Shturm-S
Contents
Description
The 9P149 Shturm-S is a rank VI Soviet tank destroyer with a battle rating of 8.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.89 "Imperial Navy". This particular ATGM carrier relies purely on stealth, unlike the IT-1.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 14 mm (54°) Front Plate 7 mm (80°) Upper glacis 14+5 mm (38°) Lower glacis |
7 mm (23°) Top 7 mm Bottom |
15 mm Middle 7 mm Top/Bottom |
7 mm |
| Cupola | 7 mm (30°) | 7 mm (30°) | 7 mm (30°) | 7 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick while tracks are 15 mm thick.
Pretty much every enemy tank in the game will be able to destroy the Shturm-S including rank I anti-air.
From the side or the roof, within 200 m the crew compartment can be penetrated by 7.62 mm. It also can be penetrated by HEAT overpressure, which is terrible. Artillery is also dangerous, as way too many close misses might ignite the ammo rack or knock out the crew.
Airstrikes are especially lethal to this tank, so much, that the vehicle might as well be without armour. In the case of a cannon air raid, sides should be presented, as there is a chance the aircraft will focus on engine compartment first, in the case of a rocket raid, front should be presented, as otherwise overpressure damage will destroy the Shturm-S instantly. Since there is no way to know which plane carries what in RB mode, it is better to face enemy aircraft regardless.
The front is more or less protected from .50 calibre, so, if necessary, it can be exposed towards an enemy who still has his HMG working, but it should not be relied on.
There are very few areas on this tank that can be hit by a cannon round and survive. The entire front is essentially an instant kill zone, as even a scratch by APFSDS will cause enough spalling to obliterate both crew members, and it is extremely rare to only lose one. Very rarely, a HEAT shell falling straight to the middle might fail to completely knock out crew members, but the chance is also very slim.
The only place where Shturm-S can survive a side shot by a cannon is the engine room in the very middle. Thus it is very important to present the tank completely flat when flanked, as to make centre of mass shot seem more lucrative (for example, in AB, some people might not even bother aiming manually and just press "aim assist" and "fire", which results in a shot straight to the middle). After hitting the engine, enemies usually aim straight for the ammo rack, so it only works once.
Given that this vehicle only has 2 crew, susceptible to any overpressure damage with paper-thin armour and both crew members tend to get shot at the same time, generally, avoid everything. Use carrier's low profile and put a solid piece of dirt between you and the enemy and only fire and gain attention of enemies if the kill is guaranteed.
The ESS can be unlocked and used in conjunction with thermal scope to fight or retreat from obsolete tanks in open fields, but it will not save from tanks which also have thermal scopes (particularly in RB, where many people use it by default, but in AB ESS might still work, as not everyone use it there) or scouting ability (particularly in AB, as it is vastly easier to use and far stronger there). ESS is also useful when fighting late ATGM helicopters with laser lock-on feature, as it will break any automatic guidance and force their gunner to guide the missiles manually with thermal scope (which may take them too long before the Shturm-S manages to load an HE-VT ATGM and fire back) and does not allow already dead helicopters to get the last laugh by automatically guiding the ATGM in spite of being torn to pieces.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 67 | 12 | 11.8 | 341 | 458 | 28.9 | 38.81 |
| Realistic | 62 | 11 | 212 | 240 | 17.97 | 20.34 | |
The mobility is best described as nippy but not fast. Compared to Soviet medium tanks of its BR, the Shturm-S is faster (at least in a straight line) but compared to other nations it is slower.
The mobility hindrance in higher BRs is much more noticeable for the Shturm-S, being 50% slower than MBTs such as the M1A1. The rear gear only goes up to -10 km/h. This reduces amount of sniping spots the carrier can reach before it gets countersniped.
The Shturm-S lacks neutral steering meaning that turning around can take some time.
The carrier can swim like most of the other Soviet light tanks.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
| 9M114 Shturm ATGM | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 12 | -5°/+15° | ±85° | N/A | 22.0 | 30.5 | 37.0 | 40.9 | 43.5 | 8.30 | 8.30 | 8.30 | 8.30 |
| Realistic | 14.9 | 17.5 | 21.3 | 23.5 | 25.0 | ||||||||
Shturm-S uses ATGM launchers by picking them up with a special handle at its rear. Once the missile is fired, the handle simply discards them and picks up a new one from inside of the tank.
