Pbv 302 (BILL)
.jpg)
Contents
Description
The Pansarbandvagn 302 BILL is a rank VI Swedish tank destroyer with a battle rating of 8.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Drone Age".
General info
Survivability and armour
The frontal hull armour of the tank is piked and has an additional plate on top of it, effectively giving some protection against bad 23 mm ammunition (like some of the SPAA and medium tanks still use) and 12.7 mm ammunition. Any random spray of such weapons that is not directed to the very top of the roof (where the plate ends) will do no real damage, as even LFP hits tend to get stuck in the transmission. The 30 mm will likely penetrate unless the tank is also angled up. When the tank is swimming, frontal plate swings out, allowing the 23 mm to penetrate the hull.
The sides and the back of the hull are rather strange and have unexpected levels of protection across the board for no explainable reason. Overall, they are somewhat weak and will only stop 12.7 mm ammunition when angled, deflecting poor 23 mm ammunition as well.
The turret overall has poor armour. It has a shield for the gunner on the very front, but the optics can be penetrated by 12.7 mm when looking directly at the enemy, so knowledgeable opponent can always do something to stop the Pbv302. Not only that, but the cupolas on the roof are even more vulnerable and allow to take out everyone but the loader with just the HMG if opponent knows about these weaknesses. The very back has some empty space, so sometimes shots directed there will do nothing, but it's not a good idea to count on it against anyone but Soviets, since the armour can detonate sensitive APHE and can be overpressured easily at the same time.
The roof is overall very weak and should not be relied upon against any kind of airstrike. The launcher is also located very high and can be hit with chemical ammunition to overpressure the tank beneath it or hit with extremely powerful kinetic shells (like APFSDS) to detonate it.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 20 (44°) + 5 (43°) mm Front glacis 20 mm (36-38°) Lower glacis |
5 mm Top 10 + 4 mm Bottom |
15 mm (5°) | 5-12 mm |
| Turret | 15-25 mm (14-48°) Turret front 20 mm (8-18°) Gun mantlet |
15 mm (5°) | 15 mm (5°) | 12 mm |
| Cupola | 12 mm | 12 mm | 12 mm | 12 mm |
Notes:
- Belly armour is 10 mm thick.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 72 | 13 | 14 | 384 | 515 | 27.43 | 36.79 |
| Realistic | 66 | 12 | 239 | 270 | 17.07 | 19.29 | |
Pbv 302 is rather slow and clumsy for its rank and BR, being much slower than most medium tanks, but it sometimes compensates it with ability to swim.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
The regular gun installed in the turret is very weak and is below weakest SPAA of the BR in terms of efficiency. This is mostly because the ammunition used in the gun is extremely poor and even after research the tank can only use HVAP instead of APDS, which means that it's efficiency against angled armour is effectively 0. The gun also cannot aim to the right because of the cupolas, so tank must keep enemy light vehicles on its left to fight them.
The gun is also not very good against aircraft due to a limited maximum elevation of 36°, but this can be compensated by standing on a hill, which is what Pbv 302 will often do to use its real primary weapon - the ATGM.
| 20 mm Akan m/47D | 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 | 540 (30) | 480 | -7°/+36° | ±180° | - | 26.4 | 36.5 | 44.4 | 49.1 | 52.2 | 6.50 | 5.75 | 5.30 | 5.00 |
| Realistic | 17.9 | 21.0 | 25.5 | 28.2 | 30.0 | |||||||||
Ammunition
- Default: AP-T · HEFI-T · HEFI-T
- slsgr m/71: HEFI-T
- slpprj m/68: HVAP-T
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEFI-T | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 37 | 35 | 26 | 18 | 13 | 9 | |
| HVAP-T | 48 | 45 | 33 | 23 | 16 | 11 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEFI-T | 855 | 0.12 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 39 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 830 | 0.14 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
| HVAP-T | 885 | 0.13 | - | - | - | 66° | 70° | 72° | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Additional armament
The pole on the top of the turret is housing the ATGM and guiding mechanism for it. While it can guide the missiles by default in third person view, to properly use it player must press "Select special weapon or ATGM" hotkey or multi-function menu key. This will move the sniper scope to the ATGM, but also disable turret controls. The pole can turn 30 degrees to the sides of the turret. Since the turret cannot be moved in this aiming mode, sudden corrections would have to be made with the hull, which might affect the missile trajectory in bad ways. To regain controls of everything, use of "reset weapon selection" is recommended over any other option.
The main reason to fear the PBV 302 are the RB 56 BILL II missiles. These missiles have top-down attack style, meaning they need to be guided above enemy tank. When operator aims crosshairs onto something, the missile will automatically offset itself by 5 degrees to move above theoretical enemy tank roof. The missile explodes downward almost immediately if it flies above anything "tank-like", even if it is a dead tank or allies. This means, that the missile can be aimed directly at the tank that is behind an obstacle or a hill as well, since the missile will fly above it. It is necessary to guide the missile as close towards theoretical enemy tank weak spots as possible as the explosion is rather precise.
The BILL missiles have extremely high penetration when compared to TOW-2B of other nations, meaning that even in the case of a bad hit they often deal enough damage to make the target afraid, but they have virtually zero penetration power when hitting enemy head-on (in case they hit enemy turret the missile explodes into hull, but when it hits the hull it does nothing at all) and mostly deal no overpressure damage when hitting the bottom of enemy tanks.
