Difference between revisions of "Rooikat Mk.1D"
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== Usage in battles == | == Usage in battles == | ||
| − | + | The Rooikat Mk.1D should be played as a sniper/scout or harasser/flanker. As expected with a wheeled vehicle, the mobility is excellent and allows the Rooikat to get in to ambush or sniping spots very quickly before the slower and heavier opponents show up. Although the gun penetrates far above it's weight for its caliber, the post-pen damage leave something to be desired and can punish careless point and click shots. Drivers of the Rooikat must take this in mind and put extra thought on where on a target they should aim, as its 8.71s - 6.70 (stock and aced, respectively) reload does not leave room for error for a gun with such pitiful post-pen damage. If a player decides to snipe with the Rooikat, they should adopt a "shoot and scoot" strategy; shooting an opponent and ducking behind cover or out of sight as to not face retaliation, as an opponent returning fire will most likely not have any issues taking you out within 1 or 2 shots. | |
=== Pros and cons === | === Pros and cons === | ||
Revision as of 00:00, 4 March 2021
Contents
Description
The Rooikat Mk.1D is a rank VI British light tank with a battle rating of 8.3 (AB) and 8.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.95 "Northern Wind".
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour on the Rooikat is, to say the least, nonexistent. It will be safe from rifle-calibre machine guns from all angles, but 12.7 mm and above will be able to penetrate the side armour at close ranges. Cannon-armed aircraft will also be a significant threat. This vehicle also has hull-break, so any main gun will probably instantly destroy the Rooikat Mk.1D. Therefore, the Rooikat Mk.1D's key to survival is mobility. It also comes stock with a desert yellow camouflage, which can be problematic on certain maps.
Armour type:
- Rolled Homogeneous Armor (hull, turret, cupola)
- Wheel (tires, torsion bars)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 25 mm (77°) Upper glacis - Centre 10 mm (75°) Upper glacis - Sides 30 mm (23°) Lower glacis - Centre 15 mm (23°) Lower glacis - Sides |
20 mm (25°) Top 25 mm (0-9°) Bottom |
20 mm Upper plate 20 mm (29°) Lower plate |
25 mm (13°) Front glacis - Centre 10 mm (15°) Front glacis - Sides 20 mm (0-13°) Driver compartment 10 mm (0-17°) Crew compartment 5 mm Radiator vents |
| Turret | 25 mm (26-28°) Turret front 25 mm Gun mantlet - external 30 mm (cylindrical) Gun mantlet - internal |
25 mm (12-16°) | 15 mm (15°) | 15 mm (10°) Front 10 mm (0-11°) Rear |
| Cupola | 25 mm (cylindrical) Base 25 mm (spherical) Dome |
25 mm (spherical) Dome | ||
Notes:
- Tires and torsion bars are 10 mm thick.
- The storage box behind the turret is 5 mm thick.
- The internal part of the gun mantlet overlaps with parts of the turret front.
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 | 134 | 41 | 26.5 | 879 | 1,082 | 33.17 | 40.83 |
| Realistic | 121 | 37 | 501 | 567 | 18.91 | 21.4 | |
The mobility on the Rooikat Mk.1D is best described as good. It's decently fast, both on and off-road, but suffers from a poor turning circle and a somewhat under-powered engine, at least when stock. Users should not be surprised if they have trouble climbing even mild grades from a standstill and it is not uncommon to need to back up and gain some momentum before being able overcome some hills.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
The Rooikat Mk.1D is armed with the Denel 76 mm GT-4 cannon. As far as game-play goes, it is essentially a hand-loaded version of the OTO-Melara 76mm/62 gun found on the OTOMATIC. It fires the same APFSDS and has HE with similar performance to the shell found on the OTOMATIC, albeit not VT-fused and thus far less useful. Its APFSDS has the ability to frontally penetrate any opponent in its battle-rating bracket, although the odd Maus may be troublesome, particularly if it is angled.
It has a base 8.7 second reload, which can be reduced to 6.7s through a fully trained and aced crew. Unfortunately this reload is exactly as long as the reload on 105mm armed vehicles it may face in its battle-rating bracket such as the Leopard series, OF-40 series, Centauro, and AMX-30 series. It also has the somewhat questionable accuracy of the OTO-Melara 76mm, so do not be surprised if its shots aren't pinpoint, though this matters more for shooting down the odd helicopter than for tanks. It gets access to a laser rangefinder to make long range shots easier which is useful on large maps like Sinai. It has decent turret traverse and good firing angles, so its quite flexible in terms of positioning.
| 76 mm GT-4 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 48 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | Two-plane | 38.1 | 52.7 | 64.0 | 70.8 | 75.3 | 8.71 | 7.70 | 7.10 | 6.70 |
| Realistic | 23.8 | 28.0 | 34.0 | 37.6 | 40.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| 76/62 APFSDS | APFSDS | 311 | 308 | 301 | 291 | 281 | 271 |
| 76/62 HE | HE | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Shell details | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | |||||||
| 76/62 APFSDS | APFSDS | 1,615 | 2.18 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
| 76/62 HE | HE | 915 | 6.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 969.12 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | 46 (+2) | 37 (+11) | 29 (+19) | 19 (+29) | 11 (+37) | 1 (+47) | Yes |
Notes:
- Shells are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
- Rack 6 is a first stage ammo rack. It totals 10 shells and gets filled first when loading up the tank.
