Tempest Mk V (Vickers P)

This page is about the British strike aircraft Tempest Mk V (Vickers P). For other versions, see Tempest (Family).

Tempest Mk V (Vickers P)

Beaufighter Mk 21

Mosquito FB Mk VI

Tempest Mk V (Vickers P)

Beaufighter Mk 21

Mosquito FB Mk VI

Britain

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.3	3.7	4.0

Class:

Strike aircraft

Research:11 000

Purchase:22 000

Show in game

Description

The Tempest Mk V (Vickers P) is a rank II British strike aircraft with a battle rating of 3.3 (AB), 3.7 (RB), and 4.0 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.37. It is a dive fighter refitted to be a tank hunter. Since it's not as well suited for fighting planes, it is designated as attacker instead, with all the priveleges of attacker, such as air spawn. It is also placed much lower in BR than it's fighter equivalent, due to only having anti-tank ammunition and semi-automatic cannons.

General info

Flight performance

Max speed

at 4 572 m671 km/h

Turn time22 s

Max altitude10 000 m

EngineNapier Sabre 2

TypeInline

Cooling systemWater

Take-off weight6 t

The Tempest retains its high maximum speed in a straight line and even at its worst will still keep ~516 km/h average speed at ground level. This is generally enough to keep distance from old interceptors and fighters by using WEP and escape towards teammates, even if they dive, as long as the pilot pays attention and leaves before the fight actually starts.

The plane does not like to turn sideways as much as some attackers, even at low speed. With some effort it is possible to correct flight direction a bit, but this will still affect the shell trajectory.

In RB WEP is extremely unlikely to overheat the engine as long as the plane is not damaged and isn't doing a super dive (which is not expected at altitudes of attacker anyway), so unless damage is expected there is no need to go easy on the plane. The plane also has a very impressive climb rate, so it can gain momentary speed boosts by climbing and dropping back down. When WEP is held for more than 7 minutes, the engine will finally start going red, but still at a rate that allows to safely WEP all the way to the airfield with minimal attention required. When water is at 130+ °C the float carburetor seems to becomes more fragile and can spontaneously fail when plane does anything remotely resembling a negative G manoeuvre or a pulls down from any stalls.

Plane can land on the short airfiel by losing speed (by cutting engine down to 30% or even 0, then doing some heavy turns and rolls simultaneously) until it reaches the speed of around 320 km/h, then pulling out landing gear and flaps. After that it can simply go down and land, as the flaps will prevent it from gaining any more speed. The plane should be able to stop before driving out of the airfield by doing a side slide while braking (avoid braking when the back wheel is not on the ground). Plane can lose the back wheel in process if the brake is held for too long while also sliding. If any of the landing flaps were lost, it is better to reduce plane speed to at least 250 km/h and approach the land as low as possible.

The flaps will take damage if used at above ~340 km/h. The combat flaps will reduce average speed but will help the plane pull up at a faster rate, so they can be used when setting up for a second attack dive on the same convoy, or as a last resort when doing a low energy fight.

As per default for the British planes, pilot should never try to do negative G manoeuvres or the engine will immediately choke.

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 4,572 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	621	604	10000	23.9	24.6	14.4	14.4	460
Upgraded	752	671		21.1	22.0	29.5	20.4

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
880	361	412	389	269	~14	~6

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 440	< 430	< 530	> 337

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
1,447 m	2,085 hp	2,585 hp
Setting 2
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
4,981 m	1,735 hp	2,151 hp

Survivability and armour

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural880 km/h

Gear361 km/h

The Tempest has rather mediocre damage retention. It can take some damage on the wings, even as far as losing a tip without falling, but this will heavily reduce its speed and control. The tail is often cut off in a head-on with other attackers, but otherwise can survive a fighter pass or two. Any random damage can damage water and oil cooling, putting the engine in danger of overheating when abusing WEP.

The weakest part of the Tempest is the engine - even a single 12.7 mm bullet can easily put it out of comission on a lucky hit, making the plane as good as dead. Fortunately, planes with wing-mounted guns rarely hit it, even in a head-on, but some SPAA or back gunners might just focus on it or accidentally hit it instead of a pilot.

