USS Douglas

USS Douglas

USS Douglas

USA

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.0	4.0	4.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Motor gun boat

Heavy boat

Boat

Purchase:6 090

Show in game

Description

The Asheville-class, USS Douglas (PGM-100) is a premium rank IV American motor gun boat with a battle rating of 4.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Danger Zone". It is the second coastal vessel to have access to guided missiles and the first one to get a dedicated surface-to-air missile.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull8 mm (steel)

Superstructure4 mm (steel)

Number of section6

Displacement245 t

Crew28 people

Just as the tech tree predeccesor, the PGM-100 suffers from a severe lack of armor, even against small arms fire. As any light coastal vessel, it does not have access to anti-fragmentation armor with an armor thickness barely surpasing 8 mm. This lack of armor is compensated with an impressive mobility. Due to the superstrcutre being very tall, it is a primary target for enemy fire, making it easy for all sorts of caliber to heavily damage the Douglas, being able to significantly damage the bridge and leave the ship command-less until it is repaired. The best armor for the Douglas is to remain unseen and hidden, primarily close to rocky locations or against any enviormental cover that is big enough to cover the Douglas. A recommendation is to play close or inside cap points as the RIM-24A Tartar has to be reloaded after both missiles are spent. Staying inside cap points is a high-rish/high-reward tactic. You are able to have a reduced repair time as well as be able to reload all your weapons, but depending on the map, you are a primary target for enemy, specially aircrafts. The lack of cover in some maps for specific cap points leaves much to desire. However, as the Douglas is a coastal vessel, it has quick and easy access to at least one cap point inside a better covered area.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB97 / 46 km/h

RB72 / 34 km/h

The Douglas is a pretty agile vessel, featuring a CODOG (Combined Diesel Or Gas) propulsion, making it able to reach high speeds in a quick manner. It has a pretty responsive rudder even at low speeds. However, sometimes the rudder tends to "stick" when going backwards, making relatively hard to keep a constant heading while going on reverse. While it is not faster than many of the rest of coastal vessels seen in game, it is certainly one with the highest endurance and speed for a vessel its size.

Mobility Characteristics
Game Mode	Upgrade Status	Maximum Speed (km/h)		Turn Time (s)	Turn Radius (m)
		Forward	Reverse
AB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	97	46
RB/SB	Stock	___	___
	Upgraded	72	34

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB2 585

RB3 251

Crew training10 000

Experts580 000

Aces1 200

Research Aces1 140 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 110 / 210 / 50 %

2 × 178 / 178 / 178 %

Modifications

Seakeeping	Unsinkability	Firepower
Dry-Docking Rudder Replacement Propeller Replacement Engine Maintenance	Damage Control Division Fire Division Smokescreen New Pumps	Anti-Air Armament Targeting .50 AP belt 76mm_usa_mk34_navy_AP_ammo_pack .50 APIT belt 76 mm HE-RF Primary Armament Targeting Improved Rangefinder

Armament

Primary armament

Turret3-inch/50 Mk.34 gun

Ammunition1500 rounds

Belt capacity150 rounds

Fire rate50 shots/min

Vertical guidance-18° / 85°

Just as the USS Asheville, it has access to a Mk.34 3-inch (76 mm) auto-cannon. While it remains uncomparable to better weapon systems like the 76 mm/62 OTO-Melara Compact or the 76 mm/60 AK-176M, it is still a very capable weapon against a wide variety of targets. As it is obvious, the Mk.34 is not meant to be used against heavily armored vessels such as certain destroyers and cruisers. It has very good capabilities to fight off light-medium armored targets as well as engage all sorts of airborne threats from an effective range of close to 3 km. The ROF of the Mk.34 leaves much to expect but is still a very potent gun. It has 200 ready-rack ammo which can be surprisingly burnt in a fast manner. Targeting speeds are not great but not the worst, crew upgrades are able to significantly increase the traverse of the weapon as well as the elevation.

Secondary armament

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

Ammunition4000 rounds

Belt capacity200 rounds

Fire rate577 shots/min

Just as the USS Asheville, it has access to two twin AN-M2 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. They are useful against lightly armored vessels and low flying aircraft. They are useless for practically everything but those two targets.

