NS-23 (23 mm)

This page is about the Soviet autocannon NS-23 (23 mm). For the other version, see NS-23K (23 mm).

Description

The NS-23 is a 23 mm autocannon which can be found on some Russian props and jets.

General info

Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.

Available ammunition

• Default: AP-I · FI-T
• Armoured targets: FI-T · AP-I · AP-I · AP-I
• Air targets: FI-T · FI-T · FI-T · AP-I
• Stealth: AP-I

It's recommended to use Air targets belt as the FI-T shells are far more effective against planes than the AP-I shells, although if one hasn't researched the "Offensive 23 mm" modification yet, the default belt will usually get the job done just fine. The Armoured targets belt or Stealth belt are well suited for top-down approaches on tanks because of the 29 mm penetration on the AP-I shells, which makes it possible to penetrate most tanks' engine decks from a top-down approach. Bear in mind that the AP-I shells doesn't have any tracer elements so it can be tricky to hit sometimes.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
AP-I	31	29	20	13	8	6

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
						0%	50%	100%
AP-I	720	0.17	-	-	-	47°	56°	65°

Comparison with analogues

The 23 mm shells weigh approximately 200 g each compared to the 20 mm ShVAK shells that weigh only 90 g, so even though the ShVAK offers a higher fire rate, the damage of the NS-23 can make up for the loss of fire rate.

The NS-23 is identical to the NR-23 except for the lower fire rate. The NS-23 has a fire rate of ca 600 rpm whereas the NR-23 has a 50% higher fire rate of 900 rpm, but with that comes higher ammo consumption and recoil.

Usage in battles

Due to the high damage of the 23 mm cannons, firing short bursts is usually enough because only a few rounds need to connect to eliminate an enemy fighter, this also saves ammo which is usually in short supply for the planes using the NS-23s. For taking down bombers one should, as with most guns, aim for critical points to avoid wasting ammo and down the plane quickly.

Because the shells have a lower velocity than most guns (e.g. ShVAK having around 800-900 m/s compared to NS-23 600-700 m/s), a bit more lead must be used for the shells to connect. This is more of a problem in jet matches because the lead can be hard to approximate when targets are moving fast. Though this is likely not going to be a huge problem because of the tracer rich ammo belts, especially when going against slower propeller planes.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Lower fire rate can help conserve ammo and lower the recoil
• High damage shells, no need to shoot for longer durations
• High fire rate for gun of calibre
• Has enough penetration for top-down attacks on most tanks

Cons:

• Low velocity
• Low overall rate of fire, planes can sometimes "pass between the shells" during continuous fire
• No stealth belts for air targets (if one doesn't want to use AP-I shells)

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

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See also

• ShVAK
• NR-23

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.