The LOSAT-CCVL is a very unique vehicle in War Thunder in both looks and gameplay. Boasting low survivability, no gun elevation whatsoever, but the best penetration for a kinetic penetrator in game, the LOSAT needs little to no introduction. Lets take a look into what makes this "Tank" special!
A Quick Overview
What is the LOSAT?
Everyone by this point should be familiar with the “Tank Destroyer” concept, the LOSAT is no exception. Specifically, it is an ATGM Carrier Tank Destroyer, with other close examples examples being the French MEPHISTO and the German RaketenJagdpanzer 2, and the Soviet Shturm-S just to name a couple. The big deference between the conventional ATGM Carrier Tank Destroyers we have in game and the LOSAT is the type of ammunition being used. A normal ATGM Carrier uses a chemical shaped-charge warhead either in a single warhead or tandem warhead configuration. The LOSAT however uses a Solid Kinetic Penetrator warhead.
Okay, but what makes it special?
Think of it's ATGMs as a rocket propelled APFSDS round. Unlike a conventional APFSDS round which loses penetration over long distances, the LOSAT’s MGM-166 Missile gains more penetration due to the rapid acceleration of the missile going from a mediocre 70mms of pen at 10 meters away to as much as 775mm of pen at 1000 meters away.
The inversed penetration differences force you to play as a sniper, which due to its paper thin armor, is much preferable over brawling. The MGM-166 missile itself is a little twitchy, but follows your reticle very quickly after initial launch. Coupled with Generation 2+ Thermal Sights and an amazing 4x-12x zoom, it makes acquiring targets very easy.
But lets save all of that for the full breakdown.
Breakdown: The Armor
Lets state the obvious, the LOSAT has paper thin armor. With a maximum of 38.1mm of Aluminum Alloy 5038 for its upper front plate and 25.4mm on all sides of the turret, your survivability is akin to a damp paper towel. Funnily, the most armor you have is on the lower half of the side of your hull with a maximum of 44mm which is more than enough to stop .50cal (12.7mm) rounds and (with some luck and angling) 20mm autocannon rounds.
The rest of the armor is nothing significant as, again, you have light armor. Being based off of the XM8 AGS experimental light tank (same as the CCVL), its okay armor for what you are which, I reiterate again, you are an ATGM Carrier and a long range sniper. You aren’t as armored as the Russian 2S25M “Sprut-SDM1”, the German TAM 2C, or even the Swedish Strf 9040C, all of which are comparable tracked light tanks at or around the same BR as the CCVL and the LOSAT.
A couple redeeming features are the massive empty spaces in the hull and far spacing in between the crew members.
As you can see, the hull is quite spacious and void of any critical parts, with the main internal components being neatly placed in the rear of the vehicle. The crew is also fairly spaced out with only the Gunner and Commander being closer together than with the Driver. A poorly placed shot or a direct shot to the lower side of your hull will either slip right through with hardly any spalling or take out one crew member.
This is unfortunately negated by your large turret housing the MGM-166 ATGMs as it is a huge target for people to shoot at and you’re very prone to ammo detonation if your missiles aren’t fully or partially depleted. This can sort of be remedied by being at range and remaining out of sight. Nevertheless, I hope you gained a better understanding of your armor and how to use it effectively.
Breakdown: The Mobility and Turret Components
The Speed
To start, lets talk about the speed and maneuverability of the vehicle. A stock LOSAT has a 509 horsepower engine with a power-to-weight ratio of 26.1 horsepower per ton which gives it a modest acceleration. When all engine modules are researched, the engine is boosted to 575 horsepower with a power-to-weight ratio of 29.5 horsepower per ton giving it a considerable more amount of acceleration allowing it to reach top speed much quicker which is essential for reaching sniping positions in the early stages of a match.
The maximum speed going forwards is 70km/h with an acceptable reverse speed of 14 km/h, more than enough to duck back into cover after firing a missile or two. This brings me into my next point as well.
The LOSAT system is, like many other ATGM carriers, limited by its speed when firing. It cannot go more than 5km/h before you’re able to fire making on the move shots virtually impossible save for one small special feature found on many tanks as early as post interwar tanks. Said special feature is your cruise control option (CC) known as “BATTLE” or battle mode speed. To activate this, simply press the cruise control speed activation hotkey (E by default, and Q by default for reversing). This mode allows you to continue moving and be able to fire the ATGMs. But it is an extremely slow pace of 3km/h which is almost the max you can move while being able to fire (with the max being 5km/h before you're unable to fire).
