Pr.123K (A-10bis)
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Contents
Description
The Pr.123K (A-10bis) is a premium rank II Soviet motor torpedo boat with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.83 "Masters of the Sea" as part of the fleet release into open beta test.
General info
Survivability and armour
This boat has no armour, and relies upon small size and fast speed for survival. Turning away after dropping torpedoes and hiding behind smoke should be standard tactics.
Mobility
The Pr 123K (A-11) is the fastest boat in the game - getting to 135/136kph in Arcade Battles. This makes it very useful for capturing zones that are some distance from the main battle area.
The vessel loses a lot of speed when making anything more than minimal turns, like all hydrofoils. However, it has very good acceleration, allowing sharp turns to be a normal part of your tactics.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 135 | 46 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 96 | 33 | |
Modifications and economy
2 × 40 / 60 / 50 % 2 × 112 / 112 / 112 % | Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
The Pr. 123K has dual 14.5 mm KPVT machine guns mounted at the stern, giving a very wide angle of fire, excluding a relatively small angle either side of straight ahead.
However, the KPV is a very powerful gun, and with API ammunition it can do considerable internal and crew damage, destroying any other small boat in the game with 2-3 reloads, and even significantly reducing the crew of much larger vessels such as destroyers. Effective use of the guns requires good understanding of lead and aiming offsets for speed and angle - opponents will often not adequately compensate for your speed, while you can be causing damage at ranges up to 1.5 km.
Additional armament
The Pr. 123bis carries two 450 mm wet-heating 45-36NU torpedoes. They have a range of 3 km at a speed of 78 km/h or a range of 6 km at 73 km/h with the Torpedo Mode module installed. They are placed at the bow of the boat and fired out at the same speed the boat is already travelling at.
Usage in battles
The Pr. 123K (A-11), as a premium variant of the Pr. 123K "Komsomolets", is relatively under-armed with two machine guns placed in a position that forces you to expose your side to shoot. However, this armament is still enough to do plenty of damage, which can be combined with the ship's excellent mobility to make use of ambush / hit-and-run tactics.
The Pr. 123K does best in base-capturing abilities, as it can easily reach bases before most other boats. Thus, at the start of each game, you should rush straight for the bases. After the bases are captured, you can move into ambush tactics, as the Pr. 123K has relatively weak survivability and will be shredded in any brawls. Thus, you have to play very carefully, and always stay at speed, or you will get picked off very quickly by gun boats with large guns. You should be the person to capture points for your team, and stay a nuisance for the enemies.
Against smaller vessels such as MTBs, the two 14.5 mm machine guns are usually more than enough. However, note that these guns will bob considerably when travelling at high speeds, making aiming extremely difficult. Thus, ambush tactics are important - the boat who shoots first will almost always win the engagement. You should try to ambush other MTBs who are already distracted in order to maximize your ship's survivability. Against larger destroyers, the Pr. 123 gets two large torpedoes which are typically enough to one-shot anything up to the size of a destroyer - make use of these torpedoes to get rid of larger vessels such as early destroyers.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Extremely mobile with a high maximum speed and good mobility
- Very small silhouette which can be combined with the ship's great mobility to make it almost untouchable at longer ranges
- Two 14.5 mm machine guns pack more punch than expected
- Gets access to two torpedoes to destroy ships that the guns cannot take care of
- Torpedoes fire forward at speed
Cons:
- Extremely weak survivability even for a motor torpedo boat, with just seven crew members
- Hull is made of wood and is extremely prone to fires
- Only a single machine gun turret, which cannot fire directly forward due to its positioning
- Only two torpedoes compared to two four on many comparable MTBs, which can only fire forward
History
Pr. 123K (A-11) is a prototype variant of the Pr. 123K, being the last series of Pr. 123 motor torpedo boats built by the Soviet navy during and shortly after the Second World War. The ship differed from previous Pr. 123 versions due to the removal of one 12.7 mm DShK machine gun turret, the installation of a heavier 14.5 mm machine gun turret, and the installation of two Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF) and target search radars. The A-11 vessel was a unique Pr. 123K prototype fitted with a double hydrofoil, allowing it to attain 56 knots (103 km/h) during testing.
The Pr. 123K (A-11) was modified from the Pr. 123K subclass of Pr. 123 MTBs, and retained the bulk of the Pr. 123K’s equipment. The ship features an open bridge, similar to the Pr. 123K, which housed the steering and control equipment. As well, the Pr. 123K (A-11) was fitted with the “Zarnitsa” air-search radar and the “Fakel-M” IFF device, mounted on a dome behind the bridge. The Pr. 123K (A-11) was equipped with the same engines as the previous Pr. 123K, but was fitted with a dual hydrofoil. This setup enabled the vessel to reach exceptionally-high speeds: 56 knots (103 km/h) during testing.
The Pr. 123K (A-11) was built by the Krasnoye Sormovo plant (chief designer RE Alekseev) in 1950. However, despite the higher speed offered by the hydrofoil, the ship was ultimately not accepted into service. Instead, the standard Pr. 123K was mass-produced, and served in both domestic and international navies for several decades.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the ship;
- other literature.
| USSR boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | D-3 · G-5 · G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123-bis · Pr.123K (A-10bis) · Pr.123K · Pr.183 |
| Motor gun boats | TKA-412 · MO-4 · OD-200 · Pr.253L · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M |
| Motor torpedo gun boats | Pr. 206 · Pr.206-M · MPK Pr.12412 · MPK Pr.12412P · MPK Pr.11451 |
| Gunboats | Groza |
| Armoured gun boats | BMO · MBK-161 early · MBK-161 late · MBK pr.186 · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 early · Pr.1124 late · Pr.1124 MLRS |
| Pr.191 · Pr.191M · Pr.1204 · Pr.1204 late | |
| USSR premium ships | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123K (A-10bis) |
| Motor gun boats | TKA-412 · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M |
| Motor torpedo gun boats | MPK Pr.12412P |
| Armoured gun boats | MBK-161 early · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 MLRS · Pr.1204 |
| Sub-chasers | MPK Pr.122bis |
| Frigates | Rosomacha |
| Destroyers | Kerch · Ryany · Leningrad · Stroyny · Smelyi · Neustrashimy · Blagorodnyy |
| Light cruisers | Murmansk · Kerch · Zheleznyakov |
| Battleships | Marat |
