PT-174

PT-174

800px

PT-174

USA

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.3	2.3	2.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Motor torpedo boat

Boat

Purchase:1 150

Show in game

Description

The Elco 80 ft PT-174 is a premium rank II American motor torpedo boat with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Ground Breaking".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull40 mm (wood)

Superstructure15 mm (wood)

Number of section3

Displacement51 t

Crew12 people

Being one of the numerous 80 ft Elco PT boats, the PT-174's protection is rather poor. The 6.35 mm of armor around the helmsman being the only protection this wooden-hull boat has to offer. The boat has a crew of 12 men, up to 9 of them can be lost before the boat starts to sink. Due to the boat has only three sections with three crews each, it is particularly vulnerable against shell with high penetration at the front and any autocannons at the sides.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB106 / 30 km/h

RB76 / 22 km/h

As with the other Elco boats, the PT-174 offers great all-around mobility. The boat is easy to handle and has quick acceleration and deceleration. This allows the PT-174 to quickly move and reposition around the map, to find a good spot for taking on an enemy.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	106	30
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	76	22

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB1 367

RB1 371

Crew training6 900

Experts46 000

Aces320

Research Aces500 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 90 / 130 / 50 %

2 × 130 / 130 / 130 %

Modifications

Seakeeping	Unsinkability	Firepower
Dry-Docking Rudder Replacement Propeller Replacement Engine Maintenance	Damage Control Division Fire Division Smokescreen New Pumps	Anti-Air Armament Targeting 40 mm HE clips 20 mm HE magazines Auxiliary Armament Targeting 40 mm AP clips 20 mm AP magazines Primary Armament Targeting Artillery Support

Armament

Primary armament

Turret40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 3 gun

Ammunition2000 rounds

Belt capacity4 rounds

Fire rate160 shots/min

Vertical guidance-7° / 88°

The PT-174 features the 40 mm Bofors L/60 Mark 3 autocannon placed at the bow of the boat. This peculiar placement is unusual compared to the other Elco boats, as they were usually placed at the stern, and this feature cannot be found until the rank V PT-810. Due to this, the PT-174 has a unique offensive capability compared to its brethren. Unlike the other Elco boats that were forced to show its broadsides to utilize their Bofors, the PT-174 is capable of going "bow-in" against the enemy, and offers easy gun handling while reducing the boat's vulnerability to enemy fire in the process.

The Bofors utilize two shells; an AP-T round with high penetration of 58 mm at 1,000 m and 41 mm at 2,000 m, and an HEFI-T shell with a large explosive filler. Due to the boat's fragile hull, the AP-T belt is preferred due to its effectiveness at long range engagements, although an "Universal" belt with a balance mix of AP-T and HEFI-T can also be considered for engaging aircraft.

While having a frontally-mounted Bofors has many benefits, it's not without downsides. The gun lacks any shield to protect it and its gunner from any enemy fire, exposing it to the enemy fire and made it rather easy to get disabled and leaving the boat vulnerable. The PT-174 is also a rather unstable gun platform at high speed, which significantly hampers the gun handling, especially in rough sea conditions.

Secondary armament

Turret20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II autocannon

Ammunition1800 rounds

Belt capacity60 rounds

Fire rate450 shots/min

Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control Select secondary weapon. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.

Anti-aircraft armament

2 х Turret2 x 12.7 mm Browning AN-M2 machine gun

Ammunition4000 rounds

Belt capacity200 rounds

Fire rate577 shots/min

An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control Select anti-aircraft weapons. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.

Additional armament

Setup 14 x 569 mm Mk.13 torpedo

Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.

Usage in battles

Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

• Features a frontally-mounted Bofors autocannon with wide coverage
• Rapid-firing and accurate Bofors autocannon offers great damage output, especially at longer ranges (~ 2.5 km)
• High mobility and manoverability, easy to move and reposition around
• Four Browning MGs and Oeklikon autocannons provides good anti-air coverage
• Has four torpedoes for saturated barrage

Cons:

• Very poor survivability, especially from the sides
• The lack of gun shield makes the Bofors autocannon quite easy to disable
• Tends to bounce in sea condition, especially at high speed, thus making lining up shot difficult
• Individual torpedoes are fairy slow and weak, limiting its use to close-range engagements

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

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

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

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

Electric Launch Company (Elco) Ships
Patrol Torpedo Boats (PT)
77' PT	PT-20 · PT-59
80' PT	PT-103 · PT-109 · PT-174 · PT-314 · Thunderbolt (PT-556) · PT-565