Pr.191
| This page is about the Soviet armoured gun boat Pr.191. For the other version, see Pr.191M. |
Contents
Description
The Pr.191 is a Soviet armoured boat developed in 1945 to replace the outdated Pr.1124 armoured boats. The engineers learned from wartime experiences and the predecessor’s design to create a new boat with enhanced armor and anti-air defense, as well as slightly higher speed. The first prototype of the Pr.191 was slower than its predecessor, but it featured new armor and an updated design layout. Although only one prototype was built, the mass-production version, the Pr.191M, was equipped with M-50 engines and more powerful heavy machine gun armaments.
In the game, this boat was introduced in Update 1.83 "Masters of the Sea". It has a crew of 14 and boasts strong armour that protects against heavy machine guns. Its armament includes an 85 mm cannon, capable of firing HE and APHE shells, making it perfect for targeting armoured enemies. It also features two twin 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, effective against lightly armoured targets and for anti-air defense. Additionally, the boat carries magnetic mines, but these are relatively small and require several mines to effectively sink destroyers by flooding.
General info
Survivability and armour
As an "armoured gun boat", the Pr.191 has layers of armour around the hull and bridge to help against small-arms fire from the opposition. Almost all the armour on the boat are of the RHA composition, and so their stated thickness are their actual protection values provided for the ship.
The armour covers the bridge and turrets in all angles. However, despite all this armour in the fuselage enveloping the ship's centre and the rear turret's ammo stowage, it does not cover the bow ammo rack carrying the 85 mm rounds for the main armament; nor does it cover the rear fuel tanks, steering gear, and transmission. Because of this, glancing shots towards the bow and stern of the boat may put the ship into a perilous situation.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
- Hardened armour (Rear and top 12.7 mm DShK turrets)
| Armour | Bow (Slope angle) | Sides | Stern | Deck |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 7 mm | 7 mm (0-32°) | 7 mm | 10 mm (0-89°) |
| Bridge | 14 mm | 14 mm | 14 mm | 10 mm (90°) |
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
| Main turret | 30 mm (0-42°) Front 10 mm (23-47°) Gun mantlet |
30 mm (9-13°) | 30 mm (17°) | 20 mm (88-90°) |
| Secondary turrets | 12 mm | 12 mm | 12 mm | 12 mm |
Notes:
- Turret base have an armour thickness of 10 mm. While the bow 85 mm turret base is made of RHA, the stern turret base is made of hardened armour.
Mobility
In general, the Pr. 191 has pretty bad mobility. The ship has a max speed of 29 km/h spaded in RB, which is slow even for Soviet armoured gun boats. As well, the ship isn't too responsive and doesn't have a great turning circle. All in all, the ship should not rely on its mobility due to its poor turn and speed capabilities.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 39 | 19 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 29 | 14 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
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Armament
Primary armament
| 85 mm/54.6 ZIS-C-53 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical guidance | -8°/+77° | |||||
| Horizontal guidance | ±140° | |||||
| Ammo capacity | 180 | |||||
Ammunition
| 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 | ||
| O-365K | HE | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| BR-365 | APHEBC | 133 | 112 | 92 | 76 | 63 | 52 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| O-365K | HE | 785 | 9.54 | 0 | 1 | 741 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| BR-365 | APHEBC | 792 | 9.2 | 1.2 | 14 | 164 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
Secondary armament
| 12.7 mm DShK (x4) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turrets (Bow to stern) | ||||||
| Centre turret (x2) | Stern turret (x2) | |||||
| Vertical guidance | -5°/+85° | |||||
| Horizontal guidance | ±180° | -135°/+145° | ||||
| Ammo capacity | 8,000 | |||||
- Universal: AP-I · API-T · IAI
- 12.7 mm HE belts: IAI · IAI · IAI · API-T
- 12.7 mm APIT belts: API-T · AP-I · IAI · AP-I
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| AP-I | 30 | 29 | 25 | 21 | 18 | 15 | |
| API-T | 29 | 28 | 24 | 20 | 17 | 14 | |
| IAI | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| AP-I | 850 | 0.05 | - | - | - | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
| API-T | 850 | 0.05 | - | - | - | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
| IAI | 850 | 0.05 | 0 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 47° | 56° | 65° | ||||
Additional armament
This ship comes with 10 MIRAB mines. They are rather small, and should be used only against corvette and smaller sized ships. Several hits may sink a destroyer from flooding. The best use for these mines is to lay them at a capture point and hope that an enemy ship runs over the mine and gets blown up; however, it may be the best option to simply not carry them at all, as they do pose a risk of detonating when hit.
