Difference between revisions of "ADATS (M113)"

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(Edits)
(i will fill this page as this thing is now playable, but making it viable in AB practically means exploiting every feature there is, so i digress. Stole radar section from ADATS with some edits. Text may sound a bit edgy, but honestly its just how it is.)
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{{Specs-Tank-Armour}}
 
{{Specs-Tank-Armour}}
 
<!-- ''Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat? If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.'' -->
 
<!-- ''Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat? If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.'' -->
−
''Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat? If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.''
+
The chassis are the infamous M113 which by this point should be enough to tell how fragile this carrier is. It is vulnerable to 12.7 MG fire within 800 m range when standing completely flat and anything bigger (almost everything, including coaxial weapons, at this point in time) will penetrate it without a failure. The hull can block overpressure damage if it was hit into the engine compartment, but will otherwise immediately fold.
 +
 
 +
The missiles can be ignited by any damage and will violently explode if actually destroyed, taking the carrier with them. The turret itself is empty and APFSDS and HEAT-based weaponry should only destroy the IRST or the radar if they hit high enough, allowing the carrier to trade shots with some tanks. Pure HE and artillery are likely to destroy the tank instantly.
 +
 
 +
To prevent self-guided ammunition of already dead aircraft from hitting the carrier, or to annoy pursuing tanks, aerosol smoke grenades can be used. They are located on the carrier's front.
  
 
'''Armour type:'''
 
'''Armour type:'''
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{{tankMobility|abMinHp=396|rbMinHp=247}}
 
{{tankMobility|abMinHp=396|rbMinHp=247}}
 +
 +
The carrier is painfully slow for rank VIII and is similar to every M113, if not worse.
 +
 +
It can drive -5 and then -10 km/h in reverse (-11 in AB), acceleration depends on driving crew skill. It will in general drive in range of 20-34 km/h and will slowly accelerate towards 60 km/h over flat terrain, but any turning or uphill will reduce the speed significantly. It isn't much better in AB, but it will store speed twice as fast.
  
 
=== Modifications and economy ===
 
=== Modifications and economy ===
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{{Specs-Tank-Weapon|1}}
 
{{Specs-Tank-Weapon|1}}
 
<!-- ''Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main gun. Assess its effectiveness in a battle based on the reloading speed, ballistics and the power of shells. Do not forget about the flexibility of the fire, that is how quickly the cannon can be aimed at the target, open fire on it and aim at another enemy. Add a link to the main article on the gun: <code><nowiki>{{main|Name of the weapon}}</nowiki></code>. Describe in general terms the ammunition available for the main gun. Give advice on how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage.'' -->
 
<!-- ''Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main gun. Assess its effectiveness in a battle based on the reloading speed, ballistics and the power of shells. Do not forget about the flexibility of the fire, that is how quickly the cannon can be aimed at the target, open fire on it and aim at another enemy. Add a link to the main article on the gun: <code><nowiki>{{main|Name of the weapon}}</nowiki></code>. Describe in general terms the ammunition available for the main gun. Give advice on how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage.'' -->
 +
 
{{main|MIM146}}
 
{{main|MIM146}}
 +
 +
The main weapon of this tank are MIM146 missiles. The missiles are multi-purpose and can snipe both tanks and planes alike, which is why ADATS is designated as a tank destroyer rather than an SPAA.
 +
 +
Left launchers fire first, starting with the top left tube, each tube fires after about 0.5 sec delay if "fire" button is held. The missiles are controlled by a laser beam, all missiles launched within the 3 seconds window are controllable at the same time and they can't be jammed. MIMs will fly at about 1 km/h even when forced to make a hard turn. They will very quickly adjust to wherever the operator is pointing at, but aiming too low on initial launch might cause the missile to hit the ground.
 +
 +
Missiles deal heavy damage both as HE and as HEAT ATGM. Direct hit will penetrate 900 mm of flat armour, but this effect can be stopped by excessive ERA or NERA shielding of some tanks, although repeated hits in the same spot will obliterate any tank. The real power of this missile is in HE overpressure effect, as it has enough explosive mass to implode 35 mm of RHA on close hit, meaning that it can instantly destroy any NATO medium tank by hitting their turret neck, and may just randomly obliterate any other through their optics.
 +
 +
When used against air threats, proximity fuse will react to hostile missiles and rockets if radar is not locked and will ignore them if locked (unless locked onto them). This means that ADATS can protect itself while attacking, or just straight up disintegrate any aircraft (or multiple aircraft, if they are hovering at different distances).
 +
 +
When compared in anti-air role to the Starstreaks of the [[Stormer HVM]], the MIM146 can maintain most of its speed while pulling off extreme turns, do not have weird two-stage launch, have proximity fuse and have longer maximum range, so ADATS is in general easier to use and is more practical against jets.
 +
 +
{{Notice|The missiles come in bundles of 8, which means that you do not get to reload until all of them are spent and rearmed (which takes about 30 seconds on a capture point and debilitating 120 seconds outside of a cap in AB), and the reload itself takes 20 seconds. Fortunately, the tank benefits from "SAM tank" rearm on a capture point, which means that it can rearm without reloading as long as the carrier didn't fire its last missile yet. This mechanic should be exploited every time it's feasible to do without dying to remain competetive, especially in AB, where you particularly want to fire off last missile while already rearming on a capture point and only then leave it (because if tank starts rearming outside of the point, the 120 second long rearm cannot be overruled by a quick rearm on a capture point, and the opposite is also true, allowing to speed up the rearm by 75% while running away).}}
  
