Fw 190 A-4

Fw 190 A-4

Fw 190 A-1

Fw 190 A-5/U2

Fw 190 A-4

Fw 190 A-1

Fw 190 A-5/U2

Germany

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.3	4.0	4.0

Class:

Fighter

Research:18 000

Purchase:47 000

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This page is about the German fighter Fw 190 A-4. For other versions, see Fw 190 (Family).

Description

The Fw 190 A-4 is a rank III German fighter with a battle rating of 4.3 (AB) and 4.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.43.

"Würger" is the German nickname of this beast of a plane, or in English, Shrike. It can also be translated as slayer, choker, or strangler. In that regard fits the English designation well too: "Butcher-bird"

Fw 190s are fighters, while this one can load additional payload, it will reduce the planes combat ability. Using it as a fighter-bomber is generally not advised, this would be the duty of the Fw 190 F-8.

The best ammo to use for both cannons is the Air Target belts. They will destroy fighters and bombers faster than tracers. They are different for both cannons, however. For the MG 151's they have a high explosive incendiary shell, armour-piercing shell, and incendiary tracer shell costing 110 silver lions per "per reload". The Mg FF/M's have high explosive incendiary shell, Fragmentation incendiary tracer shell (self-destroying) and armour piercing high explosive shell which cost 40 Sliver Lions "per reload."

The best ammunition available for use with machine guns is Universal. Universal utilizes armor-piercing tracer rounds, armor-piercing rounds, adjustment incendiary rounds, and armor-piercing incendiary rounds. Reloading only costs 9 silver lions "per reload".

General info

Flight Performance

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 5,800 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
619	602	12,000	23.4	23.9	8.6	10.6	420
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 5,800 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
?	?	12,000	??.?	??.?	?.?	?.?	420

Details

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

Limits
Wing-break speed (km/h)	Gear limit (km/h)	Combat flap (km/h)	Max Static G
			+	-
860	450	N/A	~20	~20

Optimal velocities
Ailerons (km/h)	Rudder (km/h)	Elevators (km/h)	Radiator (km/h)
< 420	< 510	< 510	> 280

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
1,500 m	1,520 hp	1,727 hp
Setting 2
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
5,300 m	1,420 hp	1,613 hp

Survivability and armour

• 3 mm Steel - Fore engine cowling
• 5 mm Steel - Secondary engine cowling
• 6 mm Steel - Lower engine plate
• 8 mm Steel - Lower cockpit/fuel tank plate
• 5 mm Steel - Rear fuel tank plate
• 6 mm Steel - Pilot seat back (first plate)
• 8 mm Steel - Pilot seat back (second plate)
• 12 mm Steel - Headrest
• 57 mm Bulletproof glass

Armaments

Offensive armament

The Fw 190 A-4 is armed with:

• 2 x 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon, wing-mounted (250 rpg = 500 total)
• 2 x 20 mm MG FF/M cannon, wing-mounted (90 rpg = 180 total)
• 2 x 7.92 mm MG 17 machine gun, nose-mounted (900 rpg = 1,800 total)

Ammo Belts

Pilots who are really experienced with the aiming and hitting of the MG151/20 might want to use stealth belts on the MGs and cannons, to avoid being spotted by tracers. Using stealth belts on the machine guns only is also useful for aiming the cannon more easily without the distraction provided by the light machine gun tracers.

7.92mm MG 17

• Air Targets: Universal (AP-T/AP/AI/AP-I)
• Ground Targets: Tracer (AP-T)

20mm MG151/20

• Air Targets: Air Targets (AP-I/HEI/HEI/HEI/HEI/IT) // Consisting of 2/3 Minengeschoße, this belt is very effective against any aircraft.
• Ground Targets: Armored Targets (APHE/APHE/APHE/IT)

20 mm MGFF/M

• Air target

Usage in the battles

The A-4 in Arcade is a punishing Boom & Zoom fighter. The armament is fantastic, climb rate top par (rivalled by the Bf 109 F-4), and dive speed/top-speed is very good. Use this to an advantage. As a characteristic of the Focke Wulfs, the sustained turn rate and radius is extremely slow and large, respectively. Turning is not recommended at all with the Fw 190.

This should not discourage you from seizing opportunities. An Fw 190 A-4 in a balanced furball can be devastating, when it acts as a wingman, keeping other fighters from getting on your team's tails. The enemy fighters are less concerned with evading, giving you the time to line them up. As soon as the amount of planes tips in the enemies' favour, it's time for you to make a quick disappearance, as planes actively trying to get on your tail will almost always get there.

Armament is fantastic, too. Four 20 mm cannons are more than enough to rip any plane to shreds. Firepower is only rivalled by other twin-engine fighters.

