L-UMTAS
Contents
Description
The L-UMTAS is a Turkish air-to-ground missile. The UMTAS family was designed to arm attack helicopters and UCAVs and is a signature weapon of the Turkish T129. The L-UMTAS in particular is a variant with a semi-active laser homing warhead akin to the AGM-114B Hellfire. Appearance wise, it lacks the large rear fins of the Hellfire and looks something like a scaled-down PARS 3 LR, and the weight is also somewhat less than the Hellfire. In War Thunder, the L-UMTAS has a surprisingly powerful and capable warhead for its weight but suffers from a very underwhelming flight speed of 180 m/s.
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
| Missile characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Mass | 37 kg |
| Guidance | Laser + IOG |
| Maximum speed | 180 m/s |
| Missile guidance time | 50 secs |
| Firing range | 8 km |
| Explosive mass | 6.88 kg TNTeq |
| Armour penetration | 1,100 mm |
| Warhead type | HEAT (Tandem) |
Effective damage
The L-UMTAS has a raw penetration of 1,100 mm, equal to the contemporary AGM-114B Hellfire, but has a tandem warhead that allows it to bypass ERA. This does not necessarily make an enormous difference because that much raw penetration is enough to blast through most forms of ERA, but it never hurts. The warhead also has 6.88 kg of TNT equivalent that, while less than the AGM-114B, compares favorably to most other helicopter ATGMs at its battle rating and can inflict overpressure damage when striking roof armour.
Comparison with analogues
- AGM-114B Hellfire - the L-UMTAS has equal range and relatively similar damage (tandem warhead in exchange for less TNT), but its maximum flight speed is less than half of the Hellfire's.
- AKD-9 - this Chinese ATGM weighs even less than the L-UMTAS. Inferior in range and damage and not a speedster by any means, the AKD-9 still manages to fly twice as fast.
- 9M120 Ataka - the Ataka is also inferior in range and damage but flies three times as fast - it's possible to score multiple Ataka hits before the L-UMTAS strikes once.
- Spike ER - only seen at significantly higher battle ratings than the L-UMTAS, but invites comparison because it also has a glacial 180 m/s flight speed and an 8 km range. The Spike has a weaker warhead but its infrared imaging seeker allows for complete fire-and-forget operation, so its pilot can disengage while the missiles make their way downrange.
Usage in battles
The L-UMTAS is yet another semi-active laser homing missile that can generally be used like the Hellfire. Although it boasts a powerful tandem warhead at a relatively low battle rating before the AGM-114K Hellfire II becomes widely available, users must work around its very nearly worst-in-class flight speed — it will only outrun the ancient RB 53 Bantam (85 m/s max) and 9M14M Malyutka (140 m/s max). This flight speed is a major downside because the pilot must generally maintain a line of sight while using the missile. When fired at max range it will take nearly 50 seconds for the missile to arrive, which is an eternity to spend dodging an enemy radar SAM. Even in the absence of enemy air defense it is very possible for a target to duck behind cover or get destroyed by other methods in the meantime.
If the L-UMTAS must be used for SAM hunting, the lock-after-launch functionality allows the user to hide for the majority of the flight duration and only pop up in the last few seconds of terminal guidance. However the T129 has CIRIT laser-guided rockets with an equal maximum range, vastly superior speed, and still enough damage to dispatch SAMs, so ironically it may be better to reserve the L-UMTAS for close quarters use where the flight time isn't overwhelming.
While Hellfire-type missiles are often used as ad-hoc AAMs due to their good range and ability to lead their targets, the L-UMTAS is so slow that it will likely lose to any other helicopter weapon in a joust. Against fixed-wing aircraft it tends to run out of energy trying to pull any horizontal lead and may even have trouble catching certain prop planes in a tail chase. Guns and MANPAD missiles are more reliable.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Commendable penetration, tandem warhead, solid TNT equivalent, good effect upon a hit
- SALH guidance allows for lock-after-launch and salvo firing
Cons:
- Exceptionally poor flight speed, worst among all SALH missiles
- Limited utility against flying targets because of its kinematics
History
Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
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 article about the variant of the weapon;
- references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
