Apr 9, 2020

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

This week, we’ve prepared another set of attractive items for you:

Object 640 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank (available via blueprint Loot Crates)
Spacewalker skin (available with 50% discount)
Sabra Mk.2 Tier 7 Premium Main Battle Tank
Leclerc T40 Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer
Treasure Trove (10.000 Gold with 50% discount)

Between April 9 and April 16, 2020, the following items will be available:

Object 640

The Object 640 is one of the last Soviet era “super tank” monsters, designed to surpass anything the west could field on the battlefield. It featured extremely advanced armor, making it highly resistant to hits while keeping its weight low. The design was truly revolutionary for the late 1980s, but, like with many other Soviet projects of the era, it was discontinued due to the lack of funding. You can learn more about it in a dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Object 640 “Black Eagle” is a Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank. It is a fast, agile and well-protected vehicle that plays in a typical Russian-style MBT fashion – ideal for players who want to take things up close and personal. This version of the tank does not feature any camouflage and is ready to be customized as you see fit.

The Object 640 Tier 10 Premium MBT is available in our Web Shop via Loot Crates. Collect 100 blueprint pieces from these crates to obtain the vehicle.

Spacewalker Skin

This is a special space-themed skin for the T-80U Tier 7 MBT. Its colors – white, dark blue and shiny gold – will return you to the golden age of space flight, the era of pioneers and the first men to risk their lives trying to reach the final frontier.

The T-80U is an excellent short to medium range combat vehicle, capable of disposing of all the enemies it encounters with relative ease. This skin is now available with 50% discount but please note that you have to own the T-80U Tier 7 MBT to use it.

Sabra Mk.2

The Israeli Sabra Mk.2 was developed as an upgrade kit for the aging Turkish M60A1 and M60A3 series Patton tanks in the early 21st century. Its main features include a new 120mm IMI M253 smoothbore gun replacing the old M68, and a brand new set of additional NERA armor, significantly improving the tank’s protection. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Sabra Mk.2 is a Tier 7 Premium Main Battle Tank with powerful armament capable of defeating almost any vehicle it encounters on the battlefield. It’s not well-armored, but its ability to penetrate even extremely thick armor more than makes up for this handicap.

Leclerc T40

Sometimes called the French Terminator, this vehicle was designed on the Leclerc MBT chassis with one purpose in mind – to accompany tanks and fight off infantry attacks the same way as the Russian BMPT series does. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Leclerc T40 is a Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer. It offers you a combination of a durable hull, rapid-fire 40mm automatic cannon and, most importantly, the Javelin missile system. Simply right-click the target, wait until it becomes locket and fire the Javelin ATGM – it will home itself on the target, attacking its weak roof armor. Thanks to this ability, the Leclerc T40 is one of the most destructive vehicles in the game.

Treasure Trove

A veritable treasure trove of 10.000 Gold awaits you at a discounted price. Please note that this item can only be purchased once per user. You can find out more about Gold and its uses in our dedicated article.

We hope that you will enjoy the offer and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Apr 6, 2020

In Development: Type 74

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

In the near future, we’re going to be launching the Spirithaven Raid event we unveiled recently, which will run for a month and during which you’ll have the opportunity to get your hands on various goodies, including four Japanese-themed Samurai skins.

But, at the same time, we are working on the next major update to the game, which will bring – amongst other things – a new Asian-themed Battle Path. Today, we’d like to tell you more about the first Premium vehicle that will be available as a part of it – the Japanese Type 74 Tier 5 Premium Main Battle Tank.

After the Second World War, Japan was left devastated and, for all intents and purposes, under American control with a sizeable garrison of U.S. troops stationed all around the country. It only gradually regained its political sovereignty starting from the early 1950s, a process that included the re-formation of the formal Japanese army with tanks and everything.

Japan started its post-war military armored corps history with several hundred Chaffee light tanks and around 250 Sherman tank of the Easy Eight variant (M4A3E8) – naturally, these came from American wartime surplus, which was a logical choice given the circumstances. However, these vehicles did have some notable issues.