Special armament

Turret343 mm RIM-24A missile launcher

Ammunition4 rounds

Belt capacity2 rounds

Fire rate60 shots/min

The USS Douglas has access to the RIM-24A 'Tartar' Surface-to-Air Missile, a beam-riding guided missile. It is the first dedicated ship launched SAM seen in game and the most powerful SAM missile seen in game. It has an equivalent to ~50 kg of TNT explosive mass, ~20 kg less than the 36 cm/Type 41 cannon ordinary SAP with an explosive mass of ~68 kg. It is a very powerful missile, capable of destroying any airborne threat with ease and able to destroy even surface combatants. With a speed of 620 m/s and a range of 14 km, it is the fastest surface-launched missile with such range, being followed behind by the VT-1 SAM with 1250 m/s and 12 km range; and Nettuno AShM with 280 m/s and 10 km range. This missile is useful to engage all sorts of airborne threats at stand-off distance, being particularily useful in Naval Enduring Confrontation battles, where fighting enemy aircraft is seen most of the time. The lack of a dedicated search radar makes anti-air duties harder as detection is solely based upon visual contact, but the use of the tracking radar can significantly help with the guidance. As the Tartar is beam-rider (mouse controlled), it can be slaved to the radar track and 'target selection' feature with keybinds, making it very simple to engage all sorts of targets: from small and maneuverable to big and sluggish. It should be noted that, despite having a relatively small G-Force limit, since it will be launched at range, the corrections needed to reach a maneuvering target are minuscule. However, if the target maneuvers at close range from the missile, it might be hard to successfully hit the target. Since the targets faced at the battle-rating the USS Douglas is at, the awareness and expectations to fight a SAM system is null, making it substantially easier to hit targets.

The Tartar can also be used as an AShM if required. The huge explosive mass is more than enough to ammo rack almost any surface vessel but battleships and specific cruisers. It should be aimed at the waterline close to a known ammo rack. Most of the time, it is easier to engage the stern ammo racks as sometimes they are slightly more elevated than bow ones. This is applicable to all US, German and Russian destroyers with ocassional cases for British and Italians.

Usage in battles

The Douglas is a rare jewel. It is able to fight off coastal vessels at range thanks to the Mk.34 and the RIM-24A but it is unable to defend itself at close ranges as it lacks the 40 mm turret the USS Asheville has. However, it is more than capable of keeping up a fight even with the strongest of enemies.

When in normal battles:

The USS Douglas is a support vessel most of the time with slight frontline capabilities. However, it shines as a fully support vessel for both medium and long ranges. The good firepower and access to the incredible RIM-24A combined with the good mobility makes it a very good flanker and support vessel. At all costs close combat should be avoided as all coastal vessels are able to chew through the Douglas with ease due to the increased ROF of their armament, something not seen as much with its counterpart USS Asheville as it has the 40 mm turret. Tartar has the possibility of killing surface vessels under a minimum range of ~2-2.5 km depending on the terrain.

When in Enduring Confrontation battles:

This is where the use of RIM-24A tends to shine much more than in normal battles, mostly because of the variety of targets, tasks and long ranges. The Douglas is very capable of taking out a maximum of two convoy vessels with the Tartar with possibilities of heavily damaging the enemy carrier if well placed hits are made. The lack of surface search radar makes it harder to spot and designate enemy aerial targets, but thanks to the tracking radar, once a target is spotted it can be engaged right away. It is particularily useful against long range and high altitude bombers when they are on a run to engage friendly carrier. These include but are not restricted to: Pe-8, He-117, Yer-2, B-17, He-111, PB4Y-2, etc. Tartar is also able to be used as a missile defense system. It is able to engage other missiles and dropped ordnance in a similar manner of the AK-630 but at longer ranges with higher efficiency.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Maneuverable
• Access to tracking radar
• Access to RIM-24A 'Tartar' Surface-to-Air Missile

Cons:

• Insignificant armor
• Lack of firepower for close combat
• Large profile
• No access to surface search radar

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.

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Motor Gunboats (PGM)
Asheville-class	USS Asheville · USS Douglas