopian variant used after the UN had pretty much left Congo (and a handful of vehicles). It also seems to be some debate on whether or not any of the Belgian U-SH made it down to Congo before the UN intervention. But they were nevertheless used by Belgian and other affiliated mercenaries after the UN withdrawal, so it makes sense it could go into a future BeNeLux tree.

Just wanted to add some info :)

Edit: Also to add, the vehicles that were used by the mercenaries were looted from the abandoned ex-UN “Kamina Base” in 1964/65.

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Grants extra crew skills

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This literally screams event vehicle lol

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What BR would this be i think 5.0 would be good

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Probably lower, 100 mm of penetration ain’t that much

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True but it is a rat tank but maybe the 3.7 to 4.3

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+1, Seems somewhat balanced (Unlike the other ush)