USS Detroit

This page is about the American light cruiser USS Detroit. For other Omaha-class cruisers, see Omaha (Family).

USS Detroit

USS Detroit

USA

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
5.0	5.0	5.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Light cruiser

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

Show in game

Description

The Omaha-class, USS Detroit (CL-8), 1942 was laid down in November 1920, and commissioned in July of 1923 as the 5th of 10 Omaha-class light cruisers. Her original design as a "Scout Cruiser" gave her class an unique armament with forward facing casemate guns as part of her main battery. She would go on to serve in WW2, the only theater she saw action in being in the Aleutians, bombarding Attu and assisting in the landings. She did however, notably bring 8 metric tons of gold and 12 metric tons of silver from the submarine USS Trout (which had evacuated it from Corredigor in the Philippines) to the US Treasury in San Francisco. She would serve uneventfully through the rest of WW2, and be sold for scrap in 1946.

Being introduced during Update "Red Skies", USS Detroit was a reward for Battle Pass: Season IV, "Fearless Voltigeur". Compared to her sister ship USS Trenton, Detroit is in her 1942 refit, notably gaining access to an anti-aircraft battery of 20mm Oerlikons in addition to the 1.1-inch, giving a large boost to the anti-aircraft capabilities. The Omaha-class has a distinct advantage when approaching the enemy bow in; the unique casemate design allows for 4-6 of the 6-inch guns to be brought to bear whilst also lowering the silhouette of the ship.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Citadel76 / 76 / 38 mm

Main fire tower6 / 6 / 6 mm

Hull25 mm (steel)

Superstructure8 mm (steel)

Number of section8

Displacement9 150 t

Crew612 people

Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB73 / 29 km/h

RB63 / 25 km/h

Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	73	29
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	63	25

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB4 014

RB3 160

Crew training10 000

Experts290 000

Aces700

Research Aces790 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 360 / 600 / 50 %

2 × 154 / 154 / 154 %

Modifications

Seakeeping	Unsinkability	Firepower
Dry-Docking Rudder Replacement Propeller Replacement Engine Maintenance	Damage Control Division Fire Division Smokescreen Shrapnel Protection Ventilation New Pumps Ammo Wetting	Anti-Air Armament Targeting 76 mm AP 152mm_us_mk27_navy_special_common_ammo_pack 76 mm AP Auxiliary Armament Targeting 76 mm HE-RF Primary Armament Targeting Improved Rangefinder Torpedo Mode Hydroplane

Armament

Primary armament

2 х Turret2 x 6 inch/53 Mk.12 cannon

Ammunition400 rounds

Vertical guidance-10° / 30°

6 х Turret6 inch/53 Mk.12 cannon

Ammunition200 rounds

Vertical guidance-10° / 20°

The one saving grace of this ship is its 6 inch artillery. Powerful enough to obliterate most destroyers in a few well placed hits, it unfortunately has a poor reload rate, and an even worse traverse rate. This vessel is essentially a support ship for more powerful ships in its BR range.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		1,000 m	2,500 m	5,000 m	7,500 m	10,000 m	15,000 m
Mk.34 HC	HE	49	49	49	49	49	49
Mk.27 SC	SP Common	210	179	138	107	85	60

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
Mk.34 HC	HE	914	47.6	0	0.1	5,880	79°	80°	81°
Mk.27 SC	SP Common	914	47.62	0.01	7	977.06	48°	63°	71°

Secondary armament

7 х Turret3-inch Mark 10 cannon

Ammunition100 rounds

The 3 inch (76 mm) cannons do have HE-VT shells, meaning that they can ward off planes and ships, but only at close range.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		100 m	1,000 m	2,000 m	3,000 m	4,000 m	5,000 m
HC Mk.27	HE	8	8	8	8	8	8
AP Mk.29	APCBC	111	90	71	56	44	36
AA Mk.31	HE-VT	7	7	7	7	7	7

