R3 T20 FA-HS
Contents
Description
The OTO Melara R3 Capraia was a reconnaissance vehicle made mainly for the export market. The Italian army did also test it as they were interested in seeing if the Folgore regiment could have a use for it. The R3 Capraia was made in at least 7 prototypes, each with their own special configurations and armaments. Despite interest, no country ultimately put it into service due to a saturated market for light reconnaissance vehicles. The R3 Capraia was equipped with various armament options, including a 7.62 mm machine gun, a 12.7 mm machine gun, a TOW ATGM launcher, and two variants of recoilless rifles.
Introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic", the R3 T20 FA-HS features a 20 mm Oerlikon KAD autocannon able to easily make short work of lightly armoured vehicles and damage important components like barrels and engines on more heavily armoured vehicles. The great gun elevation also means that it can be very effective when used against air targets, especially those from WW2. The R3 Capraia lacks smoke grenades and has weak armor, but its mobility is its standout feature. As a wheeled vehicle, it can reach high speeds, allowing it to quickly pounce on enemies or rush capture zones. However, the R3's mobility can also be a drawback, as it can become unstable in turns, and may struggle on maps with snow or mud. Recently, the R3 was moved up to 5.7. This makes it very difficult to fight most tanks in an uptier.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Aluminum alloy 7039 (hull)
- Armoured Glass (windows)
- Wheel (tires)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 33 mm (62°) Upper Glacis 33 (56°) Lower Glacis |
15 mm (27-31°) Top 15 mm (16-20°) Bottom 15 mm Wheelwells |
15 mm (70°) Engine access panel 15 mm Lower Plate 5 mm Engine vent 15 mm (54°) Lower Glacis |
33 mm (28°) Front Glacis 15 mm Crew compartment 15 mm (20°) Engine access panel |
| Gun mount | 15 mm | |||
| Cupola | 15 mm | |||
Notes:
- All windows are 30 mm thick.
- The tires are 10 mm thick and the torsion bars are 1 mm thick.
- The belly is 15 mm thick.
The R3 T20 FA-HS has light armour able to protect it against .50 cal heavy machine guns from the front and low calibre machine guns from the sides. Any autocannon or tank cannon is however able to shred easily through this armour. The R3 has an internal layout with the crew spread apart, allowing it to survive damage from non-explosive post-penetration damage. However, this tank is still very vulnerable to strafing aircraft. Bombs and rockets also deal heavy damage if the R3 T20 FA-HS is standing in their destruction radius.
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 | 125 | 32 | 3.4 | 135 | 181 | 39.71 | 53.24 |
| Realistic | 115 | 29 | 84 | 95 | 24.71 | 27.94 | |
The R3 T20 FA-HS is very mobile, able to outmanoeuvre most tanks of its rank and is reliant on this to stay alive.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
| 20 mm Oerlikon KAD | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 600 (120) | 996 | -10°/+60° | ±180° | Two-plane | 39.63 | 54.85 | 66.60 | 73.65 | 78.35 | 9.10 | 8.05 | 7.42 | 7.00 |
| Realistic | 26.78 | 31.50 | 38.25 | 42.30 | 45.0 | |||||||||
The 20 mm Oerlikon cannon is able to fight both aircraft and lightly armoured targets from the front.
Upgraded, the gun has access to 20 mm rounds able to penetrate up to 57 mm of armour, enabling the tank to shred any tanks that expose their sides to this vehicle. Some heavier tanks are still too heavily armoured on the sides for the gun to penetrate, but these generally don't show up unless you are up-tiered.
Ammunition
- Default: HVAP-T · HEFI-T - The standard belt that can fulfill both roles (anti-air and lightly armoured vehicles) but with a lower rate of fire.
- M594: HEFI-T · HEFI-T · HVAP-T - This belt is adapted for targeting aircraft with its high-explosive shells.
- M601: HVAP-T · HVAP-T · HEFI-T - This belt is adapted for targeting lightly armoured vehicles with its armour-piercing rounds.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HVAP-T | 57 | 52 | 37 | 24 | 15 | 10 | |
| HEI-T* | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HVAP-T | 1,100 | 0.11 | - | - | - | 66° | 70° | 72° | ||||
| HEI-T* | 1,054 | 0.12 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 27.2 | - | - | - | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
Ammo type |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 600 |
Belts Rounds |
4 (+1) 480 (+120) |
3 (+2) 360 (+240) |
2 (+3) 240 (+360) |
1 (+4) 120 (+480) |
0 (+5) 0 (+600) |
No |
Notes:
- Ammunition is modeled as 5 belts of 120 rounds each.
- As the rate of fire is very high, pack the maximum ammunition.