 
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" width="100%"
 
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" width="100%"
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|-
 
|-
 
|}
 
|}
 +
 +
=== Radars ===
 +
To help ATGM carrier serve it's anti-air purpose, ADATS Search Radar and an electro-optical/infrared tracking system with TV and Forward Looking Infrared. The search radar is mounted on top of the turret at the rear and the barrel-like tracking optics is located at the front of the turret.
 +
 +
The search radar has a decent 25 km of maximum detection range which it can switch to from 10 km, which is exactly the effective range of the MIM146. Radar will easily find any helicopter trying to sneak an ATGM into the carrier, but its vertical scanning elevation of 18 degrees is quite limited, making it difficult to randomly detect jets that chose to opt for "space bombing".
 +
 +
This carrier does not have automatic lock-on from 3rd person view like previous SPAA and operators will have to go into sniper seat and heavily rely on thermal weapon sight to find the hostile aircraft or incoming TV bombs themselves. Lock from the electro-optical tracker shows the distance and the relative velocity of the target without triggering the LWS or RWR of the locked hostile aircraft which gives it some advantage when fighting modern jets.
 +
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
 +
! colspan="5" | ADATS - Target Detection Radar
 +
|-
 +
! {{Annotation|Maximum<br/>Detection<br/>Range|The maximum possible range at which a target can be detected}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Minimum<br/>Detection<br/>Range|The range, below which, a target cannot be detected}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Max Azimuth<br/>Scan Angle|How far to each side the radar can scan (widest search mode)}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Max Elevation<br/>Scan Angle|How far up and down the radar can scan (widest search mode)}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Minimum<br/>relative speed|The minimum speed a target must be moving, relative to the radar, in order to be detectable by the radar}}
 +
|-
 +
| 25,000 m || __ m || 360° ||­ 18° || __ m/s (__ km/h)
 +
|-
 +
! colspan="5" | Electro-Optical Target Tracking Radar
 +
|-
 +
! {{Annotation|Maximum<br>Tracking<br>Range|The maximum range at which a target can be tracked}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Minimum<br>Tracking<br>Range|The range below which targets cannot be tracked by the radar}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Azimuth Tracking<br>Angle|How far to each side the radar can track a target}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Elevation Tracking<br>Angle|How far up and down the radar can track a target}}
 +
! {{Annotation|Minimum<br>target speed|The minimum speed a target must be moving, relative to the radar, in order to be tracked by the radar}}
 +
|-
 +
| 10,000 m || __ m || ±__ || -__°/+__° || __ m/s (__ km/h)
 +
|-
 +
|}
 +
  
 
== Usage in battles ==
 
== Usage in battles ==
 
<!-- ''Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).'' -->
 
<!-- ''Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).'' -->
−
''Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).''
+
 
 +
ADATS is a very infamous missile turret, and all enemies know what it looks like, which makes employing this carrier very difficult. This ADATS carrier also doesn't have a turret with a gun, so light tanks will chase you around without much fear.
 +
 
 +
This doesn't mean that people actually know better and many tank commanders make a lot of blunders when figthing it, such as shooting the empty turret of ADATS with APFSDS instead of just exploding the missiles.
 +
 