If shot from the back caused fire, the plane can still survive by pulling up and doing the stall with landing flaps. With minimal fuel load, sometimes all fuel leaves the plane before it explodes. This by no means ensures survival, as generally this particular Tempest is used next to the ground, but it still can get some RP from landing or waste more of enemy time by simply refusing to succumb to a fire.

• 44.45 mm Bulletproof glass - Armoured windscreen
• 16.9 mm Steel - Armour plate in pilot's seat

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference

AB582 → 765

RB901 → 1 184

SB2 008 → 2 640

Total cost of modifications10 360

13 600

Talisman cost750

Crew training6 300

Experts22 000

Aces250

Research Aces220 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

40 / 80 / 160 %

124 / 124 / 124 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Research: 1 000 Cost: 1 300 115 Radiator Research: 1 000 Cost: 1 300 115 Compressor Research: 1 200 Cost: 1 600 140 Wings repair Research: 1 300 Cost: 1 700 150 Engine Research: 1 300 Cost: 1 700 150 150 octane fuel Research: 840 Cost: 1 100 95 Engine injection Research: 840 Cost: 1 100 95	Airframe Research: 1 200 Cost: 1 600 140 Cover Research: 840 Cost: 1 100 95	vickersS_new_gun Research: 840 Cost: 1 100 95

Armaments

Offensive armament

Weapon 12 x 47 mm Vickers P cannon

Ammunition72 rounds

Fire rate72 shots/min

The Tempest Mk V (Vickers P) is armed with:

• 2 x 47 mm Vickers P cannons, wing-mounted (36 rpg = 72 total)

The 47 mm on this plane can only be armed with armour piercing rounds. These rounds do not explode and tend to penetrate targets all the way through, if they hit well. It may not destroy some tanks outright, but it will definitely take out half of the crew or set them on fire on a good hit. Ammunition often struggles to penetrate American medium tanks.

Against planes, AP works better when used to snap enemy wings (sometimes fails, as it's not HE-I, but the damage is hard to ignore), hit engines (generally instantly fatal for any plane) or the bomber's bomb cargo (if they had contact fuse installed, the bomber instantly explodes).

The cannons are easier to aim in cockpit perspective when the target doesn't move too much, as the guns are aimed straight at the sight dot. Engine and plane drag affect the shell spread and direction, therefore the guns are never absolutely accurate as long as the thrust is above 70%, but at 800 and 600 m gun convergence the shells fly very predictably. For example, in a head-on with 800 m convergence and WEP on the shells will fly slightly below the dot at ranges above 800 m and at ranges below 800 m they will go to the dot sides.

Usage in battles

General information:

This plane with its 2 x 47 mm cannons on each side with only armour piercing ammo (by default) with no other armament is clearly made for the ground attack role. It's definitely not a turn fighter, as the plane is not designed to manoeuvre well, and the price of missing a high calibre shot is way too high, but once fully modified the plane has the ability to be the most unstoppable force in its role.

The Tempest Vickers Mk V equipped with the Vickers 47 mm cannons is an absolute tank buster and in Air RB mode can destroy most of the NPC tanks in one hit or deal heavy damage to player tanks in Ground RB when used correctly. Engaging enemy planes is not recommended and preferrably should only be done when they are distracted, to make sure that you can keep your speed high, so that you can disengage by running away.

If enemy plane is confronting you, cannons can also be used in a head-on to destroy almost any enemy plane in a single hit (with at least 3 or 4 attempts before most enemies will actually start dealing fatal damage to you), but you should keep long range gun convergence and practice aim for this a lot, as some enemies will immediately break out of a head-on after seeing 47 mm shells flying just past their face, which is a very bad outcome for you.

Ground targets:

The Tempest can easily take out any light, medium, and most heavy tanks when the attack is made from the correct angle. In Ground RB, you can hit light tanks from any angle, some medium tanks from side or rear and you want to take the heavies from the rear. It is important to glance at the map before choosing a target in pure air modes - on some maps the tanks have simplified damage models (they all have light tank icon on the map despite their name or actual class) - most such tanks explode in a single hit if penetrated at all, but on some maps the tanks will be fully simulated and have their real class icons. In such cases, it is safer to try and cause fires by any means necessary. Most prominently, american medium tanks require side shots or engine fire to be taken out, and the same applies to most heavy tanks. Light pillboxes are easily destroyed on any map with about 6 shells (4 shells if they hit exactly at the bright roof portion), which can be done in a single pass. Overall, 76 rounds may not sound like a lot, but it will be more than enough to clean out most, if not all, tanks, assuming pilot does not miss all the time.