It has its uses being you can still get to places and also gently adjust your angle of attack. You also get a tiny bit more movement speed when going full throttle compared to being fully stopped.
Overall while “BATTLE” is pretty niche and does have a use from time to time, the mobility of the LOSAT is above average for it’s tier, being able to get to sniping positions quickly and giving you a slight edge over the MBTs of the BRs around you.
The Turret Traverse
Lets move on to the LOSAT’s turret traverses next. Again, lets state the obvious, the LOSAT’s turret can neither elevate nor depress and is stuck at a fixed 0 degrees vertically. The horizontal however is a modest 17.85 degrees a second with a stock vehicle and a great 30 degrees a second with an ACE crew and horizontal drive module researched with a 300 degree frontal firing arc. Do also keep in mind you cannot shoot behind you whatsoever. The biggest and most flawed downside to the turret is it’s lack of vertical traverse, being unable to move it up or down. Hills and rough terrain will be your biggest annoyances seeing as you need near flat terrain to be able to fire properly which is almost always hard to come by in a live match, or at least a safe position. Also as a quick mention, if the gunner is knocked out, the commander can fire the ATGMs by assuming control while he replaces the gunner. If the Commander is knocked out, you will not be able to use your 12.7mm M2HB .50cal machine gun.
As mentioned at the beginning, the MGM-166s are quite twitchy off the rails, but will stabilize after 1.5 seconds and center on your reticle. You can only aim your ATGM up after firing which usually messes up your shot. You can however pull off some ridiculous shots such as an “orbital strike” shot which is performed by having your hull being pointed upwards slightly and having your reticle pointed down after firing to create quite a funny launch arc which can sometimes pen the roofs of tanks if hit properly at closer ranges.
The last thing to mention in this portion is you do have access to an M2HB 12.7mm .50cal situated on top of your turret in a swivel mount. It has okay elevation with -5 degrees of depression and 10 positive degrees of elevation for a total of 15 degrees vertical guidance and is capable of traversing -70 degrees and 70 degrees positive for a full 140 degree frontal firing arc. Its useful against low flying helicopters, aircraft, and scout drones (if you can hit them) otherwise, it’s only value is scouting enemies for your team. Its better to spot enemy targets for your friendlies with the LOSAT’s laser rangefinder which is really only useful for your .50cal.
Finally, the optics of the LOSAT are really nice, having a base 4x zoom which can be increased to 12x for spotting faraway targets. The gunner and commander have access to Generation 2+ thermals which are nice and crisp except at really long ranges, which is still really good to have in both day and night matches. The driver has access to basic night vision for night battles. Both of these really help you spot targets and allow you to launch surprise attacks from super far away, nabbing you a frag if you place your shot well.
Breakdown: The MGM-166 ATGM
The MGM-166 ATGM is a 163mm missile. The LOSAT carries a total of 12 MGM-166s in its turret which can be fired one after the other if needed. Keep in mind you can only guide one ATGM at a time so spamming them is not advised in most situations. As previously mentioned, it takes about 1.5 seconds for the missile to stabilize on your aiming reticle to which it can be seen as “twitchy” when guiding it in to your target. Its beam riding nature and high G-pull make this one of, if not, the most maneuverable missiles at range. It has a 5 second missile guidance time so make sure to make it count!
As an added note, with the introduction of buildable ammo crates for tank destroyers and SPAAGs as of Update 2.41 “Firebirds”, it is possible to reload your entire stock of MGM-166s once per match without needing to head to any friendly cap point to rearm and risk heading into the line of fire.
Also previously mentioned, the MGM-166 gains more penetration the farther from the target. You have a very weak 70mms of pen at 10 meters away and a very good 729mms of pen at 2000 meters away. The best range to still get the best pen without having to guide over long distances would be between 500 meters and 1000 meters as you have a range of penetration going from 443mms of pen all the way up to 775mm of pen at 0 degrees flat angles. Even at 60 degrees of angulation, the MGM-166 can pen up to 448mm of pen at 1000 meters, which is more than enough to penetrate and overmatch any MBT slightly angled. Not even top tier MBTs have this level of pen. Tanks such as the Object 292's 152mm APFSDS having a max pen of 695mms of pen and the Leopard 2A7V’s DM53 having a max pen of 652mms make these the closest competitors in terms of Solid Kinetic Penetrators. Of course, other ATGMs like what is found on the Russian BMP-2M and it’s 9M133's Tandem warhead can pen up to 1200mms at flat angles. Same goes for the Rooivalk Mk1F CSH and it’s ZT-6 Mokopa which has a ridiculous 1350mms of pen at max (making it the ATGM/AGM with the most pen in the game).