 +
'''Realistic battles'''
 +
 
 +
The goal is very simple - you sneak as close to the middle of the battlefield (or as far from it and the spawn) as you can, while avoiding the frontline, where people might find you by just looking around. From these positions, you countersnipe by hitting overconfident MBT snipers right into their throat (as their turret face armour means almost nothing to you) and blast hostile helicopters and multi-purpose fighters when they inevitably try to bomb you (the launchers can aim higher up than on American ADATS, so they might make a mistake thinking you can't shoot them). When you get low on ammunition, try to get onto a capture point to rearm, preferrably before you actually ran out (so that you can avoid having to wait for a reload as well). If you are on a purely anti-air duty, you might as well just stand on a frienly capture point and fire at any incoming missile and bomb, but try to not expose yourself to tank fire.
 +
 
 +
People really hate ADATS and will try to murder you with almost religious zeal, which can be used against them, as kinetic shells do not really do anything important to the ADATS when they hit the turret head-on and/or when the missile racks are empty (the left one will be  empty after 4 shots). You can also hide the radar by turning it off, just so it doesn't tick off every strike craft in the vicinity, but generally knowing where they are is more important than them not knowing that you exist (yet).
 +
 
 +
Sometimes enemy helicopters and bombers are just camping the spawn and you will have no choice but to launch half of your missiles to shoot their missiles and subsequently set them on fire. Some enemy helicopters can only guide two laser missiles, so you can get them with about three. Helicopters that have IR missiles might as well launch their entire arsenal at you while dying, but those are slower than MIMs, so using smoke to lose their missiles rather than trying to snipe them all out of the air is perfectly acceptable.
 +
 
 +
'''Arcade battles'''
 +
 
 +
In this mode ADATS is more of a throwaway wild card tank, for two reasons:
 +
 
 +
# Hiding in top tier with abysmal mobility of M113 is a sisyphean task. Even if you will personally murder every drone and every plane, you can't outrun any other tank once they will start looking for the noise source. You need to be very good at aiming the missiles onto tanks
 +
# The ATGM reload outside of a capture point is 120 seconds + 20 seconds of reload, meaning if you ran out of ammunition outside of a capture point you should just leave the tank before the game ended with you doing absolutely nothing, or before someone found you 100 seconds later and brutally murdered you anyway. However, if you run out of ATGM while ALREADY rearming on a capture point, you can drive out of it and you will rearm much faster without having to just stand there.
 +
 
 +
This means that in general you want to do either of these plans:
 +
 
 +
* Fatalist route: Find a place from where you can trash so many of enemy tanks that it will actually affect the game (difficult to achieve at close range, considering they will all fire back at you once you start, so maybe look for a long range spot with good overwatch potential) and then leave the carrier to avoid wasting time (or throw yourself onto the enemy so that they at least waste a shot on you and die to a teammate)
 +
* Survivalist route: Fight for a capture point, capture it by slamming enemy tanks into their face, start the rearm on capture point then fire the last missiles off and run away before someone came back and torched you, proceed to destroy every aircraft that enemy team ace will spam out to try and completely wipe out your team and try to spam air attacks of your own until enemy folds and starts spamming SPAA. If someone comes after you, feel free to destroy them, but never fire 8th missile outside of a cap and try to stay close to your allies, at least initially.
  
 
=== Pros and cons ===
 
=== Pros and cons ===
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* Really fragile, can be blown up by hitting the ammo rack, hull can be penetrated by autocannons and high-calibre machine guns
 
* Really fragile, can be blown up by hitting the ammo rack, hull can be penetrated by autocannons and high-calibre machine guns
−
* Only 8 missiles and tank cannot rearm until used all of them. In AB, the {{PAGENAME}} will automatically rearm anywhere after using all of the missiles and it takes approximately 120 seconds, in RB {{PAGENAME}} can rearm on a capture point which takes about 50 seconds. Even after rearming, missiles must also be reloaded which takes another 20-15 seconds. All in all, it is almost guaranteed that you will be found and destroyed during that time  
+
* Only 8 missiles with no partial reload. In AB, the {{PAGENAME}} will automatically rearm anywhere after using all of the missiles and it takes approximately 120 seconds, otherwise {{PAGENAME}} can rearm on a capture point at any time, which takes about 30 seconds. Even after rearming, if all missiles were spent the carrier must also be reloaded which takes another 20-15 seconds. All in all, it is almost guaranteed that you will be found and destroyed during that time, particularly if you trigger the long reload in AB before short one
 
* Due to a lack of the 25 mm gun found on the American XM1069, the Canadian ADATS is also incapable of self-defense during rearm and is less flexible overall
 
