USS Raleigh
| This page is about the American light cruiser USS Raleigh. For other Omaha-class cruisers, see Omaha (Family). |
Contents
Description
The Omaha-class, USS Raleigh (CL-7), 1942 is a rank III American light cruiser with a battle rating of 5.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic".
General info
Survivability and armour
With barely even anti-fragmentation armour, this ship is a sitting duck to all ships at its BR. Expected to fight battleships, it is arguably one of the worst ship at its rank in terms of stopping damage, as its moderate crew, poor turn radius, and massive un-armoured side, makes it a sitting duck to anything that sails its way, barring some destroyers and smaller vessels.
Mobility
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 73 | 29 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 63 | 25 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
The one saving grace of this ship is its 6 inch artillery. Powerful enough to obliterate most destroyers in a few well placed hits, it unfortunately has a poor reload rate, and an even worse traverse rate. This vessel is essentially a support ship for more powerful ships in its BR range.
Secondary armament
The 76 mm cannons do have HE-VT shells, meaning that they can ward off planes and ships, but only at close range.
Anti-aircraft armament
The Raleigh is equipped with one Chicago Piano mount and eight single-mount Oerlikon cannons. This provides some decent AA cover at close range, though it certainly isn't winning any awards for defensive firepower. It is better to simply stay close to AA ships and destroyers for some extra protection.
Additional armament
The ship does have a pair of torpedo launchers, but their poor placement and poor torpedoes, makes them a poor choice to use.
Scout Seaplane
Located midship are two catapults with one Curtiss SOC-1 scout plane each which provides unique offensive and defensive abilities, expanding tactical options. Ship launched scout planes fly just like regular tree units but lack munition choice and cockpit views as of this writing. With the typical ability of staffing (but with only one machine gun), dropping 2 x 100 lb bombs, and capping zones, plus the added ability to lay down smoke cover (up to 3 times). Captains will be wise to remember this ability and consider when best to use, for example early or late in match to cap a point, use smoke screen to stymie enemy bombardment and repair, or attack enemy units instead, or perhaps something completely new! With two seaplanes one can risk a cap attempt at beginning of match, saving the second for any opportunity that presents itself.
Usage in battles
The USS Raleigh is mostly used for lower-level support for late and early-tier destroyers once the enemy team has early light cruisers. But the ship is much of a 50/50, as it may face late and early-tier destroyers along with same-tier light cruisers, but it will sometimes be uptiered to fight battles against cruisers such as the Cleveland, Prinz Eugen, and Mogami, having very little chance besides torpedoes to fight back.
The ship's main armament is powerful against lightly-armoured enemies and light cruisers, but the ship's guns turn slowly, and the ship only has five turrets (three broadside, two turrets) to fight on one side, and has a slow reload rate at stock. Once the ship is completely spaded out, it will perform better, but not much of a dangerous targets to late-tier cruisers.
The secondary armament is somewhat of an upgrade besides 37 mm and 40 mm AA guns, as the eight 76 mm 3-inch Mark 10 guns are good for anti-aircraft defense and come with HE-VT shells, capable of dealing with heavier aircraft. But the downside is that the range is slightly better than a regular autocannon, as its range is short and won't shoot well against heavily armoured aircraft. The guns sometimes will not detect aircraft, and because the calibre of the gun is not great for early-war cruisers, the 76 mm guns will not be winning anti-aircraft awards. You can carry mostly HE-VT for aircraft, but should also carry regular HE for incoming torpedo boats.
Anti-aircraft weaponry is a upgrade to the earlier USS Trenton(CL-11), as the ship removed one Chicago Piano in exchange for eight 20 mm Oerlikon guns, which does slightly add anti-aircraft effectiveness, but does little against incoming aircraft. The Raleigh's anti-aircraft weaponry is better than the Trenton's weaponry by a long run, but falls short due to low ammunition
The final weapon of the Raleigh is the six Mk.15 torpedoes split into two three-tube launchers on both sides near the rear broadside guns. The Mk.15 torpedo is mediocre in the game on U.S ships, because of their range and speed, which is doubled with improved torpedo modifications. Once enemy cruisers better protected than you try to engage you, it is recommended to try and launch two torpedoes as a test salvo to predict their movements. Once a torpedo hits a vital section of the ship such as the engine or rudder, use three more torpedoes to sink the enemy ship, and if the enemy is still standing, use the main guns to finish the enemy.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful 6-inch guns can wreak havoc on any opponent.
- Decent armour, due to being a cruiser.
- Better AA defences than the USS Trenton (CL-11) at close range.
- Two scout seaplanes.
Cons:
- Rather slow compared to destroyers.
- Armour will not protect you from torpedoes.
- Not the best AA at medium to long range.
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
| Bethlehem Steel Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Gun Destroyers (DD) | |
| Porter-class | USS Phelps · USS Moffett |
| Fletcher-class | USS Cowell |
| Destroyer Leaders (DL) | |
| Mitscher-class | USS Wilkinson |
| Cruiser, Light (CL) | |
| Omaha-class | USS Raleigh · USS Detroit |
| Heavy Cruisers (CA) | |
| Northampton-class | USS Northampton |
| Portland-class | USS Portland |
| Baltimore-class | USS Baltimore · USS Pittsburgh |
| Des Moines-class | USS Des Moines |
| USA light cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Omaha-class | USS Detroit · USS Raleigh · USS Trenton |
| Atlanta-class | USS Atlanta |
| Brooklyn-class | USS Brooklyn · USS Helena |
| Cleveland-class | USS Cleveland |
| Fargo-class | USS Fargo |
| Worcester-class | USS Roanoke |