The handle is put down if the vehicle speeds up too much (faster than 19 km/h), but if it was reloading while the tank was moving, it will pull the launcher out at the end of the reload, whether you want it or not. When launcher is pulled out, it is always pointing forward.
DO NOT hold "fire" button while reloading or waiting for launcher to pull out, because launcher has a tendency to malfunction if you don't wait fot at least 0.2 sec after it finished. This "malfunction" causes the missile to simply disappear.
Each missile type has great manoeuvreability, but the launch sequience is greatly complicated by the fact, that launcher (located in the very back of the tank) is offset from the actual guiding camera (located on the front-right of the tank), and missiles are launched at high speeds, causing them to often miss at close range. Since the launcher is pointing forward when pulled out, firing too early might also cause the missile to miss, depending on how much it needs to turn and compensate to get on course. Aim assist of arcade mode also has a tendency to aim lower than it should and often spontaneously breaks off because of this, so it should not be relied on for anything but AA duty.
The Shturm-S cannot properly fire or aim from medium tank hulldown spots, so it is inferior to IT-1 in that regard. In arcade mode and, at some spots, RB, tank can fire over obstacles by using a stepping stone of some sort, but it cannot really guide shots that way.
The vehicle can carry up to 12 of missiles. It is necessary to choose next ATGM type before firing the current one because Shturm-S can't change payload choice after firing and can't put the wrong launcher back.
When rearming on a capture point, the main type of ATGM is replenished first (the one on top-left of "ammo distribution" UI), so choose carefully. Rearming on a cap is rather slow with about 15 seconds for one missile, full rearm outside of cap in AB is about 35 seconds.
Missiles are vulnerable to jamming, so when fighting tanks with IRCM, it is necessary to also attack from the side, so that the missile doesn't get derailed.
The list of available ATGM in order of acquisition:
- HEAT - Default ATGM, which has about 550 mm penetration. Launched at atleast 230 m/s with high acceleration. Can deal with anything at the BR, but does only punctual damage like HEATFS. Tanks with heavy NERA or ERA amount will resist it and suffer less than fatal damage or no damage.
- Tandem HEAT - ATGM with a double payload. Launched at atleast 230 m/s with high acceleration. Extremely high post-penetration damage. Designed to annihilate ERA and other countermeasures and then destroy the tank in one hit. Each payload can penetrate about 800 mm of composite armour at a flat angle. Tandem warhead ignores ERA and penetration should be calculated as if it was not present, unless you hit the target at an extreme angle, launching the actual projectile into yet another ERA layer.
- HE - A guided missile with a HE payload. Launched at about 130 m/s with poor acceleration. Can penetrate about 55 mm of armour, making it on par with the second strongest HE shells in terms of pure damage. Can be used to cause overpressure damage by hitting tracks or tank's roof, similarly to HE shells, but has negligible area of effect and is weak against ERA plating. Due to its low launch speed it is suitable for close range combat, particularly in AB. Outside of the tank's own BR, it can be used as a utility ammo to destroy NERA tanks, which the tandem HEAT might not be able to even scratch. This missile has enough explosive mass to damage ground, but it has no practical application outside of AB, since damage is very low.
- Proximity HE - A guided missile specifically redesigned to destroy planes and helicopters. Launched at about 130 m/s with poor acceleration. In terms of damage, it differs from HE by having a slightly higher area of effect (enough to occasionally destroy light tanks standing right next to the target) but slightly weaker penetration (enough to sometimes fail to destroy targets on direct hit) and practically no damage to the ground. It has enough fuel to fly for about 7 km away. In reality, it is mostly equal to normal HE missile. This missile also has a proximity detonator, which activates after missile flies about 300 m away from the carrier and the ground, which helps with hitting aircraft despite not having radar or any other targeting devices. While detonator is set to explode next to the aircraft (about 5 m away) if possible, certain support helicopters can survive the explosion. The proximity detonator will not react to the tanks or the ground even if brought back down to ground level and does not seem to react to rockets and other missiles, unless it is fired straight into them (they often react to it first).