* Due to a lack of the 25 mm gun found on the American XM1069, the Canadian ADATS is also incapable of self-defense during rearm and is less flexible overall
−
* Missiles are not as effective against ERA tanks, which ADATS will have to constantly face, so if the operator does not aim perfectly, they will only realistically take out 4 tanks instead of 8
+
* Missiles are not as effective against ERA tanks, which ADATS will have to constantly face, so if the operator does not aim perfectly and relies on brute force, they will only realistically take out 4 tanks instead of 8
 
* Long antennas might give out your position in RB/SB
 
* Long antennas might give out your position in RB/SB
 
* Just -4 degrees of launcher depression
 
* Just -4 degrees of launcher depression
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* The M113 chassis has a low hp/ton ratio - mobility is severely reduced off-road, in mud, snow, and sand, overall has low reactive mobility
 
* The M113 chassis has a low hp/ton ratio - mobility is severely reduced off-road, in mud, snow, and sand, overall has low reactive mobility
 
* Missiles need to travel a certain distance to arm the fuse - unable to engage enemy aerial vehicles at close range, except for a direct hit
 
* Missiles need to travel a certain distance to arm the fuse - unable to engage enemy aerial vehicles at close range, except for a direct hit
−
* Since missiles have proximity fuse, they will react to hostile rockets and missiles, then explode mid-flight. It is possible to break through the "missile shield" by firing multiple SAMs, but in AB helicopters either just spam rockets at Canadian ADATS or spawn so often, that it can't possibly reload in time and becomes effectively useless as SPAA (unlike Stormer HVM)
+
* Since missiles have proximity fuse, they will react to hostile rockets and missiles, then explode mid-flight. This can be good (protects the carrier) or bad (wastes already limited ammunition). When ADATS is locked onto an aircraft, the missiles will try to ignore the ongoing traffic, which can also be good (less ammunition wasted) or bad (carrier might trade or just straight up lose the duel).
  
 
== History ==
 
== History ==

Revision as of 19:24, 26 June 2024

Introducing Wiki 3.0
This page is about the British tank destroyer ADATS (M113). For other versions, see M113 (Family).
ADATS (M113)
uk_adats_m113a3.png
GarageImage ADATS (M113).jpg
ADATS (M113)
Britain flag.png Britain
VIII Rank
Battle rating:
AB RB SB
11.7 11.7 11.7
Class:
Research:400 000 Specs-Card-Exp.png
Purchase:1 080 000 Specs-Card-Lion.png

Description

The ADATS (M113) is a rank VIII British tank destroyer with a battle rating of 11.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Hot Tracks".

General info

Survivability and armour

Smoke grenades
Creation of a smoke screen in front of the vehicle
Armourfront / side / back
Hull38 / 44 / 38
Turret13 / 13 / 13
Crew3 people
Visibility375 %

The chassis are the infamous M113 which by this point should be enough to tell how fragile this carrier is. It is vulnerable to 12.7 MG fire within 800 m range when standing completely flat and anything bigger (almost everything, including coaxial weapons, at this point in time) will penetrate it without a failure. The hull can block overpressure damage if it was hit into the engine compartment, but will otherwise immediately fold.

The missiles can be ignited by any damage and will violently explode if actually destroyed, taking the carrier with them. The turret itself is empty and APFSDS and HEAT-based weaponry should only destroy the IRST or the radar if they hit high enough, allowing the carrier to trade shots with some tanks. Pure HE and artillery are likely to destroy the tank instantly.

To prevent self-guided ammunition of already dead aircraft from hitting the carrier, or to annoy pursuing tanks, aerosol smoke grenades can be used. They are located on the carrier's front.

Armour type:

  • Aluminium alloy 7039 - Hull
  • Aluminium alloy 7039 - Turret
Armour Front (Slope angle) Sides Rear Roof
Hull 38mm (44°) Upper Plate

38mm (27°) Lower Glacis

44 mm Top
32 mm Bottom 		38 mm 38mm - Roof

10 mm - Radiator Vents

Turret 12.7 mm Turret front + 19mm

Track IRST

 12.7 mm 6.35mm + 12.7mm 12.7 mm

Notes:

Structural Steel Side plating - 10mm

Mobility

Speedforward / back
AB70 / 11 km/h
RB and SB65 / 11 km/h
Number of gears8 forward
2 back
Weight16.6 t
Engine power
AB532 hp
RB and SB279 hp
Power-to-weight ratio
AB32.0 hp/t
RB and SB16.8 hp/t
Game Mode Max Speed (km/h) Weight (tons) Engine power (horsepower) Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward Reverse Stock Upgraded Stock Upgraded
Arcade 70 11 16.6 396 532 23.86 32.05
Realistic 65 11 247 279 14.88 16.81

The carrier is painfully slow for rank VIII and is similar to every M113, if not worse.