As we’ve stated in several of our previous articles, Japan is a country with a lot of difficult terrain, especially in the mountain areas. This is a fact that dictates the Japanese defensive strategies (and, of course, armored vehicle design) to this day. This has proven to be a problem for the abovementioned initial batch of tanks. The Shermans in particular had difficulties traversing the rough terrain of the Hokkaido island where a Soviet invasion was (based on the American doctrine practiced by the Japanese as well as other intelligence) the most likely to take place. The Chaffee tanks didn’t suffer from this problem and were generally well-liked by the Japanese, but they had other issues.

Specifically, the Korean War experience has shown that the gun of the Chaffee had issues when dealing with the Soviet-designed T-34/85 medium tank. The Japanese therefore surmised that they would need something within the Light Tank weight category, but armed heavily enough to take on the Soviet medium (or even heavy) tanks. Another consideration was similar to the rationale behind the Leopard 1 and AMX-30 design – the 1950s were the era of rapidly emerging technologies, including anti-tank guided missiles. It was believed that such missiles would make any armor obsolete anyway, so why not shed it almost completely in favor of high mobility. And so the rather unique Japanese doctrine was born, combining light armor, solid firepower and, most importantly, the ability to traverse rough terrain.

The first post-war Japanese tank built around the idea was the Type 61 MBT. Combining low weight with the 90mm gun that was thought capable of defeating the Soviet tanks of the 1950s, it was not a bad machine – for the 1950s, that is. However, it entered service in 1961 and remained in production until 1975. By that time, it was completely obsolete.

Or, rather, it was obsolete even as it entered service. After all, in the 1960s, the Soviets already had the T-55 and T-62 medium tanks while the British were deploying the Centurion. The Japanese were aware of the inadequacy of the Type 61 MBT and lively discussions were held regarding the future of the Japanese tank design. The first idea was to upgrade the Type 61 with a 105mm rifled gun, but, in 1965, it was scrapped in favor of developing an entirely new vehicle.

The new program was called STB, where the ST designation meant that it was to be a tank and the letter B meant the second tank development program (the Type 61 development program was called STA). It’s also sometimes written as ST-A or ST-B, but the hyphen got removed at some point during the development, even though specific prototypes are referred to as STB-1 to STB-6.

Through the 1960s (even before the 1965 decision), the development of specific components for the upcoming MBT took place:

Hydraulic suspension (since 1961)
Stronger 700hp engine (ready by March 1965)
105mm rifled cannon (ready and tested between 1966 and 1967)

The hydraulic suspension was a solution to the rough terrain issue, but was mechanically quite complex and took some time to develop. It was tested quite early on using a Type 60 APC, but it would take years before it was ready for the next MBT. The gun, on the other hand, was based on the Royal Ordnance L7 series and shared the barrel with it, but the breech, recoil management system and other elements of the gun were indigenous. It was therefore not a L7 copy, as many sources claim – in fact, it resembled the American M68 105mm rifled gun. By 1966, the gun was inserted into a newly developed narrow turret and firing tests were carried out.

During the years that followed, the Japanese built first a 35 ton test bed (designated ST-T) that served them well during the suspension and engine trials. After that, two prototypes (STB-1 and STB-2) were designed and built and largely successfully tested. The early STB prototype characteristics were as follows. The tank weighed 38 tons, had a crew of four and was made entirely of steel due to the abovementioned philosophy of armor obsolescence. That does not mean the steel was thin, though. The armor was roughly as follows:

Mantlet: 195mm
Turret front: 120mm
Turret side: 110mm
Turret rear: 60mm
Turret top: 40mm
Hull upper frontal plate: 40mm at 75 degrees
Hull mid frontal plate: 80mm at 65 degrees
Hull lower frontal plate: 80mm at 55 degrees
Hull side: 35mm
Hull rear: 25mm

The tank was powered by the Mitsubishi 10ZF-21WT 750hp engine paired with the Mitsubishi MT-57T transmission, allowing for the maximum speed of 53 km/h. The suspension was hydraulic with variable clearance (400mm +/- 200mm), the tracks were 550mm wide and the ground pressure was 0.86 kg/cm2.