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 | ||
| 9M114 | ATGM | 560 | 560 | 560 | 560 | 560 | 560 |
| 9M120 | ATGM (tandem) | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 |
| 9M120F-1 | ATGM-HE | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 |
| 9M220O | ATGM-VT | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 |
| Missile details | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Range (m) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||
| 9M114 | ATGM | 550 | 5,000 | 31.4 | 0 | 0.01 | 3,930 | 80° | 82° | 90° |
| 9M120 | ATGM (tandem) | 550 | 6,000 | 33.5 | 0.4 | 0.01 | 4,480 | 80° | 82° | 90° |
| 9M120F-1 | ATGM-HE | 550 | 6,000 | 33.5 | 0.4 | 0.01 | 6,930 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
| Proximity-fused 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) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| 9M220O | ATGM-VT | 550 | 7,000 | 33.5 | 0 | 0.01 | 300 | 4 | 6,160 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
7th rack empty |
8th rack empty |
9th rack empty |
10th rack empty |
11th rack empty |
12th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 12 (+0) | 11 (+1) | 10 (+2) | 9 (+3) | 8 (+4) | 7 (+5) | 6 (+6) | 5 (+7) | 4 (+8) | 3 (+9) | 2 (+10) | 1 (+11) | no |
Mechanized Ammo Rack capable of automatic loading.
Usage in battles
Overview
The Shturm-S can be effective in battles if used correctly. Shturm-S commanders should make sure to use their advantages while playing to negate the weaknesses of the vehicle. For the Shturm-S, playing in a backline role behind cover at medium ranges is the best option and specific approaches depend on game mode.
RB Strategies
Players should use the thermal sights to spot enemies easily and ambush them while they are not looking. Use of cover is essential due to the total lack of armour on the Shturm, even a .50 cal machine gun can penetrate some points in the frontal armour. It is ill advised to push aggressively in the Shturm due to the ATGM launcher which will retract when moving. Additionally, engaging at long range may be difficult as the ATGMs can take some time to reach the target, meaning the target has plenty of time to move into cover. Using the Shturm at close range is suicidal. Luckily the ATGMs on the Shturm are quite satisfactory. The 9M120 ATGM has a tandem shaped warhead which negates ERA protection, and the 9M220O ATGM has a proximity fuse which can easily destroy helicopters. It is recommended to use these two ATGMs, taking mostly the 9M120 HEAT ATGM to destroy enemy armour, with a few of the 9M220O ATGM to deal with enemy helicopters.
AB Strategies and survival tips
Since Shturm-S is essentially countered by AB mechanics and every tank only needs to press "aim assist" and fire any weapon to destroy it, some extreme and outlandish tactics must be used.
These are the questions that must be asked before taking out the Shturm-S in an Arcade match:
- Can you even make it to the sniper point before being shot by a hypothetical Leopard?
- Can you fire through or over obstacles at your sniping spot, and how many of them is there?
- Is it physically impossible to snipe you from any other side, but front (so that you can see it coming in third person view and dodge)?
- If it is possible to snipe you from a side, is your entire team on that side (just three tanks do not count)?
- Can you angle upwards at that sniper spot, so that you can snipe easier?
- Can you destroy CM-25, Wiesel 1A2, Dardo or M3A3 Bradley (if they are present) and do you know where they are?
- In case enemy team currently does endless air raids, do you have ATGM-VT?
With the lack of stealth afforded by Arcade mode, being able to physically hide behind hard cover such as trenches or hills is critical to success in AB matches.
Notable Enemies
There are many notable enemies for the Shturm-S, being basically any vehicle in the game armed with anything bigger than a rifle-calibre machine gun and being capable of hitting it. However, some threats are greater than others. Shturm-S commanders should watch out for:
ATGM tanks: They can destroy Shturm-S with overpressure and are far less likely to let you go, as they understand what you are capable of. Tanks with proximity ATGM like CM-25 are the most dangerous, as they can obliterate enemies by firing over their cover and there is nothing you can do about it, but to spot and destroy them first.
Artillery tanks: Even with all the precautions taken, these tanks can annihilate Shturm-S with a single poorly aimed HE-VT. Most of them reload longer than the Shturm-S and their initially loaded shell is usually a normal HE, so usually you have two chances to destroy most of them. If gained their full attention and failed to destroy them - get out of sight and drive as low as you can before they bothered to shell your position. Do not use ESS, it only makes it easier for them to track you.