While it is possible to use the MGM-166 against helicopters and, on the rare occasion, even low flying aircraft, dont expect a lot of damage as there is no explosive filler. It is strictly a kinetic missile and therefore will take more precise aiming to bring down helicopters and aircraft by hitting their vital components such as their rotors and engines.
One small tip too, since the missile is so fast, the Hardkill APS systems such as Trophy (Israel) and Iron Fist (Britain) and even Drozd (Russia) will struggle to take out the MGM-166 thanks to the missile's max speed being 1,520 meters a second. Use this to your advantage if you ever encounter tanks with hardkill APS systems. Softkill APS systems are entirely negated due to the missile's hard beam riding guidance.
The last tip to mention is since the MGM-166 is a kinetic weapon, you dont have to worry about the missile prematurely exploding on shrubbery or trees. It did have a bug where it did prematurely explode upon contact with anything when it was released, but it has since been fixed and is no longer an issue. A visual glitch that has persisted and will happen is the missile will look like it exploded on a bush or a tree. This is not the case, the missile is fine and will continue to track your target and hit them so dont be alarmed and fire off another potentially wasting 2 missiles!
Playing in Live Matches
Pre-Game Planning
So now that you know the breakdown of what makes up the LOSAT, lets dive into how to play this weird machine. Like previously stated, any maps with large hills and steep edges (such as 38th Parallel or the normal Sinai map) are your worst enemies. The best you can do is just stay at range and pick out targets. Maps like Sands of Sinai, Sands of Tunisia, Fulda, and Aral Sea are great for long range engagements, but you too are prone to being engaged as these maps all have large areas with minimal cover. Utilize what cover you can and use your NVDs and your incredible gunner sight to spot targets before they can spot you. Even just a few seconds and engaging first may save you from an early death!
When and What to engage
There are times you will be forced to engage targets at closer ranges than recommended. The best thing to do in situations like that, depending on the vehicle, is to engage and take out barrels and tracks in the initial engagement. Reverse to gain distance and when you're within 300 meters, engage again for anything more armored than a light tank or an SPAA. For lighter targets, 70mm of pen is usually more than enough to deal with anything of the lighter vehicle variety. The Radkampfwagen 90, for example, only has 38mm of frontal hull armor and 122mm of sloped frontal turret armor. 10-100 meters of engagement range are recommended for shooting the hull. Ranges of 200 and up would be better suited so you can penetrate the turret as well and get better spalling too.
When coming up against tanks like the Leopard 2A4 or the T-72A/T-72B, you can only engage them from distances of 400 meters and up. I recommend this range because you will have enough penetration to go through the upper front plates of both vehicles and have a higher chance of destroying them by ammo detonation since the extra ammunition of the Leopard is stored in the front to the left of the driver (your right if you're facing it head on) and the ammo carousel is dead center of a T-72.
Also, stay away from autocannon IFVs like the Lithuanian Vilkas, Hungarian KF41, and British Desert Warrior and SPAAs that have rapid autocannons such as the Russian 2S6, and Italian OTOMATIC. Anything with a fast firing gun should be avoided at close and medium ranges and should only be engaged at long ranges.
When it comes to aircraft, honestly do your best not to be spotted, and if you spot a Helicopter, make sure you see them first and engage them first, you might snag yourself an aircraft kill, netting you more rewards. With the abundance of guided munitions from CAS aircraft, the best you can do is find cover and hope for the best.
Overall, the key is to stay at range, dont get spotted, and engage targets quickly and efficiently. Sticking with teammates is also a great idea when playing the LOSAT as you can support teammates who have been hit, are being pursued, or avenging your fallen teammates in retaliatory engagements. Just do your best to stay at range, and if you have to get up closer, make sure to watch your distance and use your Laser Rangefinder (LRF) to quickly calculate the distance to a potential engagement spot.