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
HC Mk.27	HE	823	5.9	0	0.1	500	79°	80°	81°
AP Mk.29	APCBC	823	5.9	0.01	4	133.28	48°	63°	71°

Proximity-fused shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Arming distance (m)	Trigger radius (m)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
									0%	50%	100%
AA Mk.31	HE-VT	823	5.85	0	0.1	548	15	352.8	79°	80°	81°

Anti-aircraft armament

2 х Turret4 x 1.1 inch/75 Mk.1 automatic gun

Ammunition7800 rounds

Belt capacity65 rounds

Fire rate150 shots/min

10 х Turret20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II autocannon

Ammunition1800 rounds

Belt capacity60 rounds

Fire rate450 shots/min

The Detroit is equipped with one Chicago Piano mount and eight single-mount Oerlikon cannons. This provides some decent AA cover at close range, though it certainly isn't winning any awards for defensive firepower. It is better to simply stay close to AA ships and destroyers for some extra protection.

Additional armament

Setup 16 x 533 mm steam turbined Mk.15 torpedo

The ship has a pair of torpedo launchers, but their poor placement and poor torpedoes makes them a poor choice to use.

Scout plane

Located on the stern are two catapults with one SOC-1 scout plane each which provide unique offensive and defensive abilities, expanding tactical options. Ship-launched scout planes fly just like regular tree units but lack munition choices and cockpit views. Alongside the typical abilities of strafing, dropping 2 x 100 lb bombs, and capping zones, the SOC-1 and other scout planes have the added ability to lay down smoke cover (up to 3 times). Captains will be wise to remember to utilise the aircraft and consider when best to use it, for example to cap a point early or late in the match, to create a smoke screen to stymie enemy bombardment and repair, to attack enemy units directly, or perhaps something completely new! With two scout planes one can risk a cap attempt at the beginning of the match, saving the second for any opportunity that presents itself.

Usage in battles

While using the USS Detroit, try to exploit its mobility advantage and flank around the map. Use cover to make up for the subpar armour of the ship. When playing this ship, make sure you avoid higher-tier cruisers like IJN Mogami, HMS London or Admiral Hipper and go for destroyers and lower-tier cruisers.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Shell rooms are located deep beneath waterline, and rear shell room is also covered by fuel tanks
• All six forward main guns can fire towards bow direction
• Two scout seaplanes
• 76 mm guns have HE-VT shells

Cons:

• When firing on one broadside, the single-gun turrets draw ammo from shared ready racks, so they maintain fast-firing longer than the twin-gun turrets, resulting in unsynchronized firing pattern
• Poor armour

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship 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 ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-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 ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the USS Detroit from live.warthunder.com.

Photos

• 

  USS Detroit (CL-8) in the harbour at San Diego, California in 1935.

• 

  USS Detroit (CL-8) off Port Angeles, Washington (USA) in 1944.

Videos

Battle Pass "Fearless Voltigeur" discusses the USS Detroit at 03:04 - War Thunder Official Channel

See also

Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the ship;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Battle Pass vehicles: USS Detroit (CL-8)

Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Gun Destroyers (DD)
Porter-class	USS Phelps · USS Moffett
Fletcher-class	USS Cowell
Destroyer Leaders (DL)
Mitscher-class	USS Wilkinson
Cruiser, Light (CL)
Omaha-class	USS Raleigh · USS Detroit
Heavy Cruisers (CA)
Northampton-class	USS Northampton
Portland-class	USS Portland
Baltimore-class	USS Baltimore · USS Pittsburgh
Des Moines-class	USS Des Moines

USA light cruisers
Omaha-class	USS Detroit · USS Raleigh · USS Trenton
Atlanta-class	USS Atlanta
Brooklyn-class	USS Brooklyn · USS Helena
Cleveland-class	USS Cleveland
Fargo-class	USS Fargo
Worcester-class	USS Roanoke