Chieftain Marksman

Chieftain Marksman

Falcon

ZA-35

Chieftain Marksman

Falcon

ZA-35

Britain

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.3	8.3	8.3

Class:

SPAA

Research:135 000

Purchase:380 000

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This page is about the self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle Chieftain Marksman. For other uses, see Chieftain (Disambiguation)

Description

The Marconi Electronic Systems Chieftain Mk.10 Marksman (shortened to Chieftain Marksman) is a Rank VI British self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle with a battle rating of 8.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X".

The Marksman looks like Chieftain tank hull with giant boxy turret in middle of it. The turret has a radar on the back of it and clearly visible handles with cannons on its front. The front has distinctive double slope. There is no other such turret in game and so it is very easy to identify.

The Chieftain chassis make this SPAA invulnerable to hull breaks and protects it fairly well against frontal attacks by light vehicles. The turret protection is not great, but it will stop most heavy machine gun fire. It's almost like the FV4005 with slightly more armour on turret. Do not show the lower front plate to the enemy's tanks, as it's considerably weaker.

Despite having better armour for hull, Marksman is extremely slow, so keep the enemy away from this vehicle.

Guns converge at about 1.2 km range without "Adjustments of Fire" modification and about 1.8 km with it. This makes firing at close range enemy vehicles very impractical, due to low ammunition count. However, it's very convenient for firing at moving targets, including light tanks and jets, as if two autocannons increase the probability of a hit. Also the guns can disable both tracks of enemy vehicle at 300 m distance, if facing enemy's front. Since the guns are 35 mm, they also deal more damage, use the explosive ammo to destroy planes in fewer hits, lightly armoured vehicles get destroyed in about 30 shots at worst.

Ammunition belts are split into 2: main one and secondary one. The Marksman can take 460 shells for main belt and 40 for secondary, which is barely enough for 1 engagement. This may be insulting, but it's necessary for survival. Unlike Falcon, when ammo for the main belt runs out, this could be reloaded at capture point while the secondary belt of pure anti-air or anti-armor rounds that could be used as self-defense. Also, there won't be a need to reload a new belt once the ammo restock is complete, so the Marksman is ready to fight quicker. The other thing with ammunition belts is that APDS belt is now purely APDS. This makes decision about secondary belt being fully anti-tank or fully anti-air ever more annoying.

Guns still overheat in 10 seconds and can put the Marksman out of fighting capability for half a minute. Luckily, it's hardly necessary to go trigger happy with marksman's accuracy.

Radar allows to have aiming reticle against closing in planes in RB. Reticle works the same way as in AB, however it doesn't say how far is the plane.

Like Falcon, Marksman's role is hiding around the battlefield, shooting at planes and punishing unsuspecting ground opponents, however it's much slower so it's doing its job from about kilometer away, or further, if possible.

General info

Survivability and armour

Aim at bottom-left (their right) of turret to take out the gunner, shooting at the opposite end of this will take out commander, then aim in middle of lower frontal plate to disable the driver, or simply flank the vehicle and do the same. It has an extremely fast turning turret, so the gunner should be taken out as fast as possible.

The play style is much less aggressive than Falcon; however, the APDS belt is no joke, as every shell in it can penetrate about 100 mm of armour up to 500 meters. As such, weaker side armour on medium tanks could be threatened by the Marksman, and it only brings much more pain to light vehicles from afar.

Mobility

Write about the mobility of the ground vehicle. Estimate the specific power and maneuverability as well as the maximum speed forward and backward.

Armaments

Main armament

35 mm Oerlikon KDA (x2)
Capacity (Belt capacity each)		Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
500 (230)		550	-10°/+80°	±180°	Two-plane
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	79.3	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__
Realistic	53.5	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
1.3	__.__	__.__	__.__

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Chieftain Marksman

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
XX	XX (X+)	(+)	(+)	(+)	(+)	(+)	no

Usage in the battles

Follow the team's push and take some nice fortified position near to the capture point, destroying any scout vehicle that attempt to get close while looking for planes. Conducting both actions at once is crucial to not only deny the enemy a recon point, but also for self-preservation to keep the Marksman protected. Fighting at a distance will be best to minimize convergence distance to avoid wasting ammunition on the lead. Vertical traverse of cannons is almost instant, so that should not be a concern when shifting from a ground to air target.

As ammo runs out, move closer to capture point for rearm. Only use secondary belt for self defence on capture point, or if it's really necessary for teammate's survival.

Some enemies to be concerned about:

• Soviet tanks: Avoid them as much as possible. With the gun convergence and reduced movement speed, it will not be easy to defeat them in a duel. Detrack them and communicate to the teammates to finish them off.
• Maus: It's invulnerable. Best to not show up in parts of map it controls.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Guns produce great effect upon shell contact on target, requiring only one or two hits to down a plane
• Can fire effectively at longer ranges than Falcon and has radar guidance (for RB)
• Chieftain hull offers good protection
• Secondary belts allow for safer rearms

Cons:

• Low mobility
• APDS ammo is now put into separate belt, which may be inconvenient to use with low ammunition capacity
• Slower rate of fire than other SPAA
• LFP is a weak spot
• Turret is lightly armoured and a big target
• Cannons convergence makes the Marksman weaker in close combat

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read 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.

ETC.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

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

Britain anti-aircraft vehicles
Crusader AA	Crusader AA Mk I · Crusader AA Mk II
Wheeled	Staghound AA · AEC AA
Radar SPAAG	Chieftain Marksman
Missile SPAA	Stormer AD · Stormer HVM
Other	Light AA Mk I · Falcon
Canada	Skink · ADATS (M113)
South Africa	Ystervark · Bosvark · ZA-35