The "Thunderer" medal can be used as a pilot performance benchmark in air RB - getting this medal ensures that you can never go broke and will steadily make money for new planes (unless someone does better than you, which doesn't happen often even if you just crash after earning it), so you definitely should practice to consistently earn it. If anything, it allows to practice attacker-only skills in a loop, making it less frustrating and very profitable. In Air RB Tempest gets attacker spawn and can rush enemy ground targets under WEP, and, if no other attacker or air-defence plane decided to head-on you, destroy 9 targets (preferrably high priority targets only) before being forced to leave. Taking out 2 tanks per attack run is not bad, taking out 3 is very good, allowing you to complete your task by casually roaming between two tank columns. Managing to destroy two light pillboxes in close proximity of eachother in one go can be difficult, but if such a skill is ingrained in muscle memory, it will allow to pull off miracles. After 9 targets are down, Tempest almost always can just leave even if some time was wasted.

On maps with small ships involved, you can also go out of your way to obliterate all boats to get a free medal before going towards your real targets, but they net less RP and you will most certainly clash with enemy interceptors at that point in time.

Air targets:

The best defence of the Tempest Vickers P is its speed. The only planes that can bother it in the beginning of a match are other attackers, which can be destroyed with a single hit in a head-on. Enemy fighters generally fail to arrive on the scene until Tempest did 2-3 attack runs and already left due to being low on ammo or simply noticing incoming enemies.

When giving chase, many of the enemies Tempest will face will not be able to outmatch its level flight speed and will be forced to take shots at 1 km distance. However, stay alert for enemy planes and make sure that the horizontal distance is never below 2 km, because it will be already too late for a head-on attempt and if they come out of a dive they will be able to catch up to you. If you spot an enemy plane in the distance, start running to friendly aircraft before the enemy gets too close or set up for a head-on.

In a dive, the Tempest can easily reach speeds of close to 800 km/h. In level flight, you will slowly reach about 620 km/h using WEP, and 590 km/h without it (note that these speeds are at sea level). The Tempest will lose a lot of energy in turns, so try to make smooth manoeuvres. Finally, your water and oil will start to overheat after prolonged use of WEP, so getting in combat after "going orange" if your teammates decided to ditch you would be really bad. Going to 100% power first will cool your plane down again, so you can at least take a hit before accidentally melting the engine.

Tempest specific strategy:

In air RB, there is a way to win on almost any map, even if you are the last man standing and cannot destroy some of the targets, but it requires high level of expertise and/or defiance: Tempest can, through it's speed and big ammunition supply, eliminate every single ground target that can be destroyed without the use of bombs (everything besides battleships and medium pillboxes). This will cause an event for special vehicles to spawn and if anyone can destroy them, the enemy score plummets down to 0. This is easier to accomplish by first hunting enemy tank columns, as this is the plane's specialty - tanks cost a lot of points and it's unlikely that anyone else but you will be able to take them out anyway. In addition to that, on most maps tank convoys destroy eachother when they collide, but if your tanks are not impeded on their way, they will instead continue and then destroy enemy pillboxes on that lane, which will reduce the amount of work you'd have to do later, maybe allowing you to steal victory even with 4 interceptors on your tail. If you don't have tanks, but your enemy does, you can destroy just enough tanks on each enemy lane to make enemy score zero itself upon colliding with your defences.

On some maps ground forces don't really do anything, but you can try your best to lower enemy score anyway. If medium-sized map has no active tanks, or they are very difficult to destroy and you know you won't be able to deal enough damage to win the map in 2 refuels (thus making you unlikely to destroy enemy chances of winning), Tempest still can force head-ons on fighters, hunt attackers (players or NPC planes) or even go out of its way to hunt bombers that are climbing high. Bombers and attackers are very similar to tanks in a way that they don't move too much and explode in one or two hits, but they can shoot back and will destroy your engine if not taken seriously and attacked from as far away as possible.

Specific enemies worth noting:

I-185 (M-82), La-5 : almost all players that use these and similar planes will refuse head-ons. They simply know that they have nothing to lose for not playing your game.

