M163 is a great SPAA. Just wait until they get close.
1 Like
I want my mobile ground to air amraams now
How close? because the distance from the center point on Sinai (the small Sinai, not the sands one) to the outer edge of the battlefield is at the edge of its effective range.
Even if you’re lucky enough to actually lock som1 with the radar, it’s not accurate enough for long range shots on any1 that isn’t flying a perfectly straight line. If they are flying straight, they certainly won’t be when they see your blatant af tracer stream and distinct sound.
I’d argue that the M19A1/M42 and the M109 are both better than the M163.
Close enough that they can’t dodge. That’s the standard M.O. for pretty much all gun SPAAs that don’t have HE-VT.
Its low muzzle velocity means that distance is very small, and jets close your window of opportunity even further. if Gajin gave it its Mk.149 sabots, then that would solve the muzzle velocity problem and make it able to defend itself against some tanks.
How does this actually work? Is it a self contained system which can aquire and engage it’s own targets, independent of a battery level radar?
Nah, no search or tracking capability AFAIK. You could, in theory, just boresight them and hope that when they go into active homing on launch they’ll go for the target you wanted.
I don’t think there are SLAMRAAMs on an independently capable platform. Best you could get is one of the Stryker derivatives, I think.
Take your pick of Stingers, AIM-9Xs (?), and anti air Hellfires. No search, but you get tracking.
Avenger is also a good option, though even the better loadouts are really more of a Type 93 sidegrade.
It could theoretically use boresight mode, meaning you fire the AMRAAM and it locks the first thing it sees, as this requires no fire control equipment other than the launch button.
IMO it would be better if this was added alongside a radar trailer. The mechanics for trailers is already in the game, as on the Churchill Crocodile.
Sentinel radar, compatible with NASAMS HML
1 Like
It’s small for pretty much any radar SPAA still. Tracers from a Gepard or any 35mm SPAA can be easily seen from even further away.
Radar trailer for Type 81 would be so nice.
1 Like
Gepard is far better radar and ballistics more than doubling its effective range. the 35mm will also 1-shot aircraft.
And the 35s have a shit rate of fire. Gepard fires one shot, M163 fires 5. Radar is good on it, sure, but there’s errors coded into its lead indicator and it’s wrong 99% of the time.
Needs a command center to function
its firerate is worse but certainly not bad, and I’d say it made up for by the ballistics and 1-shotting capabilities. from my experience, dodging an M163 is far easier and less punishing than dodging a Gepard.
The range on the 20mm is so bad though, the 35s can actually reach out.
What is the use of a SPAA when you can’t even cover the battlefield area.
1 Like
You literally get radar SPAA at 7.7 ,where it fight WWII planes and early cold war crap
Japan has nothing from 5.3 to 8.3
UK is the same
Germany has mighty Wiesel with 400 ammo
1 Like
To be fair, it isn’t exactly good. Both Sweden and Russia have radar SPAA at 7.7 too.
All nations need SPAA, the USA is an outlier because it has so little for a major nation. Germany and Russia have good AA at most BRs, while the USA has only 2 nearly identical ones between 2.7 and 7.7.
1 Like
I honestly think that if the M19/M42 had better turret traverse both horizontally and vertically then most people wouldn’t complain about the US needing a new SPAA. The RoF is not good for a single 40mm but with the dusters 2 and the fact that they get so out of sync that it somewhat makes up for it.
It is best spaa at that br since it not only fights very early jets but props when it gets downtiered and since last update Germans are always uptiered from 6.3 up