A History of the LOSAT
The Predecessor
Before the LOSAT, came the HVM (Hyper Velocity Missile) program from Vought. In the late 1970s, the HVM program created by Vought sought to create what was essentially a multi-platform weapon supported by the US Air Force, for usage on the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. The program was also supported by the US Army and US Marine Corps, for usage in helicopters and other vehicles. It performed similarly to existing armaments such as the AGM-114 Hellfire and the TOW Missile but had the benefit of being semi-fire and forget (meaning it could be fired and it could track itself to it's designated target while the user could switch targets mid-flight without accidentally causing the projectile to switch directions) with the use of FLIR track and guide commands similar to SACLOS guidance, but with autonomous tracking. However, with the official end of the Cold War in 1989, the Air Force pulled out of the project, and development work on HVM project appeared to have ended somewhere in the mid-to-late 1980s.
The AAWS-H and the LOSAT
The CCVL-LOSAT was born from a new program in 1988 which was the US Army's requirement of a new ground-based anti-tank system, known as Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System - Heavy, or AAWS-H for short. This would be a spiritual successor to the HMV project. The project called for an air-liftable lightweight system with the capability to knock out any existing (or near-future) tank outside its own gun range. The main tanks in question would've been the T-72 and T-80 tanks of the former USSR (now the Russian Federation) or the upcoming T-90 program. While other weapon systems such as the TOW missile could be guided from concealed locations, it did not offer the needed range (being limited to 3,750m (2.33mi) on most models) and its relatively slow flight speeds (278 m/s top speed for the TOW versus the 1,650 m/s top speed for the HVM and later the LOSAT's 1,520 m/s top speed) left it vulnerable to counterattack from the target while the missile was still in flight posing serious danger to ground crews operating the ATGM system.
To fill the newly developed requirements of the AAWS-H program, Vought went and developed a slightly larger version of HVM with an extended range (compared to the HVM) known as the Kinetic Energy Missile (or KEM for short), while their partner, Texas Instruments, provided Vought and the new weapon system with a new FLIR imager targeting system that they were already working on as an upgrade to the TOW ATGM and its variants. This new weapon system became known as the MGM-166 LOSAT or "Line Of Sight Anti Tank" missile (presumably also given a new ATGM denotation of "ATG-KEM" (Anti-Tank Guided Kinetic Energy Missile)). Several vehicles were studied as potential candidates to mount the system, including (but not limited to) the front-runner the M2 Bradley, its successor the M3 Bradley, as well as the in-development M8 Armored Gun System (XM8 AGS). Generally, the vehicle desired by the army was something air-droppable and was light enough and fast enough to relocate after engagements be it a wheeled vehicle or tracked. The variant of the XM8 AGS we know and the whole purpose of this guide was the XM8 CCVL, this proposed XM8 had the chassis fitted with a giant turret bustle to house 12 of the new MGM-166 Missiles and all the equipment needed to fire and guide the LOSAT missile.
Still, in order to reduce costs and refine air mobility in a post – Cold War world, the LOSAT design mounted on a tank frame was cancelled and ultimately the choice was made to mount the MGM-166 missiles on an extended-length heavy-duty Humvee with a hard- top containing four KEMs ready to fire. Along side the top mounted KEMs, it came equipped with an attached trailer containing another eight missiles in two-round packs. Painfully, that's where the story of the LOSAT- CCVL ends as the army pursued this new Humvee configuration.
So what happened next?
Further development of the project had produced a new guidance system which could keep two missiles in flight to separate targets, allowing the vehicle to salvo fire its weapons against a tank squadron in a few seconds. Reaching speeds of 1,500 m/s (5,000 ft/s), the LOSAT's MGM-166 was in the air from launch to maximum range for under 4 seconds, making counterfire extremely difficult to the unsuspecting enemy that'd just been ambushed. The range was beyond that of existing main battle tank guns such as the German 120mm L/44, American 120mm M256, the Russian 125mm 2A46M, and the French 120mm GIAT CN120-26/52 (just to name a few); allowing the LOSAT to fire and move before tanks could maneuver into a position to return fire. These tests were conducted in during 1990.
It was only in 1997 that a new Advanced Technology Concept Demonstrator (ATCD) program started to bring the LOSAT system to full production quality. The contract called for 12 LOSAT vehicles (more than likely the new heavy-duty Humvee with trailers) and 144 KEMs, to be delivered by 2003 for evaluation and testing. Even before this contract was complete, the Army asked for a production run of another 108 missiles in August 2002 for further testing.