Autocannon armed vehicles: These will easily shred the Shturm in seconds and should be avoided. Many SPAAs can also create a shell wall to prevent missiles from destroying their teammates or themselves.
Vehicles with substantial composite armour: Most vehicles at and below the tier of the Shturm-S do not have composite armour capable of stopping its top ATGM, but many top tier tanks (which the Shturm-S will face often if used at a higher BR) such as the M1A2 or Challenger 2 are able to easily stop its HEAT ATGM with their thick turret armour. Shturm-S commanders should learn the weak spots of enemy tanks. For example, almost all american top tier battle tanks can be destroyed by HE missiles hitting the middle of their upper front plate (unless they have a jammer, then hitting them directly will be next to impossible in the first place) .
Sniper medium tanks (mostly in AB): Other snipers are also a serious threat, since they compete for a complete domination over map with you, and they are exceptionally allergic to ATGM tanks with high missile speed, such as Shturm-S, so they will never stop trying to snipe you, until they finally do. They are the main reason for the AB rule "Make it physically impossible to snipe you from the side".
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Access to "Shturm" and "Ataka" ATGMs with a total of four different variants of missiles - HEAT, tandem HEAT, HE-frag, and proximity-fused HE-frag
- Fast-flying, relatively easy to control missiles are great for long ranges and tricky shots alike
- Very low profile - combined with good positioning, the vehicle can be invisible with only the launcher peeking over a hilltop or wall
- Capable of travelling across water, although relatively slowly and with poor control
- Can double as a SAM tank in AB, to a point it can single handedly dominate the sky and even protect the bombers from interceptors if fires immediately
Cons:
- Poor defence - the armour stops absolutely nothing but 7.62 mm MGs and may protect against 12.7 mm from a further range
- Very vulnerable from the top, making it easy prey from the air - unless equipped with proximity HE ATGM (the last one available for unlock) for self-defence against air targets
- Cannot change missile type mid-reload, nor after one is reloaded
- Rearming is rather slow, and leaves you vulnerable
- Relatively limited arc of fire; while the launcher can rotate quite a bit, either way, the guidance module sits at the front of the vehicle, and after firing at a target located to the sides of the vehicle, the missile will require some distance before flying straight - self-defence for close-range combat is difficult
- Have to follow an extensive set of rules to be useful in AB
- Missiles can be jammed, so although they are very useful even in rank VII, some enemies cannot be attacked directly
History
The MT-LB, also known as "Mnogotselevoy Tyagach Legky Bronirovanny" in Russian (which stands for "Multi-Purpose Towing Vehicle Light Armoured"), has been mass-produced since 1966. The vehicle was primarily used as an artillery tractor that acted as a means of transport of the gun crew and ammunition complements. However, as it happens with every well-designed platform, the carrier ultimately became a base for all kinds of armament sets. In the early 70s, the USSR began development of an anti-tank hypersonic missile system with a strike range of up to 5,000 metres for armoured targets. The system received the designation "Shturm" and was intended to be equipped on both air and ground units. In the end, it was the MT-LB that was chosen as the base for the former role. In 1979, the new ground combat vehicle was put into service under the designation 9P149 "Shturm-S".
- From Devblog
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| USSR tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| SU-76M | SU-76M · SU-76M (5th Gv.Kav.Corps) · SU-85A |
| SU-57B | SU-57B · SU-76D |
| T-34 Derivatives | SU-122 · SU-85 · SU-85M · SU-100 · SU-122P |
| Heavy Tank Derivatives | SU-100Y · ISU-122 · ISU-122S · SU-152 · ISU-152 · Object 268 |
| SU-100P and Derivatives | SU-100P · Object 120 |
| Wheeled | YaG-10 (29-K) |
| Airborne | ASU-57 · ASU-85 |
| Rocket | BM-8-24 · BM-13N · BM-31-12 |
| ATGM | IT-1 · Shturm-S · Object 775 · Khrizantema-S |
| Artillery | 2S1 · 2S3M |
| Other | SU-5-1 · ZiS-30 · SU-122-54 |
| USA | SU-57 |