The STB prototypes were armed by the “Japanized” version of the Royal Ordnance L7 105mm rifled gun. The L/51 gun was manually loaded and would fire the following shells:

L28A1 APDS (imported from Britain, 240mm penetration at 1km)
Type 91 HEAT
Type 75 HEP-T (license-produced M393 HEP)

The vehicle carried 50 rounds of ammunition (28 in the front, 7 below the turret floor, 9 in the rear and 6 near a special loading assist device). The loading assist device was basically a mechanical assistant with four-round capacity, basically an improved ready rack that allowed the gunner and loader to fire one round each 4 seconds (after that, the rate of fire dropped).

The gun could elevate to +9 degrees and depress to -6 degrees, but these values were further enhanced by the suspension since the vehicle could both tilt to the front and back and to the sides. With this tilting, the gun elevation and depression reached +15 and -12 degrees.

Additionally, the gun was very accurate thanks to (at the time) cutting-edge technologies (such as a ballistics computer or laser rangefinder) being integrate into its FCS.

Overall, the Japanese were satisfied with the design and the next four STB prototype iterations (1970 to 1971) were more about making the tank affordable than further major improvements:

The engine was a source of reliability issues and, for the production version, it would be detuned to 720hp (this variant was called 10ZF-22WT, a 21.5 liter air-cooled V10 turbocharged 2-stroke diesel)
The loading assist device was also dropped as it was very expensive
The vehicle had a remote-controlled turret machinegun that was also dropped
The design of the turret changed somewhat, but not much
The transmission was simplified and only featured one reverse gear

One of the STB prototypes was shown to public in 1972 and immediately caught public attention thanks to its rather beautiful, sleek lines. In November 1973, the STB design was reviewed (based on the final STB-6 prototype) and approved for mass-production under the designation Type 74.

Success was expected of this tank, so much that Sanadori Yamanaka, Japanese minister of defense at the time, tried to have it named after him (despite not being connected to it in any way) as the “Yamanaka tank”. This notion failed.

The tank was produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries between 1975 and 1988 with 893 vehicles built. With some smaller exceptions (like the engine detuning), the prototype data listed above applied to the production vehicle as well, especially regarding its armor.

The problem was that by the time it entered service, the tank was, once again, fairly obsolete. This may sound strange considering the fact that Japan is generally regarded as a technological superpower, but with so much effort focused on post-war rebuilding and what is generally known as the Japanese economic miracle, Japan wasn’t really in a position to invest extreme sums into tank development.

Another aspect was the fact that Japan did not export its military items at all and had little in terms of co-development with other western nations. Some technologies were purchased, but much of the research was completely indigenous and therefore took excessive amounts of time.

As a result, Japanese armored vehicles were produced in low numbers and were invariably incredibly expensive (in order to split the development costs into the production run). This in turn made them a popular target of public criticism and the budget cuts that would follow in a vicious circle.

The Japanese were, of course, aware of the fact that, once again, they were in a possession of an obsolete MBT that was inferior to the Soviet T-72 series, which is why a development program for its replacement (called TK-X) was launched as early as in 1977. That program resulted in the Type 90 MBT, which was only available starting from 1990. The Soviet Union fell apart one year later and you already know the rest of the story.

It’s worth noting that several “patterns” of this tank were produced over the years:

Type 74 initial production model (roughly 400 were built)
Type 74 Mod B with an improved FCS and the ability to fire APFSDS rounds (all initial production models were upgraded to this pattern)
Type 74 Mod C is basically Mod B, but with actual camouflage instead of the standard khaki color
Type 74 Mod D features a thermal sleeve for the gun (everything older was gradually upgraded to Mod D)
Type 74 Mod E features another upgrade to its FCS and the ability to fire Type 91 HEAT-MP rounds instead of the older Type 75 HEP loadout, this is the last major pattern and most of the older vehicles were gradually upgraded to Mod E

There were two more patterns developed:

Type 74 Mod F with a mine-clearing device (around 10 vehicles built)
Type 74 Mod G, also known as Type 74 Kai (or Type 74 Improved) with improved night-fighting equipment and protection, consisting of additional spaced armor and a rudimentary soft-kill APS (laser warning receiver connected to its smoke grenade launchers, deploying smoke automatically as soon as the vehicle is targeted by a laser)

Of the Type 74 Mod G only four vehicles built as prototypes before it was decided this program was not economically feasible.

