U-SH 405
Contents
Description
The Landsverk U-SH 405 is a prototype vehicle from the late 1950s based on the Unimog 404 truck chassis, developed by the Landsverk company in collaboration with Daimler-Benz. The prototype was equipped with two 81 mm Oerlikon rocket launchers. Only one prototype was built and tested, but it never got any orders and was abandoned.
The U-SH 405 was introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury". It is a Swedish light tank armed with two 81 mm Oerlikon rocket launchers with a high rate of fire. Given its speed and manoeuvrability, one should always be wary of an U-SH 405 around any corner or flanking around. The U-SH 405 is an excellent vehicle to perform ambushes and hit and run tactics with, due to the high speed and excellent reverse speed making it able to go in and fire at targets then escape from dangerous situations. However, being fast is not always the best, due to the U-SH 405's brakes being near non-existant, it is hard for it to slow down. The twin 81 mm rocket launchers are drum-fed and have a high rate of fire, making it fast to overpower an enemy target with rockets then make a fast escape. Being more of an armoured car than a real light tank, it is vulnerable to autocannons and even heavy machine gun fire.
General info
Survivability and armour
The U-SH-405 simply cannot afford to take any damage, it will succumb instantly to pretty much anything besides light machine guns. The weapons can be destroyed by anything if intentionally targeted. With only 2 crew members and only 10 mm of armour at most, the U-SH 405 is very vulnerable to aircraft, machine-guns, artillery, etc. As such, it is best to avoid frontal engagements unless necessary or surprise is guaranteed.
However, the ability to fire its high-penetration rockets with no reload time at all can create an extremely effective horror effect, which might prevent enemies from advancing and may force them to rely solely on airstrikes and artillery.
The car is also very short with weapons on the very top and can easily hide behind dead tanks or random rocks found on the battlefield, or even attack over hills before some tank commanders feel comfortable with firing back.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | ___ mm | ___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom |
___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Turret | ___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet |
___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Cupola | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm |
Notes:
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 | 82 | 11 | 5.7 | 139 | 172 | 24.39 | 30.18 |
| Realistic | 74 | 10 | 80 | 90 | 14.04 | 15.79 | |
With 80 km/h (49.7 mph) forward and 157 horsepower for 5.7 tons, the U-SH 405 has good mobility in Arcade. However, in Realistic, the top forward speed is 73 km/h (45.3 mph) for 90 horsepower, making it good on-road but just decent off-road and awful at climbing hills. The reverse speed is 9 km/h (5.5 mph), which works most of the time but can still be too slow in some situations (especially off-road).
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
In AB, it is imperative for this vehicle to research as many turret stability upgrades as possible, because that will allow for attacks on the move. The stock turret slewing rate is also quite poor, so an early upgrade to it is very nice to have. As such it might be best to rush "Horizontal Drive", "Suspension" and "Elevation Mechanism" there. In RB, it might be better to research "Brake System" instead of "Suspension", because it is very difficult to fire on the move in RB without slowing down first.
"Parts" are necessary to fix the weapons if someone uses machine gun on them, as they are very fragile. "FPE" is very situational but might still help when attacked from behind by unexperienced opponent. After that, mobility upgrades like "Filters" or "Engine" are generally most useful due to increased ability of a flank attack, but in AB "Crew Replenishment" can be equally useful with reserved playstyle, as it will allow to make one mistake and maybe survive. The rest of upgrades simply enhance an ability to be useful as a support.
Armaments
Main armament
The U-SH 405 has for sole armament two 81mm rocket launchers, but it still has very impressive firepower - especially considering that it is a light car.
Each launcher comes with 9 high-penetration rockets that have similar ballistic properties as regular HEAT shells. The rockets can be fired all at once in less than 4 seconds, making the car able to annihilate several tanks of any type in just a few seconds, provided they are aimed properly. Even without proper aim, it is possible to brute force almost any heavy tank at the cost of the entire magazine.
It is very important to note, that unlike majority of rocket tanks, U-SH 405 has gun depression and can actually fire downwards and off some gentle slopes. This enables a lot of suppressing fire scenarios unavailable for other rocket tanks and particularly valuable during any hill battles.
The leeway in gun depression also allows the tank to fire on the move in AB mode; with minimal effort once the gunner has maxed out "targeting" with expert training and the weapon lifting speed was upgraded. In RB, fully upgraded tank can sometimes fire on the move off completely flat surfaces.
The rockets are most efficient at close to medium range, as over 600 m it becomes quite difficult to aim due to poor optics zoom. On top of that, it is quite tempting to just fire them in volleys, wasting the ammunition on overkill in process. However, at long range and with some extra effort they can also be launched over car's own cover without any possibility of enemy retaliation.
Both guns are on separate triggers, and so it is very recommended to unbind "fire additional weapon" from "fire main gun" button (left mouse button by default). This allows to strategically manage ammo reserves, so that others can't find the car completely defenceless.
In AB, the rearm time for one gun is about 34 seconds and will start as soon as the gun is emptied or the car is parked on a capture point; in RB it can only be rearmed on a capture point and this takes about 40 seconds.
