Kerch (cruiser)

This page is about the Soviet light cruiser Kerch. For the Russian destroyer, see Kerch (destroyer).

Kerch

Kerch

USSR

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
5.3	5.7	5.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Light cruiser

Purchase:6 090

Show in game

Description

The Duca d’Aosta-class, Kerch, 1953 is a premium rank IV Soviet light cruiser with a battle rating of 5.3 (AB) and 5.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Winged Lions".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Citadel50 / 70 / 35 mm

Main fire tower90 / 30 / 30 mm

Hull25 mm (steel)

Superstructure8 mm (steel)

Number of section8

Displacement10 540 t

Crew578 people

The ship enjoys one of the better armour schemes among the light cruisers.

Its shells and magazines are divided into two separate rooms, both located relatively deep below the waterline, with more inert shells being closer to the surface and more likely to explode magazines located below the reach of most diving shells. Unlike some other light cruisers, such as those of the Japanese navy, the ship does not store ready-to-use ammunition above the waterline, making it even less susceptible to ammunition explosions.

The ship's armour includes three layers of protection: external bulges, internal citadel armour, and fuel tanks that further reduce casualties from centre-mass hits. This armour scheme allows the ship to survive multiple torpedo hits in the centre of mass, although the underwater magazines are still vulnerable to explosions from nearby torpedo impacts.

The ship's 152 mm O.T.O. Mod.1929 turrets have uparmoured faces with 90 mm RHA armour, which is superior to that of most foreign light cruisers at its battle rating or lower, and is surpassed only by the late-war US light cruisers with Mk.16 triple turrets in a higher battle rating.

This armour scheme makes Kerch a relatively resilient ship compared to its peers, despite having a relatively small crew count. The ship has excellent protection against destroyers at close range, but struggles against high-calibre SAP and AP shells commonly found on heavy cruisers in its battle rating range.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB81 / 34 km/h

RB69 / 29 km/h

Kerch, much like its Italian cousins, features excellent maximum speed and a very good acceleration. Manoeuvrability is also excellent, allowing it to avoid even a full torpedo wall after they are spotted. Very few light cruisers feature better mobility than Kerch or her sister RN Eugenio di Savoia - most notably RN Raimondo Montecuccoli.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	81	34
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	69	29

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB6 432

RB5 948

Crew training10 000

Experts510 000

Aces1 200

Research Aces1 140 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 450 / 600 / 50 %

2 × 178 / 178 / 178 %

Modifications

Seakeeping	Unsinkability	Firepower
Dry-Docking Rudder Replacement Propeller Replacement Engine Maintenance	Damage Control Division Fire Division Smokescreen Shrapnel Protection Ventilation New Pumps Ammo Wetting	Anti-Air Armament Targeting Auxiliary Armament Targeting 152mm_it_palla_naval_ap_ammo_pack 100mm_ussr_navy_aa_ammo_pack Primary Armament Targeting Improved Rangefinder Torpedo Mode 152mm_it_contro_aerea_naval_he_ammo_pack

Armament

Primary armament

4 х Turret2 x 152/53 mm O.T.O. Mod.1929 cannon

Ammunition420 rounds

Vertical guidance-10° / 45°

Firing an 8-shell 152mm broadside puts Kerch at an obvious disadvantage against most of its peers, and without a high rate of fire, its sustained damage output per minute is not impressive either. Looking at the extreme: Kirov can output nearly triple the HE-equivalent using the respective ships' default shells.

The default HE shells are great against destroyers and other weakly or unarmoured targets, but having a relatively low explosive filler, they fail to consistently ignite enemy warships on fire. APHEBC Palla shells, on the other hand, are great at causing enemy magazines to explode, as the ballistic cap makes these shells perform exceptionally well against angled armour, thus penetrating deep into the hull even at extreme ranges. HE-TF are your typical anti-air shells; they can be relatively useful thanks to the turrets' vertical guidance of up to +45° and a high shell velocity of 935 m/s.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		1,000 m	2,500 m	5,000 m	7,500 m	10,000 m	15,000 m
HE Dirompente	HE	29	29	29	29	29	29
APHEBC Palla	APHEBC	277	229	168	125	95	70
HE-TF Contro-aerea	HE-TF	29	29	29	29	29	29