Usage in battles
The Pr. 191 is quite an interesting ship to play, due to its unique set of characteristics - heavy armament, good armour, and bad manoeuvrability. This ship excels at longer range combat, making full use of its super-heavy main armament.
Tactics:
The Pr. 191 can work very well in certain situations, particularly longer-range engagements. This is because of its great weapons load, namely the 85 mm cannon mounted in front of the bridge. Assuming that you have decent accuracy, you can easily sink enemy vessels with a few hits. The Pr. 191 also carries two dual 12.7 mm DShK machine gun turrets, which provide a surprisingly good measure of anti-aircraft and anti-MTB defence. Note that the anti-aircraft armament is otherwise bare, meaning that the ship is very poorly defended from aerial threats at longer ranges, where the DShKs are less effective.
The Pr. 191 is rather lacking in survivability compared to some of its peers. The ship has a crew of 14 sailors, which isn't particularly impressive for a Soviet armoured gun boat. As well, the Pr. 191 lacks heavy armour, with 30 mm protecting the turret and just 7 mm of hull armour. This means that the ship can, and will, be shredded by any enemy cannon fire. As a result, captains should make use of island cover to maximise survivability. One additional good strategy is to stay bow-in on the enemy at longer ranges. This prevents enemies from hitting all three of the ship's sections at once, which greatly reduces the risk of being shredded.
Finally, the Pr. 191 suffers from a rather mediocre manoeuvrability, with a poor turning circle and a rather disappointing top speed of 29 km/h in RB. Thus, the ship cannot be relied upon to capture zones, as it will take ages just to get to the capture point. In general, this ship should be played as a longer-range sniper, maximising the use of its powerful armament.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Possesses a powerful 85 mm cannon to pick off targets quickly
- Decent secondary armament of four (2 x 2) 12.7 mm DShK machine guns in dual mounts
- Relatively thin profile, presents a rather small target when facing an enemy head-on
- Can carry naval mines, which could be potentially deadly towards heavier enemies
Cons:
- Only one main gun which can only fire towards the front and sides - leaves a blind spot in the rear
- Front ammo rack, rear mobility modules, and fuel tanks are not armoured at all
- 7 mm hull armour is not enough to protect the ship from cannon fire
- Small crew complement of 14 crew members, very low among the Soviet armoured gun boats
- 12.7 mm guns drop off in effectiveness rapidly with range, limiting their usefulness as anti-aircraft weapons
- Shallow draught causes the boat to constantly rock in sea conditions, hampering accuracy
History
Following the Soviet's experience with the Pr.1124 and 1125 armoured boats, development for an improved successor came in the immediate post-war period of 1946, assigned to Central Design Bureau №19 (TsKB-19) at Leningrad. The improvements were for more armour, an 85 mm gun, two 12.7 mm machine guns and powered by the T-34 V-12 diesel engine.[1] The boat developed as the Project 191 in Shipyard №344 at the city of Molotov (today known as Perm).[2][3]
The single unit produced was designated BK-166.[2][3] From the ship's development, improvements were made with M-50 diesel engines and 14.5 mm machine guns that would be used in succeeding units as the Project 191M,[1] of which 118 units would be produced.[3]
Media
- Skins
See also
- Pr.191M - Main production variant of the ship, with the main improvements in machine gun armaments and mobility.
External links
References
| USSR boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | D-3 · G-5 · G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123-bis · Pr.123K (A-10bis) · Pr.123K · Pr.183 |
| Motor gun boats | TKA-412 · MO-4 · OD-200 · Pr.253L · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M |
| Motor torpedo gun boats | Pr. 206 · Pr.206-M · MPK Pr.12412 · MPK Pr.12412P · MPK Pr.11451 |
| Gunboats | Groza |
| Armoured gun boats | BMO · MBK-161 early · MBK-161 late · MBK pr.186 · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 early · Pr.1124 late · Pr.1124 MLRS |
| Pr.191 · Pr.191M · Pr.1204 · Pr.1204 late | |