It can drive -5 and then -10 km/h in reverse (-11 in AB), acceleration depends on driving crew skill. It will in general drive in range of 20-34 km/h and will slowly accelerate towards 60 km/h over flat terrain, but any turning or uphill will reduce the speed significantly. It isn't much better in AB, but it will store speed twice as fast.

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference
AB5 489 → 7 981 Sl icon.png
RB6 540 → 9 509 Sl icon.png
SB7 338 → 10 669 Sl icon.png
Total cost of modifications278 900 Rp icon.png
474 000 Sl icon.png
Talisman cost3 100 Ge icon.png
Crew training310 000 Sl icon.png
Experts1 080 000 Sl icon.png
Aces2 200 Ge icon.png
Research Aces1 280 000 Rp icon.png
Reward for battleAB / RB / SB
160 / 210 / 200 % Sl icon.png
250 / 250 / 250 % Rp icon.png
Modifications
Mobility Protection Firepower
Mods new tank traks.png
Tracks
Research:
20 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
31 000 Sl icon.png
370 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank suspension.png
Suspension
Research:
23 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
35 000 Sl icon.png
430 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank break.png
Brake System
Research:
23 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
35 000 Sl icon.png
430 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank filter.png
Filters
Research:
26 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
40 000 Sl icon.png
480 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank transmission.png
Transmission
Research:
17 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
26 000 Sl icon.png
310 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank engine.png
Engine
Research:
17 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
26 000 Sl icon.png
310 Ge icon.png
Mods tank tool kit.png
Improved Parts
Research:
6 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
31 000 Sl icon.png
370 Ge icon.png
Mods extinguisher.png
Improved FPE
Research:
6 900 Rp icon.png
Cost:
35 000 Sl icon.png
430 Ge icon.png
Mods tank reinforcement uk.png
Crew Replenishment
Research:
26 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
40 000 Sl icon.png
480 Ge icon.png
Mods smoke screen.png
Smoke grenade
Research:
17 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
26 000 Sl icon.png
310 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank horizontal aiming.png
Horizontal Drive
Research:
20 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
31 000 Sl icon.png
370 Ge icon.png
Mods new tank vertical aiming.png
Elevation Mechanism
Research:
26 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
40 000 Sl icon.png
480 Ge icon.png
Mods art support.png
Artillery Support
Research:
17 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
26 000 Sl icon.png
310 Ge icon.png
Mods tank laser rangefinder.png
Laser rangefinder
Research:
17 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
26 000 Sl icon.png
310 Ge icon.png
Mods thermal sight.png
NVD
Research:
17 000 Rp icon.png
Cost:
26 000 Sl icon.png
310 Ge icon.png

Armaments

Laser rangefinder
Reduces the error and increases the maximum measurable distance of the rangefinder
Night vision device
Improves visibility by enhancing natural light or active illumination.
Thermal imager
Allows to see thermal radiation in the infrared range day and night

Main armament

MIM146 ATGM/SAM
Ammunition8 rounds
Belt capacity8 rounds
Reloadbasic crew → aces
1.3 → 1.0 s
Fire rate120 shots/min
Vertical guidance-10° / 85°
Fire on the moveup to 5 km/h
Main article: MIM146

The main weapon of this tank are MIM146 missiles. The missiles are multi-purpose and can snipe both tanks and planes alike, which is why ADATS is designated as a tank destroyer rather than an SPAA.

Left launchers fire first, starting with the top left tube, each tube fires after about 0.5 sec delay if "fire" button is held. The missiles are controlled by a laser beam, all missiles launched within the 3 seconds window are controllable at the same time and they can't be jammed. MIMs will fly at about 1 km/h even when forced to make a hard turn. They will very quickly adjust to wherever the operator is pointing at, but aiming too low on initial launch might cause the missile to hit the ground.

Missiles deal heavy damage both as HE and as HEAT ATGM. Direct hit will penetrate 900 mm of flat armour, but this effect can be stopped by excessive ERA or NERA shielding of some tanks, although repeated hits in the same spot will obliterate any tank. The real power of this missile is in HE overpressure effect, as it has enough explosive mass to implode 35 mm of RHA on close hit, meaning that it can instantly destroy any NATO medium tank by hitting their turret neck, and may just randomly obliterate any other through their optics.