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
HE Dirompente	HE	935	44.57	0	0.1	2,390	79°	80°	81°
APHEBC Palla	APHEBC	900	47.5	0.03	7	800	48°	63°	71°
HE-TF Contro-aerea	HE-TF	935	44.57	0	0.1	2,390	79°	80°	81°

Secondary armament

3 х Turret2 x 100 mm/50 Minizini naval gun

Ammunition1000 rounds

Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control Select secondary weapon. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		100 m	1,000 m	2,000 m	3,000 m	4,000 m	5,000 m
100 mm HE	HE	53	46	40	34	30	26
100 mm anti-air HE	HE-TF	26	26	26	26	26	26

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
100 mm HE	HE	800	15.8	0.035	5	1.24	79°	80°	81°
100 mm anti-air HE	HE-TF	880	13.85	0	0.1	2.06	79°	80°	81°

Anti-aircraft armament

4 х Turret2 x 37 mm/67 twin automatic V-11 cannon

Ammunition4000 rounds

Belt capacity5 rounds

Fire rate180 shots/min

6 х Turret37 mm/67 70-K automatic cannon

Ammunition2000 rounds

Belt capacity5 rounds

Fire rate180 shots/min

An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control Select anti-aircraft weapons. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.

Additional armament

Setup 16 x 533 mm 53-38 torpedo

Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.

Usage in battles

Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Thick belt and turret armour
• High top speed
• Effective anti-aircraft armament
• Heavily armoured conning tower/bridge
• Fast torpedoes (without torpedo mode installed) or slow, but 10 km-range torpedoes with the torpedo mode installed

Cons:

• Very small explosive filler in the main gun AP shell
• Below average explosive filler in the main gun HE shell
• Only two propeller shafts
• Either too short-ranged or too slow torpedoes for a light cruiser

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Kerch (cruiser) from live.warthunder.com.

See also

• Condottieri (Family)
• RN Eugenio di Savoia
• RN Raimondo Montecuccoli

External links

• [Wikipedia] Italian cruiser Emanuele Filiberto Duca d'Aosta
• [Naval Encyclopedia] Duca d'Aosta class Cruisers (1934)

Odero-Terni-Orlando Company
Destroyers
Turbine-class	RN Turbine · RN Aquilone
Dardo-class	RN Dardo
Soldati-class	RN Corazziere · RN Aviere · RN Geniere
Comandanti Medaglie d'Oro-class	RN Comandante Margottini
Light Cruisers
Condottieri-class	Kerch* · RN Duca degli Abruzzi
Capitani Romani-class	RN Attilio Regolo · Guichen**
Heavy Cruisers
Trento-class	RN Trento
Zara-class	RN Zara · RN Pola
Battleships
Conte di Cavour-class	RN Leonardo da Vinci***
Export	Tashkent****
See Also	OTO Melara
	*RN Duca d'Aosta before war reparation to the USSR
	**RN Scipione Africano before war reparation to France
	***Previously ‘’Cantieri navali Odero’’ in Genoa-Sestri Ponente
	****Built for the USSR

USSR light cruisers
	Imperial Russia
Svetlana-class	Krasny Krym* · Krasny Kavkaz*
	* Laid down by Imperial Russian Navy; Finished and renamed by the USSR
Project	Soviet Union
Pr.26	Kirov · Voroshilov · Maxim Gorky
Pr.68	Chapayev · Zheleznyakov
Pr.68-bis	Sverdlov · Mikhail Kutuzov
Pr.68-bis-ZiF	Shcherbakov
Lend-Lease	USA
Omaha-class	Murmansk
Trophies	Italy
Condottieri-class	Kerch

USSR premium ships
Motor torpedo boats	G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123K (A-10bis)
Motor gun boats	TKA-412 · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M
Motor torpedo gun boats	MPK Pr.12412P
Armoured gun boats	MBK-161 early · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 MLRS · Pr.1204
Sub-chasers	MPK Pr.122bis
Frigates	Rosomacha
Destroyers	Kerch · Ryany · Leningrad · Stroyny · Smelyi · Neustrashimy · Blagorodnyy
Light cruisers	Murmansk · Kerch · Zheleznyakov
Battleships	Marat