- This rack is also emptied early: the rack depletion order at full capacity is: 6 - 1 - 2 - etc. until 5.
- Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from racks 1-5 into rack 6. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
- The visual discrepancy concerns the total number of shells as well as the number of shells per rack:
- 49 shells are modeled but you can pack only 48 shells.
- Rack 1 is modeled as 4 shells but contains only 3 shells.
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm Browning MG4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 3,600 (250) | 500 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
The Rooikat Mk.1D should be played as a sniper/scout or harasser/flanker. As expected with a wheeled vehicle, the mobility is excellent and allows the Rooikat to get in to ambush or sniping spots very quickly before the slower and heavier opponents show up. Although the gun penetrates far above it's weight for its caliber, the post-pen damage leave something to be desired and can punish careless point and click shots. Drivers of the Rooikat must take this in mind and put extra thought on where on a target they should aim, as its 8.71s - 6.70 (stock and aced, respectively) reload does not leave room for error for a gun with such pitiful post-pen damage. If a player decides to snipe with the Rooikat, they should adopt a "shoot and scoot" strategy; shooting an opponent and ducking behind cover or out of sight as to not face retaliation, as an opponent returning fire will most likely not have any issues taking you out within 1 or 2 shots.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- One of the fastest ground vehicles in-game (120 km/h in RB), even with stock modules it can often drive off-road as fast as an upgraded BMP-2
- Access to APFSDS rounds
- Sides and front can stop .50 cals at slight angle or at 100+ metres
- Laser Rangefinder
- Very good reverse speed at -43 km/h
- Has good zoom variety for a light tank, having X8-12 zoom compared to usual X7-8 of light tanks at the rank
Cons:
- Despite the indicated top speed, the vehicle will rarely get to 100+ km/h
- Not as good at reversing as other British light tanks or the Object 906
- Weak armour overall, unlike Warrior it will succumb to any autocannon fire instantly
- Vehicle will not be able to stabilise the gun at speeds of 75+ km/h (46.6+ mph)
- The 76/62 APFSDS has very punctual post-pen damage. It's not uncommon to take 3+ rounds to finish a target off
- Reload rate is rather average - mediocre when taking into account the lackluster sabot damage
- Has a rather large turning circle, so turning around in confined areas may require 3-point turns.
History
Devblog
During the mid 1970s, the South African armed forces issued a specification which kickstarted the development of the “New Generation Armoured Car” project. The aim of the project, as the name suggests, was the development of a new heavy armoured car that would replace dated existing designs in the near future.
First test beds were developed in the late 1970s, intended to primarily trial various designs for mobility. At the same time, South Africa was involved in some local conflicts with the neighbouring state of Angola during the mid ‘70s - mid ‘80s, further shaping the development of the ongoing project.
In the early 1980s, having sought knowledge and expertise from German engineers, several prototype designs were built and tested. Among them, the eight-wheeled ‘Cheetah Mk.2’ armed with a 76 mm gun was selected as the winner and was subsequently procured by the South African army. Small scale production began in the late 1980s, with the Cheetah Mk.2 officially receiving the name ‘Rooikat’ after entering service. Following initial limited production runs, mass production commenced in mid 1990, which led to a total of over 240 Rooikats being produced.
In the early 2000s, the Rooikat 76 Mk.1D was developed under a modernisation program, becoming the most modern modification of the vehicle. The upgrade introduced several smaller improvements, such as improved commander optics and number of smoke launchers as well as others. Over 170 Rooikat 76 Mk.1Ds serve with the South African army today.
Media
- Skins
- Images
- Videos
See also
- Vehicles equipped with the same chassis
- Other vehicles of similar configuration and role
External links
| Britain light tanks | |
|---|---|
| A13 | A13 Mk I · A13 Mk I (3rd R.T.R.) · A13 Mk II · A13 Mk II 1939 |
| A15 | Crusader II · Crusader "The Saint" · Crusader III |
| A17 | Tetrarch I |
| IFV | Warrior · Desert Warrior (Kuwait) |
| Wheeled | Daimler Mk II · AEC Mk II · Fox · Vickers Mk.11 |
| Other | VFM5 |
| South Africa | |
| SARC | SARC MkIVa · SARC MkVI (2pdr) · SARC MkVI (6pdr) |
| Ratel | Ratel 90 · Ratel 20 |
| Rooikat | Rooikat Mk.1D · Rooikat 105 · Rooikat MTTD |
| Other | Concept 3 · Eland 90 Mk.7 |
| USA | Stuart I · Stuart III |