HEAT rockets are vastly superior to HE rockets, as they can take out much more targets reliably, but it is possible to use HE in rank VI and beyond, as tanks start to have weaker roof armour again.
| Oerlikon Typ 3Z 8Dla launcher (x2) | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity (Belt) | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 18 (9) | -10°/+20° | N/A | N/A | 19.0 | 26.4 | 32.0 | 35.4 | 37.6 | 2.60 | 2.30 | 2.12 | 2.00 |
| Realistic | 11.9 | 14.0 | 17.0 | 18.8 | 20.0 | ||||||||
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 | ||
| Pl-3 | HEAT | 330 | 330 | 330 | 330 | 330 | 330 |
| SSK 032 | HE | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Pl-3 | HEAT | 820 | 13.2 | 0 | 0.01 | 1 | 62° | 69° | 73° | |||
| SSK 032 | HE | 820 | 19.7 | 0 | 0.01 | 2.78 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Usage in battles
Thanks to the very high penetration of its HEAT rockets, the U-SH 405 can kill any tank it faces from pretty much any angle; this, combined with its near-instant reload and high on-road speed gives it great flexibility. However, the vehicle can be killed by anyone and anything, the main threats to the U-SH 405 are American tanks (and any other tank that has high-calibre machine-guns) and aircraft. Some tanks in particular, like the American T34, T30 and T32, should be avoided because of their multiple .50 cal MGs and somewhat high survivability against the rockets. Any tank that can survive inaccurate HEAT volleys (like the BMP-1) should be immediately attacked into turret or avoided.
The low post-penetration damages require one to aim at a tank's critical spots (such as the ammo storage or the gunner) if they want to disable/kill the target with only 1 or 2 rockets. Fortunately, the near-instant reload allow for several follow-up shots if the first rocket did not do as well as hoped.
The good mobility and low-profile makes the U-SH 405 very good at flanking and relocating in general, and the high firepower makes it devastating on unaware targets.
The U-SH 405 works best at supporting allied vehicles as they can draw attention away from itself, but the limited amount of ammunition forces it to stay relatively near strategic points to be able to replenish its limited ammunition count.
In arcade mode, it is possible to fullfill many roles, from being a roadblock which suppresses any tank trying to leave cover from behind a rock, to becoming a literal fan of rockets crashing into unaware enemies from the side as they converge on a choke point. If you do not have any solid plan, but also do not wish to simply rush enemy team, try to find some kind of bunker or high impenetrable building to hide behind as soon as possible, as it is very likely that all aircraft on enemy team will hunt you simply out of spite or because of the low armour amount. Getting bombed for no good reason without releasing rockets onto enemy tanks first will not help your team. Either use rockets sparingly to stall enemy tanks for as long as possible until the other gun reloaded or destroy them by using both and make a complete retreat.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Low-profile, can be easily concealed
- Almost completely silent, making it easy to sneak up on enemies undetected
- Has gun depression unlike most of other rocket tanks
- The rockets are fast and are very easy to aim at medium range
- Good speed on roads
- Fast-firing rockets (Can fire two at once, basically no reload at all between each rocket for each gun) with high penetration
- Can reload anywhere in AB when the gun is empty (like ATGM tanks)
Cons:
- Extremely weak armour and only 2 crew members (will nearly always instantly die from .50 cal MGs)
- Small, light frame and small crew lets it easily be destroyed by hard collisions at high speeds or crushed by heavier tanks
- Awful power-to-weight ratio in realistic (15.7 hp/t) making it quite slow off-road (30-35 km/h) and barely able to climb hills
- The HEAT rockets have limited post-penetration damage
- Only 18 rockets, and you may need several rockets to break just one heavy tank
- The rockets are ineffective at long range due to poor optics zoom and low ammo count
- No aim assist in AB, as with all rocket tanks
History
Devblog
Development of the U-SH 405 began in the late 1950's, after Landsverk and Daimler-Benz formed a cooperation to further develop the Unimog 404 truck into a family of different military vehicles, ranging from APCs to dedicated tank hunters. Development was initially headed by the Germans, but in 1958, Landsverk took over the lead role in its development.
As part of the ongoing development, Landsverk came up with a dedicated tank hunter variant of the vehicle in 1960, fitted with a pair of Oerlikon 81mm rocket launchers, originally developed for aircraft and helicopter use. A single prototype of the machine was built and trialed, but no production orders were issued.
However, the APC version of the U-SH 405 saw more success, being ordered by the Belgian armed forces in limited numbers. Despite placing an order for around two dozen vehicles, due to various geopolitical reasons, Belgium only received fewer than half of the machines initially ordered. The remainder of the machines built, but not shipped to Belgium were later on sold to the Irish military in the early 1970's, which used the vehicle until 1978 before retiring it.
Media
- Skins
- Images
- 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
| AB Landsverk | |
|---|---|
| Light Tanks | |
| L-10 | Strv m/31 |
| L-60 | Strv m/38 · Strv m/39 · Strv m/40L |
| Pbil m/40 | Pbil m/40 |
| Strv 74 | Strv 74 |
| Unimog 404 | U-SH 405 |
| Medium Tanks | |
| Lago | Lago I · Strv m/42 EH · Ikv 73 · Strv m/42 DT |
| Tank Destroyers | |
| Ikv 72 | Ikv 72 · Ikv 103 |
| Pvkv m/43 | Pvkv m/43 (1946) · Pvkv m/43 (1963) |
| Pvkv II/III | Pvkv II · Pvkv III |
| SPAA | Pvlvv fm/42 · L-62 ANTI II |
| Sweden light tanks | |
|---|---|
| L-60 | Strv m/38 · Strv m/39 · Strv m/39 TD · Strv m/40L |
| Strv m/41 | Strv m/41 S-I · Strv m/41 S-II |
| Ikv 91 | Ikv 91 · Ikv 91-105 |
| CV 90 | Strf 9040B · Strf 9040C · Strf 9040 BILL |
| CV 90105 · CV 90120 | |
| Wheeled | Pbil m/40 · U-SH 405 |
| Other | Strv m/31 · Strv 74 · Pbv 501 |
| Finland | Vickers Mk.E · ▄T-26E · BT-42 · ▄PT-76 · CV9030FIN · CT-CV 105HP |
| Denmark | CV9035DK |
