Falcon

Falcon

Skink

Chieftain Marksman

Falcon

Skink

Chieftain Marksman

Britain

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.0	8.3	8.3

Class:

SPAA

Research:105 000

Purchase:300 000

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Description

The Falcon is a rank V British self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB) and 8.3 (RB/SB). This vehicle was introduced in Update 1.57 "Battle March". While being an anti-aircraft vehicle, the Falcon has optimal performance against everything, assuming you have enough modifications. Some self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles have a high fire rate, which allows them to destroy planes instantly or harass them from great distances, although they may have problems with standard ground vehicles due to armour. There are others which can destroy tanks by using high penetration ammunition but have difficulty taking down aircraft due to a lack of explosive filler. The Falcon has the ability to perform both of these roles with a high degree of efficiency.

The Falcon has the appearance of a light tank with a slightly sloped round turret on the back. It is easy to recognize the Falcon due to its unique features as there are not many vehicles like it on a field at its battle rating.

General info

Survivability and armour

The armour on the Falcon is not very effective, as it can only reliably protect against rifle-caliber machine guns. Aircraft that are armed with heavy machine guns and cannons are able to destroy it, but the Falcon is quick and highly maneuverable compared to most other vehicles which can allow it to escape into cover.

Important to note that some full caliber AP shells do not detonate upon impacting the Falcon's armour, granting it some chances to make narrow escapes. However, is is also possible for these shells to hull-break the Falcon as long as they are of 120+ mm calibre and hit a critical module of the tank. One of the confirmed critical modules is the autocannon breech. Many of the tanks at the Battle Rating of the Falcon also carry 12.7 mm or 14.5 mm heavy machine guns and will fire them at the Falcon, which are easily capable of defeating the armour and will devastate the interior of the vehicle, so as long as the mobility of the vehicle is not hampered it is advisable to keep moving and find cover.

Chemical rounds, such as HEAT-FS and HESH, will also obliterate the Falcon, and artillery can also quickly bring a swift end to the Falcon.

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	10 mm (80°), 12.7 mm (2-19°) Front glacis 12.7 mm (37°) Lower glacis	12.7 mm Top 12.7 mm (13°) Bottom	10 mm (2°)	10 mm
Turret	10 mm (4-64°)	10 mm (14-26°)	10 mm (2°)	6 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick while tracks are 15 mm thick.
• The general armour on the Falcon is extremely thin, which allows some full caliber AP shells to pass through without detonating.
• Heavy machine guns are able to defeat the armour protection of the Falcon.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	52	9	15.9	303	406	19.06	25.53
Realistic	48	8		188	213	11.82	13.4

Armaments

Main armament

The Falcon carries two 30 mm autocannons with a high rate of fire. Together, they can shred tanks and planes apart in mere seconds.

Autocannons can overheat if continuously fired, so short bursts work best. Firing for more than 6 seconds can cause overheating and jamming and it is advised to refrain from extended firing unless absolutely necessary. The recoil from guns slows you down and pushes you back. If attempting a flanking attack, try to fire over the the side of the vehicle, as otherwise, the opponent's turret might catch up.

Ammunition is stored in one belt, which ensures uniformity of ammunition but does have several disadvantages Rearming the belt is only possible when all ammunition is expended. This takes an extended period of time (around a full minute), so running out of ammunition is very detrimental, especially if the team lacks map control which prevents rearming at a capture point. Lacking ammunition allows aircraft to easily make attack runs.

30 mm HSS-831L (x2)
Capacity (Belt capacity each)		Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
620 (310)		600	-10°/+85°	±180°	Two-plane
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	70.45	97.51	118.4	130.94	139.29
Realistic	47.6	56	67.8	75	80
Reloading rate (seconds)				Rearm rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
65	57.5	53	50	~60

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 0°/60° Angle of Attack
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
Default	AP-I	52/26	50/25	39/20	29/14	21/11	16/8
APDS-T	APDS	110/42	101/39	95/36	69/26	52/20	41/16

Note: Description of the belt only displays the penetration for strongest shell in the belt.

Belt types

Belts	Shell composition	Combat usage
Default	AP-I, HEI-T*	General combat. Avoid heavily armoured vehicles at all costs, but can punish other SPAA and light tanks.
30x170 HE-I-T	HEI-T*, HEI*, HEI*, AP-I	Belt adapted to hunt down planes. Damage to SPAA and light tanks is reduced severely.
30x170 APHE-I	AP-I, AP-I, AP-I, HEI-T*	Belt adapted to hunt down light tanks. Damage to planes is reduced, but still adequate.
30x170 APDS-T	APDS, AP-I*, AP-I*, HEI-T*	Anti-tank belt. Flank and destroy careless MBT's, damage heavy tanks, while doing AA duty.