XP-50, Wyvern S4 : These premium planes can move around the map as fast as the Tempest. While Wyverns generally mind their own business and rush to bomb bases, the XP-50 is almost guaranteed to dive on you.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Controllable Auto control available	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Auto control available	Combined	Controllable 2 gears	Not controllable

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 2 x 47 mm guns are great at destroying armoured targets
• Very high level speed
• Reasonable manoeuvrability at high speeds
• Big ammo supply
  • On a small map, can take out 60% of enemy victory points in one reload, can end a game all by itself, if left alone for long enough
  • Technically, a 4-man squad of these planes can end an Air RB battle on medium maps by destroying all the ground targets before fighters can do anything at all
• In hands of a skilled player, this plane can be used as a good fighter

Cons:

• Only real defence against other aircraft is its speed
• No bombs or rockets
• Lose a lot of speed in turn fighting
• Has only AP round
• Can't destroy medium pillbox
• Hard to aim, low rate of fire, the cannons are far from the centre of the plane
• Not recommended to use on maps with mostly ships and pillboxes

History

The Tempest Vickers P was a concept plane designed due to the lacking ability of the 40 mm armed Hurricane IID in destroying Tiger 1 tanks in North Africa, The air staff put out an issue in 1942 for a 47 mm airborne anti-tank gun which would fire a 4 lb 9oz (2.07kg) solid AP shot at 2,650 fps (808 m/s) with a rate of fire no less than 60 rounds a minute.

Vickers was contracted to make the rounds, case piece was 326 mm long, the rim diameter at 59.7 mm with the body diameter at 52.3 mm, the shot was typical of most other British rounds of the time, solid AP shot with no HE filler, overall with the shot fitted the round was 474 mm long.

The gun itself was in contest by three firms of the time, Vickers, Rolls-Royce and the war office design department, the project was known as the "class P gun" as such the competing designs were known as PV (Vickers) PR (Rolls-Royce) PC (for the Chief superintendent of armament design in the war office).

Complete information about the three projects does not appear to have survived. The PR gun was designed with two different barrel lengths, a 70-calibre barrel (with which the muzzle velocity was calculated to be 2,675 fps or 815 m/s) which was about 4.3 m long overall, and a 52-calibre version. The gun was belt-fed and used a long-recoil design; the weapon recoiled 66 cm on firing, generating a peak recoil of just over 2,000 kg. The PC gun weighed 250-270 kg and recoiled only 30 cm, thereby generating a stronger peak recoil of 3,560 kg. This was magazine fed with two alternative designs; a 30-round flat box lying across the gun's body, and a 34-36 round drum wrapped around the rear of the gun. Overall length was 4.5-4.7 m respectively. No information is recorded about the PV gun.

The PV and PC guns were made but were not ready for firing until close to the end of the war. The PR gun was cancelled before completion during the war when Rolls-Royce was directed to cease work on guns. None of the Class P guns proceeded beyond the prototype stage. However a Tempest V was fitted with two of the Vickers guns in under-wing pods just after the war, but no records have been found concerning this installation.

Archive of the in-game description

The Hawker Tempest Mk.V equipped with Vickers P guns was an experimental ground attack and strike aircraft developed for the RAF. The concept involved taking the new Tempest Mk.V and adding the 47 mm P gun in a long pod beneath each wing. The Vickers P gun was itself a development of the earlier 40 mm Vickers S gun which had been used successfully by the Hawker Hurricane Mk IID. However, the introduction of the Panzer VI Tiger tank into the North African theatre highlighted the limitations of the Vickers S gun, resulting in the need for a new, more potent anti-tank weapon. Three designs competed against each other, all in 47 mm: Rolls-Royce, Vickers and the War Office Design Department. Rolls-Royce were directed to concentrate their efforts elsewhere leaving only two competing designs, neither of which was ready before the end of the Second World War. Very little information has survived regarding either design, although at least one photograph has been found showing the Vickers P gun fitted in a long pod beneath each wing of a Hawker Tempest V. What little test data has been discovered shows that the P gun had a muzzle energy well in excess of both the British 2 and 3 pounder guns and would have been a formidable weapon.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Tempest Mk V (Vickers P) from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #259 - Tips & Tricks section at 09:11 discusses the Tempest Mk V (Vickers P).

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 aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

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