Ar-2

Ar-2

Yak-4

SB 2M-103U MV-3

Ar-2

Yak-4

SB 2M-103U MV-3

USSR

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.7	2.3	2.7

Class:

Bomber

Light bomber

Dive bomber

Research:5 900

Purchase:6 300

Description

The Ar-2 is a rank I Soviet bomber with a battle rating of 2.7 (AB/SB) and 2.3 (RB). It has been in the game since the start of the Open Beta Test prior to Update 1.27.

General info

Flight performance

Air brakes

Allows you to dramatically reduce the flight speed by releasing special flaps

Max speed

at 4 700 m512 km/h

Turn time22 s

Max altitude9 900 m

Engine2 х Klimov VK-105R

TypeInline

Cooling systemWater

Take-off weight8 t

The Ar-2 is a pleasant aircraft to fly with a good climb and turn rate, as well as a low stall speed and takeoff requirement.

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 4,700 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	490	477	9900	22.8	23.4	10.0	10.0	366
Upgraded	536	512		21.3	22.0	15.4	12.5

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	✓	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
650	350	315	309	280	~9	~5

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 320	< 320	< 300	> 350

Survivability and armour

Crew4 people

Speed of destruction

Structural0 km/h

Gear350 km/h

• 6mm Steel plate in the pilot's seat & headrest.

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference

AB354 → 473

RB581 → 777

SB871 → 1 165

Total cost of modifications5 970

4 500

Talisman cost410

Crew training1 800

Experts6 300

Aces80

Research Aces135 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

30 / 60 / 100 %

106 / 106 / 106 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Research: 400 Cost: 300 65 Radiator Research: 400 Cost: 300 65 Airframe Research: 450 Cost: 340 70 Compressor Research: 450 Cost: 340 70 Wings repair Research: 500 Cost: 380 80 Engine Research: 500 Cost: 380 80 Cover Research: 640 Cost: 480 105 Engine injection Research: 640 Cost: 480 105	EFS Research: 640 Cost: 480 105	NP-1 Research: 400 Cost: 300 65 shkas_turret_belt_pack Research: 450 Cost: 340 70 shkas_turret_new_gun Research: 500 Cost: 380 80

Armaments

Suspended armament

The Ar-2 can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

• 6 x 100 kg FAB-100 bombs (600 kg total)
• 10 x 100 kg FAB-100 bombs (1,000 kg total)
• 2 x 250 kg FAB-250M43 bombs (500 kg total)
• 4 x 250 kg FAB-250M43 bombs (1,000 kg total)
• 6 x 250 kg FAB-250M43 bombs (1,500 kg total)
• 1 x 500 kg FAB-500 bomb (500 kg total)
• 3 x 500 kg FAB-500 bombs (1,500 kg total)

Defensive armament

The Ar-2 is defended by:

• 1 x 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun, nose turret (500 rpg)
• 1 x 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun, dorsal turret (1,000 rpg)
• 1 x 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun, ventral turret (600 rpg)

Usage in battles

Ar-2 is quite fast, and is faster than most other bombers at a similar BR (like B-18A and He 111 H-3). Use this as an advantage. Go directly for the enemy bases, then go back to the airfield and restart a bombing run. If an enemy plane targets you, keep flying straight and have a slight climb. Use your defensive turrets to scare away enemies tailing you. In Mixed battles, its armament of 3 x 500 kg bombs is quite the loadout for the battle rating and can be used to carpet-bomb a point. However, only spawn in the Ar-2 if there are no enemy fighters up and don't go low altitude- SPAA and roof-mounted MGs will easily chew this plane up.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Controllable Not auto controlled	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Not auto controlled	Combined	Controllable 2 gears	Not controllable

Pros and cons

Pros:

• It is pretty fast (able to outrun Bf 109s)
• The air brakes allows for easy landings (even with critical damage), and excellent diving capabilities
• Excellent mobility for a bomber (expanded further with the use of combat flaps and air brakes)
• Good frontal turret aiming range
• Adequate payload for its speed and mobility (able to take one base and a half when fully loaded)

Cons:

• Lightly armoured and easily taken down by anything from 20 mm and above
• Prone to flat spins with engine damage or when pushed too far
• Most components are located in the front which makes it easy to destroy in frontal attacks
• Despite the ShKAS machine guns having great belts, they are not very effective against more armoured fighters

History

The SB-2, the work of aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev, was the one of the world's best bomber when it first flew in 1934. In the Spanish and Chinese battlefields, the SB-2 was so fast that even fighter jets could not catch up. In the late 1930s, the concept of the dive bomber began to appear, and its representative is the famous German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka. Luftwaffe operations over Poland in the early years of World War II demonstrated that dive-bombing was highly accurate and effective against small, sturdy targets, and the Red Army did not have such aircraft. Therefore, around 1940, the Soviet Army requested the development of a new dive bomber, SB-RK, based on the existing SB-2.