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Falcon.

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
620	310 (+310)	0 (+620)	N/A

Optics and night vision

Falcon Optics
Type of optic	Magnification	Night Vision Devices
		Image Intensifier			Thermal Imager Resolution	Notes
		Resolution	Light Mult	Noise Level
Gunner's Sight	X~2 - X~4	N/A	N/A	N/A	Not Fitted
Commander's View	X6	N/A	N/A	N/A	Not Fitted
Driver's View	X1 / 3PV	800X600	?	high	Not Fitted	Only useable with tier 4 upgrade

• Zoom level estimated using optics gallery.

Use night vision to avoid hostile tanks or to fight them at close range at night. The image intensifier is not installed for gunner or commander, so be cautious when shifting between third person and other views during night.

Usage in battles

Combat tactics

Generally, Falcon drives around the battlefield, trying to hide in hard to notice flank positions or behind houses and shoots at planes. In case if someone drives by - flanks them and destroys them, if has AP belt.

It's generally better to stay out of sight, using terrain elevation or houses. You only can choose one belt, AP belt is adequate for any work. If you want to shoot just planes you can take explosive ammo, but then you are completely useless against armour. APDS belt allows harassing even heavily armoured vehicles from sides. You won't need to reload until you are done.

In case if some tank noticed you and wants to destroy you, you can use the fact, that tanks turrets are usually far from the front of the tank. Bait enemy towards your cover, stand far enough away from the corner to see enemy tracks, but not to see an enemy turret, and shoot cannons at the track that is further away from you. That will force the moving tank to topple over and mess with the enemy aim. Before enemy realized what has just happened shred their side armour and destroy them. If that failed - run, they won't be able to get you anyway. You can do that in duels as well, however, just destroying them is better at that point.

In RB, it's possible to hide in forests, waiting for relatively poorly armoured German medium tanks, light tanks and alike, however, if they notice your vehicle first you probably won't do enough damage to stop them from firing again.

In AB, it's possible to just drive around and shoot at everyone, since it's even faster there, however, people dislike being shot at by autocannons, and someone will certainly notice the noise and kill-feed, so don't expect to live long, especially against Soviets, who have lots of frontal armouring and BMPs, which are superior to you in every way.

Some enemies to be concerned about:

• ATGM: These are worse than any tanks because they won't accidentally hit your loader with AP shell, they will just explode you. Attack only when having the upper hand, be that long range, cover, or surprise.
• Maus: It's invulnerable to you and has 2 cannons. Even IS-7 can technically be defeated in point blank duel with APDS from the rear, but not The Maus. In AB this means, that you can't drive anywhere it can look and fire at.
• Soviet tanks and heavy tanks: A lot of them sport 120 mm cannons, which means, if they fire back at your guns, the shell may just break the hull. They also have superior frontal armour, so try to be careful around them.

Counter-tactics

Ground:
AP and APDS belts are most effective when fired at your side armour or back of the turret. If you are attacked by a Falcon, just turn both hull and turret to take better angle against them.

It's best to not let them get a jump on you at all, since it may be able to destroy 2 tanks before anyone even realizes what's going on. Just don't stand with your sides open towards flank directions, instead, turn your hull's front and back there, if the enemy you are currently fighting cannot fire at your hull anyway.

On rare occasions, ramming the Falcon damages it's guns. Ramming at full speed often damages tracks or at least temporarily stops it.

Air:
The Falcon has questionable accuracy at 2 km range, but it still can force you to disengage just by firing in your general direction. It's still better to not mess with falcon and avoid flying too much near to buildings if you know it's there.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive	30x170 HE-I-T
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire	30x170 APHE-I
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine		Artillery Support	30x170 APDS-T	NVD

Pros and cons

Pros:

• High penetrating APDS rounds can actually do some major damage at the tier
• Very high one-second burst mass
• Only has one ammo belt per gun so no need to reload
• Has a 2 plane stabilizer for both cannons, meaning you can shoot accurately on the move

Cons:

• Weak armour
• Shotgun effect when fired continuously for more than 10 seconds. Will most likely overheat at that point, too
• Approximately 30 seconds worth of ammo before needing to rearm at a capture circle, which takes a long time
• High repair cost in arcade battles of 15k + about 2k for APDS ammunition when spaded

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 the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's devblog entry (if applicable) and the ingame encyclopedia description (under === Encyclopedia Info ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

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

External links

• [Devblog] Falcon AA: Britain’s foremost anti-air gun

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