The first of the 12 LOSAT units was delivered in October 2002, and the system began a series of 18 production-qualification test firings in August 2003 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. By March 2004, 18 KEMs had been fired at targets under a variety of conditions (such as rain, low-visibility, and low-light as is standard for firing tests), both during the day and night to test the FLIR guidance systems and assess the LOSAT's performance in different environments.
Another 8 were fired and assessed in the summer of 2004 at Fort Bliss as part of a user-testing exercise to get crews familiar with live-fire scenarios, presumably being used against dummy or real T-Series tanks.
Cancellation of the Project and Beyond
By the time the test program was finished, it was sorely blatant that the Army was going to cancel the LOSAT program after the low- rate initial production (LRIP) batch of about 435 missiles was delivered. By this point the Army had preliminarily started work on a new system known as the Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (or CKEM), which was based off the data collected by the LOSAT program's testing and evaluation but was constructed in a smaller and lighter model, which was geared towards to be more in tune with real-world dangers. Presumably this was done to lower the cost of the ammunition while keeping the strengths of the LOSAT in a cheaper package as well as stay within affordable constraints of the project's budget. As it later turned out, the LRIP contract was never funded, and ultimately the LOSAT program was terminated subsequently in 2004.
Speaking of the CKEM project, The Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) developed the CKEM program as part of the Army's new Future Combat Systems (FCS) program in the mid-to-late 2000's. The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile program would be pursued further after Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract and received $21.3 million dollars in funding for further development of the CKEM Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) phase, with multiple tests being conducted in 2006 and in 2007. Unfortunately, like many other future weapons programs, such as the CKEM project, were cancelled in 2009 after the cancellation of the Future Combat Systems program. Thus the US Military effectively shut down all remnants of the HVM, LOSAT, and CKEM projects.
Right: A 3D Render of an HATM BTV firing a CKEM from cover
(HATM - BTV stands for Hypervelocity Anti Tank Missile - Ballistics Test Vehicle)
Conclusion
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| High Penetration | Thin Armor |
| Good mobility | No Vertical Traverse/Vertical Firing Angles |
| Generation 2+ Thermal Sights | No Rear Firing Angles |
| Fantastic 4x-12x sight magnification | Limit of 12 ATGMs |
| .50cal has limited firing angles | |
| Not very useful against light vehicles and vehicles with no armor |
Lets wrap things up!
The LOSAT is a tricky tank to get the hang of, but through trial and error, even you can master the playstyle of this unique Tank Destroyer. I wont sugarcoat it, it took me a full year after it’s release to get the hang of the MGM-166 and the major flaws surrounding the LOSAT. And I can say for certain that the vehicle is much better than it was. Is it easier? Sort of, but not really. To this day I still face the same challenges I did when i first got it. But with the right conditions, you can get a great ace game and maybe even get enough spawn points to get a Nuke! The missiles are really hard hitting at the right ranges and with the speedy chassis of the XM8 AGS, you can get to places early game and even reposition fairly quickly in the middle of the match.
Just remember to stay towards the rear guard, use your amazing gunner/commander sights as well as the Gen 2+ thermals, and you may get away with a couple kills. Of course, the map rotation is ever elusive so if its a hilly map with lots of obstacles, maybe think twice on bringing it out into the match. And make sure to keep an eye out for those pesky autocannon IFVs and SPAAs!
Closing Words
Thank you for getting through this guide. I hope you learned a few things and maybe got a sense of how to play this! If you want the LOSAT, it can be found on the Gaijin Marketplace. Just do keep in mind that you will need to grind and research the modules on the vehicle as it’s classed as an event vehicle and not a premium vehicle. Once again, thank you so much for reading through this guide, feel free to leave a comment, and have a great day!
Sources Used
LOSAT firing image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-166_LOSAT
Update 2.41 “Firebirds” link: https://forum.warthunder.com/t/meet-the-firebirds-major-update/187551
LOSAT in-game images: Me
LOSAT fighting in middle east: https://live.warthunder.com/post/1085226/en/
LOSAT and MGM-166 project information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-166_LOSAT
CKEM Project information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Kinetic_Energy_Missile
CKEM Photos: https://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/ckem.html
Various other links used in this guide: https://wiki.warthunder.com