When used against air threats, proximity fuse will react to hostile missiles and rockets if radar is not locked and will ignore them if locked (unless locked onto them). This means that ADATS can protect itself while attacking, or just straight up disintegrate any aircraft (or multiple aircraft, if they are hovering at different distances).

When compared in anti-air role to the Starstreaks of the Stormer HVM, the MIM146 can maintain most of its speed while pulling off extreme turns, do not have weird two-stage launch, have proximity fuse and have longer maximum range, so ADATS is in general easier to use and is more practical against jets.

Msg-info.png The missiles come in bundles of 8, which means that you do not get to reload until all of them are spent and rearmed (which takes about 30 seconds on a capture point and debilitating 120 seconds outside of a cap in AB), and the reload itself takes 20 seconds. Fortunately, the tank benefits from "SAM tank" rearm on a capture point, which means that it can rearm without reloading as long as the carrier didn't fire its last missile yet. This mechanic should be exploited every time it's feasible to do without dying to remain competetive, especially in AB, where you particularly want to fire off last missile while already rearming on a capture point and only then leave it (because if tank starts rearming outside of the point, the 120 second long rearm cannot be overruled by a quick rearm on a capture point, and the opposite is also true, allowing to speed up the rearm by 75% while running away).
MIM146 missile Turret rotation speed (°/s) Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode Capacity Vertical Horizontal Stabilizer Stock Upgraded Full Expert Aced Stock Full Expert Aced
Arcade 8 -4°/+85° ±180° N/A 61.6 85.3 103.6 114.6 121.9 19.50 17.25 15.90 15.00
Realistic 41.7 49.0 59.5 65.8 70.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead 		Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
10 m 100 m 500 m 1,000 m 1,500 m 2,000 m
MIM146 ATGM 900 900 900 900 900 900
Missile details
Ammunition Type of
warhead 		Velocity
(m/s) 		Range
(m) 		Projectile
mass (kg) 		Fuse delay
(m) 		Fuse sensitivity
(mm) 		Arming
distance (m) 		Trigger
radius (m) 		Explosive mass
(TNT equivalent) (kg) 		Ricochet
0% 50% 100%
MIM146 ATGM 1,027 10,000 51 0 0.1 300 6 7.86 79° 80° 81°

Ammo racks

Full
ammo 		Visual
discrepancy
8 No

Radars

To help ATGM carrier serve it's anti-air purpose, ADATS Search Radar and an electro-optical/infrared tracking system with TV and Forward Looking Infrared. The search radar is mounted on top of the turret at the rear and the barrel-like tracking optics is located at the front of the turret.

The search radar has a decent 25 km of maximum detection range which it can switch to from 10 km, which is exactly the effective range of the MIM146. Radar will easily find any helicopter trying to sneak an ATGM into the carrier, but its vertical scanning elevation of 18 degrees is quite limited, making it difficult to randomly detect jets that chose to opt for "space bombing".

This carrier does not have automatic lock-on from 3rd person view like previous SPAA and operators will have to go into sniper seat and heavily rely on thermal weapon sight to find the hostile aircraft or incoming TV bombs themselves. Lock from the electro-optical tracker shows the distance and the relative velocity of the target without triggering the LWS or RWR of the locked hostile aircraft which gives it some advantage when fighting modern jets.

ADATS - Target Detection Radar
Maximum
Detection
Range 		Minimum
Detection
Range 		Max Azimuth
Scan Angle 		Max Elevation
Scan Angle 		Minimum
relative speed
25,000 m __ m 360° ­ 18° __ m/s (__ km/h)
Electro-Optical Target Tracking Radar
Maximum
Tracking
Range 		Minimum
Tracking
Range 		Azimuth Tracking
Angle 		Elevation Tracking
Angle 		Minimum
target speed
10,000 m __ m ±__ -__°/+__° __ m/s (__ km/h)


Usage in battles

ADATS is a very infamous missile turret, and all enemies know what it looks like, which makes employing this carrier very difficult. This ADATS carrier also doesn't have a turret with a gun, so light tanks will chase you around without much fear.

This doesn't mean that people actually know better and many tank commanders make a lot of blunders when figthing it, such as shooting the empty turret of ADATS with APFSDS instead of just exploding the missiles.

