Fox
Contents
Description
The FV721 Fox is a rank IV British light tank with a battle rating of 7.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Alpha Strike".
General info
Survivability and armour
When it comes to armour protection, the Fox is severely lacking. With protection from .50 calibre bullets from the front only, players will quickly find themselves killed if targeted by the enemy, so care should be taken to not be seen and to keep moving if seen so as to provide a hard target to hit.
The internals of the Fox will not provide much chance to survive either, as the 3 crew members are very tightly packed with not much empty space, so any shots that penetrate are likely to kill at least 2, if not all 3 crew. Most of the space not taken up by crew is taken by either the engine, transmission or ammunition, so even if the crew does not die straight away, players will typically find themselves either exploding, or stuck in place while the enemy reloads.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 33.5 mm (53°) Front Glacis
33.5 mm (1-53°) Driver's Port |
41 mm (0-6°) Top 5 mm (0°) Bottom |
38 mm (1°) | 5 mm (89°) |
| Turret | 41 mm (47-60°) Turret front 41 mm (52-55°) Gun mantlet |
41 mm (0°) | 38 mm (36°) | 20 mm (89°) |
| Cupola | 20 mm (60°) | 20 mm (60°) | 20 mm (60°) | 20 mm (59-89°) |
Notes:
Mobility
Write about the mobility of the ground vehicle. Estimate the specific power and manoeuvrability, as well as the maximum speed forwards and backwards.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 110 | 110 | 6.1 | 302 | 372 | 49.51 | 60.98 |
| Realistic | 99 | 99 | 172 | 195 | 28.2 | 31.97 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
Sharing the main gun with the Warrior, players should be aware of the low rate of fire for this weapons calibre, with 0.9 seconds between each shell. The clip size of 3 may look like a downside, but the reload time of the clip is fast enough to not make a difference to fire rate.
One redeeming factor of the gun is the APDS, giving it impressive penetration (for a 30 mm). However, it is still a 30 mm and players should always be looking for the side of targets unless they are very lightly armoured. The post-penetration damage requires careful aiming to disable enemy vehicles as the Fox will not withstand return fire which the enemy will get a chance to do as the fire rate is slow enough to give them time to react.
Starting with APHE and HEI belts, the penetration is severely lacking and can not be relied upon to kill targets, but once the APDS belt is unlocked, players can start being more comfortable when flanking.
| 30 mm L21A1 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 99 (3) | 80 | -14°/+40° | ±180° | - | 57.1 | 79.1 | 96.0 | 106.2 | 113.0 | 1.04 | 0.92 | 0.85 | 0.80 |
| Realistic | 35.7 | 42.0 | 51.0 | 56.4 | 60.0 | |||||||||
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 | ||
| 30x170 APHE-I | SAP-I | 53 | 50 | 39 | 29 | 21 | 16 |
| 30x170 HE-I-T | HEI-T* | 9 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 30x170 APDS-T | APDS | 110 | 101 | 95 | 69 | 52 | 41 |
| 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% | ||||||||||
| 30x170 APHE-I | SAP-I | 1,080 | 0.36 | 1.2 | 9 | 30.6 | 47° | 56° | 65° | |||
| 30x170 HE-I-T | HEI-T* | 1,080 | 0.36 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 85 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| 30x170 APDS-T | APDS | 1,175 | 0.3 | - | - | - | 75° | 78° | 80° | |||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | 11 (+22) | 7 (+26) | 4 (+29) | 1 (+32) | No |
Machine guns
The Fox's L37A2 coaxial machine gun can be used along with the 30 mm autocannon, to take down aircraft that could pose a threat to your vehicle. The machine gun can also be used to counter many open vehicles of the battle rating such as the M53/59 and the M56 Scorpion.
| 7.62 mm L37A2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 2,600 (100) | 650 | - | - |
Usage in battles
In summary, the Fox plays in a similar fashion to vehicles like the Italian R3. Its mobility allows for players to scout and move to positions faster than the majority of other vehicles seen at the battle rating. As the Fox's battle rating is home to the majority of Cold War heavy tanks, most of the teams are usually a combination of heavy tanks and main battle tanks, putting the Fox in a unique position to capture zones before the teams even engage each other. The 30 mm cannon has a terrible fire rate, but it does have an APDS round that allows the fox to knock out most things from either the side or back. On the occasion where a Fox is unable to destroy a tank with its APDS belt, tracks and cannon barrels will be destroyed by the 30 mm rounds. 12.7 mm machine gun rounds and higher can penetrate the Fox's armour, so caution should be exercised if the enemy's machine guns are still functional.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great mobility and acceleration with a reverse gearbox
- Effective cannon that can penetrate almost all vehicles from the sides and back
- Small profile, allowing for "rat" gameplay and access to a lot of hiding places.
Cons:
- Terrible fire rate
- Can be penetrated by .50 cals from the sides and back
History
Beginning development in 1965 by the Daimler company of Coventry, the FV721 Fox was a 4x4 armoured car as a replacement for the Ferret scout car and Saladin armoured car. The first of 15 prototypes was completed in November 1967 with user trials beginning the following year. Following successful trials, the first announcement about the Fox was made in October 1969, with a production order placed with Royal Ordnance Leeds the following year. Production began in 1972 and ran to May 1973, building a total of 325.
200 vehicles saw service with the United Kingdom, with most being used by the Royal Yeomanry and the Queen's Own Yeomanry, part of the British Army of the Rhine. Small numbers were also attached to air mobile, armoured and mechanized infantry battalions to form a reconnaissance platoon. The Fox was retired from British service by 1994.
The remaining vehicles were exported to Malawi and Nigeria, with some remaining in service to this day.
Devblog
In the 1960s, the British Army was looking to replace their outdated Ferret and Saladin armored cars with a more capable vehicle that featured the 30 mm L21A1 RARDEN cannon. Development of the FV721 Fox started in 1965 by Daimler with the first prototype ready and shown to the British Army in 1967. After successful trials, full-scale production of the Fox was given the go ahead and was completed by 1973. Over 300 were built, where most were operated by Britain which are now out of service, and some by Malawi and Nigeria that are still in service today in very limited numbers.
Media
- 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
| Britain light tanks | |
|---|---|
| A13 | A13 Mk I · A13 Mk I (3rd R.T.R.) · A13 Mk II · A13 Mk II 1939 |
| A15 | Crusader II · Crusader "The Saint" · Crusader III |
| A17 | Tetrarch I |
| IFV | Warrior |
| Wheeled | Daimler Mk II · AEC Mk II · Fox · Vickers Mk.11 |
| Other | VFM5 |
| South Africa | |
| SARC | SARC MkIVa · SARC MkVI (2pdr) · SARC MkVI (6pdr) |
| Ratel | Ratel 90 · Ratel 20 |
| Rooikat | Rooikat Mk.1D · Rooikat 105 · Rooikat MTTD |
| Other | Concept 3 · Eland 90 Mk.7 |
| USA | Stuart I · Stuart III |