The Fw 190A-4, as all the planes in this line, are some of the best Boom & Zoomers in the game and should be flown exclusively in this style. But like the Fw 190 A-1 it is the more manoeuvrable in the house of Focke-Wulf. The performance at high speeds is excellent, as is their dive and zoom characteristics. Do not ever engage this aircraft in a turn fight as this will most likely end badly. Instead, fight only in the vertical. Try to have an altitude, or speed advantage over your opponents (by climbing to the side at the start of the battle and then enter the highest battle you see). But you can still win fights when you are lower in energy than your foe.

In the defensive, you can often just dive away from planes, such as Spitfires and La-5s, but you need at a decent altitude to gain top-speed, so do not be too quick to dive after an enemy, if they fly below your plane. Unless you are higher than everybody else, or alone. Just be sure than to have the time to regain the lost altitude.

In a dive, the 190 can, due to its short wings, pull quite some stunts to either lose the hunter or even make him lose his own wings! This is the favourable strategy against La-5s, Yaks & Spitfires who have due to their low wing-loading (and partly wooden wings for the Russians), less resistance against high G manoeuvres. Again be sure to regain your energy by a zoom-climb. Just look out while doing so, many pilots die as they do not notice a second enemy aircraft approaching. German proverb: "Wenn Zwei sich streiten, freut sich der Dritte." (German for "When two quarrel, the third will reap the success."). Of course, this could also be you.

The best tactic for this plane: is Boom and Zoom Boom & Zoom meaning it is better as an energy fighter (Boom and Zoom or keeping its energy up instead of turn fighting). Boom and zooming is a tactic that takes all of your potential energy and turn it into kinetic energy, as you pull up it turns back into potential energy.

There are two types of Boom & Zooms, tailing Boom & Zoom or quick burst Boom & Zoom.

A Tailing Boom & Zoom is when the pilot Boom or Dives to the target and tail him for 2-4 seconds. The benefits of doing this are players get a longer time to aim and a better chance of shooting them down, but it comes with a cost you will have less energy to climb back up, and you are more of an easy target for an enemy who came to help their, teammate. There are dangerous parts to doing this though. If you stick on your target too long you will lose too much energy and can't climb back up to Altitude. If this happens to your teammates the enemy has the advantage now. Turning will make your problem worse and makes pilots and "easy" kill to the enemy.

Quick Burst Boom & Zoom is when pilots Dive and fire a 1-2 second burst at your enemy and climb back to altitude. The benefits of doing this are you have more speed to climb back up to altitude. The disadvantages are you have less amount of time to aim and destroy the enemy.

How to engage an enemy if he is going to Boom & Zoom you
If you see an enemy who is about to use the Boom & Zoom tactic on you have some options.

If you are at a high energy state best move is to turn towards him throwing off his aim due and going head-on with him. another one is if you are at a low energy state best move is to turn under him. this will force him to pull up or he/she will lose all of their energy. Each of these moves can save your life in a dangerous situation of an encounter with a Boom & Zoom fighters, but your best bet is to turn in him if you can

Specific enemies worth noting

Some planes, you might see which are very deadly opponents are the: Spitfires, Typhoons, Beaufighter's Mustang's, Yakovlev's, B-17's and the Wellington's These planes should not be underestimated, they can all fight this aircraft extremely well.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Separate	Not ontrollable	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage Repair, Radiator		Offensive 7 mm
II	Compressor	Airframe	New 7 mm MGs
III	Wing Repair, Engine		Offensive 20 mm, Offensive 20 mm
IV	Engine Injection	Cover	New 20 mm Cannons, New 20 mm Cannons

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Excellent firepower
• Excellent roll rate
• Great energy retention
• Great dive performance
• Good climb rate
• Good top speed
• Good supply of cannon ammo
• Good bomber hunter
• Engine almost never overheats even on WEP
• Simulator battle: Good instantaneous turn

Cons:

• Looses power above 5,000 m (16,400 ft) steadily
• Stalls quickly in simulator battle
• Very bad turn rate, as a trade-off for the high dive speed

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft 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 aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• page on aircraft encyclopedia;
• other literature.

Focke-Wulf Aircraft Corporation (Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau Aktiengesellschaft)
Fighters	Fw 190 A-1 · Fw 190 A-4 · Fw 190 A-5 · Fw 190 A-5/U2 · Fw 190 A-5/U12 · Fw 190 A-5/U14 · Fw 190 A-8
	Fw 190 C
	Fw 190 D-9 · Fw 190 D-12 · Fw 190 D-13
	Fw 190 F-8
	Ta 152 C-3* · Ta 152 H-1* · Ta 154 A-1*
Bombers	Fw 189 A-1 · Fw 200 C-1
Export	▅Fw 190 A-5
Captured	▃Fw 190 A-8 · ▂Fw 190 D-9
	* In 1944, the Germany Air Ministry changed new fighter aircraft designation to that of the chief designer. Kurt Tank was the chief designer at Focke-Wulf and later aircraft he designed were given the prefix of Ta.