Realistic battles

The goal is very simple - you sneak as close to the middle of the battlefield (or as far from it and the spawn) as you can, while avoiding the frontline, where people might find you by just looking around. From these positions, you countersnipe by hitting overconfident MBT snipers right into their throat (as their turret face armour means almost nothing to you) and blast hostile helicopters and multi-purpose fighters when they inevitably try to bomb you (the launchers can aim higher up than on American ADATS, so they might make a mistake thinking you can't shoot them). When you get low on ammunition, try to get onto a capture point to rearm, preferrably before you actually ran out (so that you can avoid having to wait for a reload as well). If you are on a purely anti-air duty, you might as well just stand on a frienly capture point and fire at any incoming missile and bomb, but try to not expose yourself to tank fire.

People really hate ADATS and will try to murder you with almost religious zeal, which can be used against them, as kinetic shells do not really do anything important to the ADATS when they hit the turret head-on and/or when the missile racks are empty (the left one will be empty after 4 shots). You can also hide the radar by turning it off, just so it doesn't tick off every strike craft in the vicinity, but generally knowing where they are is more important than them not knowing that you exist (yet).

Sometimes enemy helicopters and bombers are just camping the spawn and you will have no choice but to launch half of your missiles to shoot their missiles and subsequently set them on fire. Some enemy helicopters can only guide two laser missiles, so you can get them with about three. Helicopters that have IR missiles might as well launch their entire arsenal at you while dying, but those are slower than MIMs, so using smoke to lose their missiles rather than trying to snipe them all out of the air is perfectly acceptable.

Arcade battles

In this mode ADATS is more of a throwaway wild card tank, for two reasons:

  1. Hiding in top tier with abysmal mobility of M113 is a sisyphean task. Even if you will personally murder every drone and every plane, you can't outrun any other tank once they will start looking for the noise source. You need to be very good at aiming the missiles onto tanks
  2. The ATGM reload outside of a capture point is 120 seconds + 20 seconds of reload, meaning if you ran out of ammunition outside of a capture point you should just leave the tank before the game ended with you doing absolutely nothing, or before someone found you 100 seconds later and brutally murdered you anyway. However, if you run out of ATGM while ALREADY rearming on a capture point, you can drive out of it and you will rearm much faster without having to just stand there.

This means that in general you want to do either of these plans:

  • Fatalist route: Find a place from where you can trash so many of enemy tanks that it will actually affect the game (difficult to achieve at close range, considering they will all fire back at you once you start, so maybe look for a long range spot with good overwatch potential) and then leave the carrier to avoid wasting time (or throw yourself onto the enemy so that they at least waste a shot on you and die to a teammate)
  • Survivalist route: Fight for a capture point, capture it by slamming enemy tanks into their face, start the rearm on capture point then fire the last missiles off and run away before someone came back and torched you, proceed to destroy every aircraft that enemy team ace will spam out to try and completely wipe out your team and try to spam air attacks of your own until enemy folds and starts spamming SPAA. If someone comes after you, feel free to destroy them, but never fire 8th missile outside of a cap and try to stay close to your allies, at least initially.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Has 8 multi purpose missiles that can destroy both tanks and aircraft and can be launched one after another without pause
  • Laser-guided missiles can be launched and controlled all at once to overwhelm APS or smart opponents
  • Unlike the Starstreak of the Stormer HVM, the MIM146 can maintain most of its speed while pulling off extreme turns. It also has proximity fuse in the case it misses, making it far more effective and easier to use in the AA role against jets
  • Missiles can penetrate about 800 mm of composite armour at 30° angle and have nearly 8 kg of explosive mass which allows them to overpressure nearly anything through the weak spots, extremely lethal against NATO tank hull roof
  • Missiles have a range of 10 km and are very fast from the start, with maximum speed of 1,000 m/s, which make them suitable for long range sniping
  • Lower profile than the American XM1069, especially with the radar folded down and missile launchers can elevate higher than the ones on the American XM1069 due to a lack of autocannon

Cons:

  • Really fragile, can be blown up by hitting the ammo rack, hull can be penetrated by autocannons and high-calibre machine guns
  • Only 8 missiles with no partial reload. In AB, the ADATS (M113) will automatically rearm anywhere after using all of the missiles and it takes approximately 120 seconds, otherwise ADATS (M113) can rearm on a capture point at any time, which takes about 30 seconds. Even after rearming, if all missiles were spent the carrier must also be reloaded which takes another 20-15 seconds. All in all, it is almost guaranteed that you will be found and destroyed during that time, particularly if you trigger the long reload in AB before short one
  • Due to a lack of the 25 mm gun found on the American XM1069, the Canadian ADATS is also incapable of self-defense during rearm and is less flexible overall
  • Missiles are not as effective against ERA tanks, which ADATS will have to constantly face, so if the operator does not aim perfectly and relies on brute force, they will only realistically take out 4 tanks instead of 8
  • Long antennas might give out your position in RB/SB
  • Just -4 degrees of launcher depression
  • Smoke launchers are mounted on the front of the vehicle - hull must face the direction of smokescreen deployment, no ESS
  • The M113 chassis has a low hp/ton ratio - mobility is severely reduced off-road, in mud, snow, and sand, overall has low reactive mobility
  • Missiles need to travel a certain distance to arm the fuse - unable to engage enemy aerial vehicles at close range, except for a direct hit
  • Since missiles have proximity fuse, they will react to hostile rockets and missiles, then explode mid-flight. This can be good (protects the carrier) or bad (wastes already limited ammunition). When ADATS is locked onto an aircraft, the missiles will try to ignore the ongoing traffic, which can also be good (less ammunition wasted) or bad (carrier might trade or just straight up lose the duel).

History

The ADATS (M113) was a Canadian-operated anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile carrier system, designed to engage both ground and air targets. Developed in the early 1970s by Oerlikon-Buhrle (now part of Rheinmetall), the AA system failed to see service with the countries it was intended for, namely the United States. However, the Canadian Armed Forces procured 36 ADATs vehicles based on the M113 chassis, which served with the Canadian army as anti-aircraft systems until their withdrawal in 2007.

Design and Development

In the early 1970s, Oerlikon-Buhrle began the process of developing a new vehicle, designed for both anti-tank and anti-aircraft defence. This vehicle would later become the ADATs. In 1979, Martin-Marietta joined the design process. The vehicle was designed to compete in the FAAD (Forward Area Air Defence) competition for the US Department of Defence, which wished to replace its interim M163/M167 Vulcan Anti-Aircraft guns and the MIM-72 Corporal anti-aircraft systems. The ADATS ended up winning the competition, beating out competitors including the Franco-German-designed Roland.

However, the ADATs encountered a number of critical issues with its operability. Namely, it had an extremely high mechanical failure rate resulting in a very low operational readiness. And, in 1990, the Cold War ended; that was the final straw for the ADATS. As a result, the US DoD cancelled the ADATS program, after almost five billion dollars of funding. Despite this, the Canadian government ordered the ADATS for their Low Level Air Defence (LLAD) program, spending 1.09 billion dollars to purchase 36 ADATS vehicles along with the necessary equipment.

The ADATS was highly unique in that it was designed for both anti-air and anti-ground defence. Based on the M113 APC chassis, the weapon system was composed of eight ADATS missiles, along with a search radar and laser missile director. The Canadian version was not fitted with the M242 Bushmaster cannon fitted to American ADATS SPAAs. The missiles themselves were laser-guided, and had a combined HEAT/HE-Frag warhead capable of penetrating 900 mm of armour. This system enabled the ADATS to destroy both tanks and helicopters from a maximum range of 10 km, or 7 km altitude.

Operational History

The ADATS entered service with the Canadian Armed Forces in 1989, and was built by Oerlikon Aerospace, based in Quebec. The ADATS was deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces during the Gulf War. However, it never actually saw combat, and never fired a shot in anger. The ADATS was unusually expensive for an anti-aircraft vehicle, due to its large design and development costs and small order in terms of vehicles. As a result, the Canadian Armed Forces announced that they would retire the ADATS in 2006. By 2007, all ADATS vehicles had been withdrawn from Canadian service.

Media

Skins

See also

Related development
Other Canadian ground vehicles present in the game

External links

References

  • Military Today. (2006). ADATS. Retrieved January 02, 2021, from http://www.military-today.com/missiles/adats.htm
  • Sherman, R. (1999, July 3). ADATS. Retrieved January 02, 2021, from https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/adats.html


Britain tank destroyers
Infantry tank derivatives  Archer · Gun Carrier (3-in)
Light tank derivatives  Alecto I
M10 Achilles  Achilles · Achilles (65 Rg.)
Centurion derivatives  FV4005 · Conway
ATGM  Swingfire · Striker
Other  Tortoise · ▄M109A1
Canada  QF 3.7 Ram
South Africa  G6 · ZT3A2

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