The Type 74 MBT soldiered on, was produced until the end of the Cold War and still remains in Japanese service, at least partially –it’s being decommissioned piece by piece and replaced by other vehicles, such as the Type 10 MBT or the Type 16 MCV. It has never fired a shot in anger and only ever fought such enemies as the world-famous Godzilla – in the movies, that is.

Like was stated above, in Armored Warfare, the Type 74 will be a Tier 5 Premium Main Battle Tank and the first on five new Battle Path reward vehicles.

Gameplay-wise, it will be a rather standard MBT with good firepower (roughly comparable to the fully researched M60A3), enhanced further by the presence of fully adjustable active suspension, which tilts both to the front and back, but also to the sides as the lowest Tier vehicle with this feature.

But before we get into any details, the usual disclaimer:

The numbers below are very preliminary as the vehicle has not been properly tested. They are sure to change and should only be discussed as an indicator of how we’d like to set the vehicle up.

With that being said, let’s start with protection – both the turret and the hull are made of steel only and will be somewhat thicker than those of the Leopard 1 MBT, which means rather thin. At best, the front of the vehicle will be able to withstand Tier 5 kinetic rounds, but most of the plates will be thinner than that and therefore more vulnerable. But this MBT won’t be that much about armor anyway, it will be about firepower and mobility.

Speaking of mobility – its 38 tons will be moved around by its 750hp Mitsubishi engine, giving it the maximum speed of 60 km/h and the 0 to 32 km/h acceleration time of 5.5 seconds. Its hull traverse rate will be roughly 35 degrees per second.

The firepower will be provided by a rather standard Japanese copy of the British Royal Ordnance L7 105mm rifled gun that fires APFSDS shells (400mm penetration), HESH shells (250mm penetration) and, of course, HE. The gun will be roughly on par with other vehicles of its Tier (roughly 6.3s reload time, 0.11 accuracy) but will feature excellent depression and elevation (-8/+9 degrees without the adjustable suspension, -14/+15 degrees with it) as well as great damage per minute value (amongst the best of its Tier and class).

Apart from tilting, there will of course be the option to make the vehicle crouch in order to increase its camouflage (19 to 23 percent) at the cost of view range (410m to 405m) and agility.

We hope that you will enjoy this upcoming Main Battle Tank and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Apr 2, 2020

Offer: QN-506, Leopard 2 Revolution, Premium Commanders

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

This week, we’ve prepared another set of attractive items for you:

QN-506 Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer
Leopard 2 Revolution Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank
Premium commanders Erin O’Connell, Alexander Cortez and Alisa Korhonen

Between April 2 and April 9, 2020, the following items will be available:

QN-506

The QN-506 fire support vehicle is a Chinese attempt to design a cheap, export-oriented alternative to the Russian BMPT series. Instead of converting a second or third generation MBT, the engineers at Wuhan Guide Infrared Co., Ltd., likely to keep the vehicle as affordable as possible, opted to base their project on the Type 59 MBT, which is, in its basic form anyway, a copy of the old Soviet T-55 medium tank from the late 1950s. They jam-packed it with cutting edge electronics and a number of weapon systems, including ATGMs, an automatic cannon or smaller caliber rockets. However, despite the use of an unmanned turret, the protection levels of this vehicle are still quite low and, so far, there haven’t been any signs of interest in the QN-506. You can learn more about this vehicle in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the QN-506 is a Premium Tier 9 Tank Destroyer that gameplay-wise resembles the popular BMPT series. However, unlike the Russian Terminators, it has a number of interesting features including tree different weapon systems (30mm cannon, 70mm unguided rockets and 151mm ATGMs) and loitering recon ammunition flying towards the end of a map and spotting everything in its path. The last ability is unique to the QN-506 and makes it one of the most potent support vehicles on the battlefield.

Leopard 2 Revolution

The Leopard 2 Revolution is a continuation of the older Evolution upgrade, intended to improve the performance of the older variants of the Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank in order to make it excel even on the battlefields of the 21st century. The improvements include a comprehensive armor upgrade, ROSY soft-kill APS and smoke grenade launchers as well as an entire suite of cutting edge electronics. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Leopard 2 Revolution is a Tier 8 Main Battle Tank. It is not only well-armored, it also features an extremely accurate 120mm gun with advanced ammunition, allowing it to destroy its opponents at very long ranges, rivaling those of Tank Destroyers. The German tanks in general perform best at longer ranges and the Revolution is no exception.