The actual damage of missiles is very dependent on the height of explosion and enemy ammo rack placement. The lower the missile explodes, the closer the explosion will be to the turret front, the higher the missile explodes, the higher the chance of hitting the mandatory back ammo racks directly and overpenetrating the entire tank all the way to the floor (overpressuring light tanks or hitting most of the turret crew and even more ammo racks in process). Ammo rack hits are nearly always fatal, but module damage can be easily sustained. When attacking most tanks from the front, the best case scenario is to detonate the missiles as high as possible before BILL outstanding penetration power starts to fail.
Efficiency of the missiles against long tanks with the turret on the very back is questionable at best, so it is better to attack them from the side or when they angle up on a hill. ERA covered tanks take very light damage from BILL most of the time, but it is still possible to push HEAT jet into the turret and destroy them, although this might take up to 14 missiles from two Pbv 302 at once if they also have NERA. NERA tanks with inert ammo racks can also survive a hit into turret and attack should be aimed into middle of the tank, just past NERA screens (by intentionally lowering the missile)
The reload for ATGM takes around 14 seconds as long as the loader is alive, but may take twice as long if he isn't. Rearm on a capture point takes about 6 seconds per missile, allowing to quickly grab more missiles and run. In AB mode, rearm upon emptying the entire ammo rack outside capture point takes 40 seconds, which is also very fast.
The missile has some downsides. The missiles have a dead zone of 10 m, so they can't really be used at ramming range (which is still better than TOW-2B dead zone range), and will detonate above allies and dead tanks that aren't literally infront of the Pbv 302. The fuse also does not react to aircraft, unlike with other top-down missiles, and missile has a rather short maximum range, so BILL cannot be used as a makeshift SAM, unless enemy helicopter is being extremely stubborn and flies straight, so it can be hit directly.
| Rbs 56 missile | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| 7 | -12°/+30° | - | - | 13.00 | 11.50 | 10.60 | 10.00 |
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 | ||
| RB 56 BILL II | ATGM (OTA) | 510 | 510 | 510 | 510 | 510 | 510 |
| Missile details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Range (m) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Arming distance (m) |
Trigger radius (m) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| RB 56 BILL II | ATGM (OTA) | 250 | 2,200 | 10.9 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 10 | 3 | 2.72 | 80° | 82° | 90° |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Usage in battles
Despite its real-life role as an infantry fighting vehicle, the Pbv 302 (BILL) plays more like other ATGM carriers in the game. Its mobility isn't terrible but mostly inadequate for large flanking manoeuvres, and its autocannon and missile react too slowly for close encounters with other tanks. As such, the Pbv 302 (BILL) fares best in long-range sniper battles. Use its reasonable mobility to quickly get to a good hull-down position and make sure only the launcher is exposed, then switch to the "special weapon or ATGM" (using a keybind or the multi-function menu) which will allow guiding the missile from the launcher's point of view. Unfortunately, the post-penetration damage of the ATGM usually won't destroy the enemy in one shot, but light tanks and some medium tanks can be overpressured by hitting them on the roof with the missile. Don't forget to use the autocannon as well; it can be used to take out lightly armoured vehicles and helicopters in order to conserve precious missiles.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Early access to top-down ATGM - can easily obliterate any camping tank with only the CM-25 being the real competition
- High compatability with wide variety of cover at any range
- Can also guide ATGM with its launcher in third person view - something other IFV-like tanks cannot do at all
- While not quite as unkillable as some other ATGM tanks at the rank, it can take some hits and is not open-topped
- ECCM on ATGM (Cannot be jammed)
- Can swim
Cons:
- Direct ATGM control can be quite awkward due to the turret no longer working when using it
- The tank doesn't work like an IFV
- Terrible ammo for autocannon, will not even make a dent in most light tanks armour, even SPAA might survive full belt
- Disappointing mobility for rank VI
- Extreme performance drop if hit in the hull
- Difficult, but not impossible to destroy with kinetic shells when only exposing the launcher, as APFSDS can detonate it; Draws a lot of attention when attacks with ATGM
- No thermal sight, some late tanks can spot it and move around it before it notices (irrelevant in AB)
- Fights against tanks with ERA on the roof can be extremely difficult
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle 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 vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-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 />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
- Skins
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
| Hägglund & Söner | |
|---|---|
| Light Tanks | |
| Ikv 91 | Ikv 91 · Ikv 91-105 |
| Tank Destroyers | |
| ATGM Carriers | UDES 33 · Pvrbv 551 · Pbv 302 (BILL) |
| SPAA | |
| Strv m/41 | Pbv 301 |
| SAM | Lvrbv 701 |
| See Also | BAE Systems AB |
| Sweden tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| Strv m/41 derivatives | Spj fm/43-44 · Sav m/43 (1944) · Sav m/43 (1946) · Pvkv II · Pvkv III |
| Ikv 72/103 | Ikv 72 · Ikv 103 |
| Pvkv m/43 | Pvkv m/43 (1946) · Pvkv m/43 (1963) |
| ATGM | UDES 33 · Pbv 302 (BILL) · Pvrbv 551 |
| Other | SAV 20.12.48 · Bkan 1C |
| Norway | VIDAR |