The Soviets had already done some early work on the dive-bomber. In 1939, TsAGI (Central Aeronautic and Hydrodynamics Research Institute) developed a dive-bomb system named PB-3. The results of conventional SB-2 tests show that the bomb can be dropped into a circle with a radius of 57 m at a height of 2000 m at an angle of 80°. If the projectile is dropped at the same angle from a height of 4,000 meters, it can hit a circle with a radius of 126 meters. After the pilot releases the bomb, the plane will pull up automatically. In order to prevent excessive overload when changing out, overload limiter is also developed. Regardless of the angle, speed, pole position of the aircraft, always maintain the overload at 3G.

In July 1940, the Soviet Union changed the naming rules of aircraft. Instead of naming aircraft according to the service category, it changed to the abbreviation of the designer's surname. After that, the numerical numbers of fighter aircraft were singular, and bombing, attack, transport and reconnaissance aircraft were even. So when the prototype was completed later that year, the SB-RK (hence the "SB-RK" designation where "SB" means "high-speed bomber" and "RK" means "radiators-wing") was renamed AR-2, and it was the only plane in Archangsky's life to bear his family name. However, due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, only a small number of AR-2 were produced. Early in the war, a large number of AR-2s were destroyed on runways.

Archive of the in-game description

Arkhangelsky Ar-2 (SB-RK) twin-engine front-line dive bomber (Tupolev OKB). An all-metal, twin-engine monoplane dive bomber with a retractable landing gear system including a tail wheel. Its crew consisted of three persons. This aircraft was designed under the direction of A. A. Arkhangelsky and was a further structural development of the high-speed SB bomber. It differed from the SB in its shorter wing and its streamlined, spindle-shaped nose section and modified nacelles, with water-cooled radiators removed from them and placed on the wing (hence the "SB-RK" designation where "SB" means "high-speed bomber" and "RK" means "radiators-wing"). The SB-RK prototype was tested in 1939. Full-scale production of the aircraft designated the Ar-2 started in 1940 at Factory No. 22, in Moscow. Production Ar-2s were equipped with 1,100 hp Klimov M-105R twelve-cylinder, V-type, geared water-cooled engines. The plane's defensive armament included an NU nose mount with a 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun with 500 rounds. The machine gun was fitted in a special sphere that enabled it to fire forward within a 50-degree cone-shaped region. The TSS-1 upper rear machine gun mount ("TSS" standing for "high-speed aircraft turret") had a 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun with 1,000 rounds and a K-8T collimator sight. When firing, the upper canopy (nicknamed the "turtle") was moved back on rollers along rails and partially raised upward to protect the gunner from the incoming flow. In order to protect the plane from below, the aircraft had a retractable MV-2 turret which housed a 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun with 600 rounds and an OP-2L periscope sight. The aircraft's standard bomb capacity was 600 kg (carried internally), which was the same as that of the SB, its predecessor, while its maximum bomb capacity could reach 1,500 kg with various combinations of internal and external loads. More advanced NP-1 racks were fitted under the Ar-2's centre wing section to carry bombs weighing 250 or 500 kg. The bombs were fastened in one central holder near the plane's center of gravity, and the plane's hold on them was reinforced with the help of side stops. The Ar-2 entered service with the Red Army Air Force in the spring of 1940. The plane was in service from the beginning of the war until late 1944, with the units of the Red Army Air Force and Soviet naval aviation, as a dive bomber and a reconnaissance aircraft. The Ar-2's production was discontinued in early 1941. A total of about 200 aircraft were produced.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Ar-2 from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #109 - Pages of History section at 05:01 discusses the Ar-2.

See also

Related development

• SB 2M (Family)

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Tupolev Design Bureau (Ту́полев Опытное конструкторское бюро)
Bombers	TB-3M-17-32 · SB 2M-100 · SB 2M-103 MV-3 · SB 2M-103 · SB 2M-103U · SB 2M-103U MV-3 · SB 2M-105
	Tu-2 · Tu-2S · Tu-2S-44 · Tu-2S-59 · Tu-4
Arkhangelsky Bomber	Ar-2*
Strike Aircraft	Tu-1
Jet Bomber	Tu-14T
Export	␗SB 2M-103U · ␗Tu-2S-44 · ␗Tu-4
	◔Tu-2S-59
	* While Andrei Tupolev was imprisoned, Alexander Arkhangelsky, second in command at Tupolev OKB was able to append his name to the final production series of the SB bomber.