Premium Commanders

Some of the most popular and requested commanders are making a comeback in bundles together with Insignia and Boost tokens chosen specifically to allow for their faster training. You’ll be able to progress through their ranks faster than ever.

The commanders available are:

Alexander Cortez (with his special ability to always deal maximum damage)
Alisa Korhonen (with her special ability to call in an off-map ATGM strike)
Erin O’Connell (one of the best scouting commanders around)

Please note that these bundles come with special Platinum Armored Warfare boost tokens, the best progress boosters available in the game. You can read more about them in our dedicated article.

As for the commanders themselves, this guide will provide you with useful tips on how to configure their skills.

Please also note that if you purchased one of these bundles during previous offers, you will not be able to purchase it again during this offer.

We hope that you will enjoy the offer and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Apr 1, 2020

Maintenance - April 2

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

On the 2nd of April 2020, starting from 8:00 CEST (1st of April, 11 PM PDT), the server will not be available for 5 hours due to the application of Update 0.31.6025

List of Update 0.31.6025 Changes

This update is bringing the following major features to the game:

New Vehicles

K-153C Tier 9 AFV, a light four-wheeled highly mobile platform armed with a double Javelin-like Raybolt ATGM launcher. You can read more about it in our dedicated article
AS21 Redback Tier 9 AFV, a heavy IFV with all the gameplay systems you know and love – top-attack Javelin style ATGMs, 30mm PELE rounds and Mechanized Infantry. You can read more about it in our dedicated article
K2 Black Panther Tier 10 MBT, a light MBT with a number of advanced features. You can read more about it in our dedicated article

Commander Kwon Han

This Lodestar GmbH veteran comes with a unique set of abilities suitable for the fast-paced gameplay the new vehicles offer. He can be unlocked from the K2 Black Panther MBT. You can read more about him in our dedicated article

Artillery in Global Operations

We are rebalancing the Self-Propelled Gun class in order to prepare it for a week-long test of its re-introduction to the Global Operations mode. The rebalance includes the return of Smoke shells, brand-new White Phosphorus shells and other adjustments to SPG characteristics that you can read more about in our dedicated article. The test itself will be announced separately, stay tuned for more details.

General Changes

The following changes and fixes are also present in this update:

Added a new, overhauled player punishment system to all modes of the game (please note that this system can be adjusted over the coming weeks)
Fixed several issues that caused the game to crash
Added a new variable to the Dossier and Battle Results windows – Performance (which is the percentage of shots that hit and deal damage – including non-penetrating damage dealing shots – from all your shots fired)
Respawning in Global Operations or PvE now resets your Consumable cooldowns
ASCOD LT-105: This vehicle no longer shows the Level 5 Crew trait amongst its traits
Leclerc T40: Fixed the clipping issues of this vehicle’s turret’s rear side
Leclerc T40, RST-V Shadow: Changed the flight trajectory of the Javelin missile to match that of the Raybolt ATGM used by K21
Leclerc T40, RST-V Shadow: Fixed an issue where the Javelin missiles would sometimes get diverted too much by enemy soft-kill APS interference (also known as the “where the hell did my Javelin go” bug)
Special Operations: Fixed an issue where players could obtain the final Special Operations reward could be received several times if you entered the final mission of the series multiple times with multiple vehicles before the first vehicle completed it successfully
Spirithaven Special Operation, Chapter 3: Fixed an issue that could cause the sound of destruction of one of the warships to play indefinitely
Spirithaven Special Operation, Chapter 3: Fixed several collision issues when traversing the tunnel
Spirithaven Special Operation, Chapter 3: Fixed an issue that prevented some sounds from playing correctly when enabling or disabling the night vision mode
Spirithaven Special Operation, Chapter 3: Fixed an issue that prevented some warship destruction visual effects from playing correctly or in full
Fixed an issue where, when deploying smoke, a vehicle could become spotted when out of the area protected by it, even if it wasn’t located in the enemy line of sight
For several (mostly Russian and Chinese) vehicles, we added a fuse designation to the HE shell names
Added the flag of Friesland as a decal and banner