Usage in battles
The R3 is designated as an SPAA, and performs in this role extremely effectively. The autocannon has a rapid rate of fire and high velocity, allowing the R3 to tear aircraft to shreds. With accurate fire, a short burst will obliterate most aircraft in very little time. When the skies are clear and there are no more planes to shoot down, the R3 becomes a highly flexible vehicle, being able to zip around the map at high speed performing various tasks. Early game it makes an excellent reconnaissance vehicle, being able to capture points, oversee the battlefield and destroy enemy vehicles.
With over 50 mm of penetration and its exceptional speed, the R3 makes short work of British and American medium tanks from the side and will shred light tanks and other SPAA. The R3 does not have the penetration to handle well-armoured tanks, so tanks like the KV-1 and M4A5 should be avoided. When encountering an armoured vehicle: take out the gun barrel first, then tracks, and aim at the turret ring.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful main armament.
- M601 HVAP-T round has over 50 mm of penetration, enough to penetrate many vehicles up close.
- High muzzle velocity, requiring little lead and little shell drop for engaging targets at range.
- Very high rate of fire.
- Nimble enough to run circles around most armoured vehicles.
- Able to reach 100 km/h on roads with ease.
- Fast enough to reach over 50 km/h off-road.
- Front plate has armour thickness sufficient to deflect most machine gun rounds.
- Has a two-plane stabilizer.
- Completely negates recoil within effective speed/while stationary.
- Amphibious.
Cons:
- Very little armour.
- As with many wheeled vehicles, soft terrain massively slows it down.
- Hard collisions can damage modules and injure or incapacitate the crew.
- The gun only elevates up to 60° degrees.
- Stabilizer only effective up to 25 km/h.
- The vehicle tends to flip on its side when making sharp turns at high speed.
History
The Story of the OTO R3 Capraia begin during the late cold war, OTO Melara was looking to make a reconnaissance vehicle for Italy in the 1980's that would be able to be easy to manufacture and hopefully be picked up by the Italian army and put into service. During that era a lot of nations around the world would experiment with creating light, easily transportable, multi role vehicles. OTO Melara was no different and in the years leading up to this they had already some experience in the field. After some time designing the new vehicle, OTO Melara woud finally first display the prototype of the R3 Capraia, (The Capraia received its production name after an island of the Tuscan archipelago.) which would be shown at an Italian Naval exhibition at Genoa in 1982. As previously mentioned they wanted a multi-role vehicle, so for this many different variants would begin to emerge. According to OTO Melara, the R3 Capraia was able to use multiple types of weapon systems, such as a TOW launcher and a dual M40 106mm Recoiless rifle (both of these versions likely weren't actually made but could be made if someone showed interest). The variant with the Oerlikon KAD-B17 20 mm cannon would be fully stabilized and was amphibious which at the time not many vehicles of the era had the same ability. It was extensively tested by the Italian army, and even though it showed some great qualities, at the time there was not a need for that type of vehicle. It had high performance for the era mainly due to the possibility of intergrating various weapon systems. Following the conclusion of its evaluation by the Italian army, the OTO R3 Capraia prototypes were put in storage inside of the OTO Melara factory.
A number of armament options were proposed by OTO Melara. These included:
- the R3 T12.7 FA, armed with an externally mounted 12.7 mm M2 HB machine gun in a turret with full 360° traverse and a maximum elevation of -10° to +50°;
- the R3 T7.65 FA, armed with an externally mounted 7.65 mm machine gun in a turret with full 360° traverse and a maximum elevation of -10° to +25°;
- the R3 T20 FA-HS, armed with an externally mounted Oerlikon KAD-B17 20 mm cannon in a turret with full 360° traverse and a maximum elevation of -10° to +60°;
- the R3 Folgore ×2 FA, armed with two externally mounted Breda Folgore anti-tank missiles and a secondary 7.65 mm machine gun;
- the R3 T106 FA, armed with two externally mounted 106 mm M40 type recoilless rifles; and
- the R3 TOW, armed with an externally mounted launcher for a Hughes TOW ATGM system.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- Vehicles equipped with the same chassis
External links
- [Topwar.ru] OTO Melara Gorgona R2.5 and R3 Capraia armored cars
- https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/475388-oto-melara-r3-capraia-breda-folgore/
| Italy anti-aircraft vehicles | |
|---|---|
| R3 Capraia | R3 T20 FA-HS |
| SIDAM 25 | SIDAM 25 · SIDAM 25 (Mistral) |
| Wheeled | AS 42 · CM52 |
| Tracked | M42 Contraereo · Leopard 40/70 · OTOMATIC |
| Hungary | ◔ZSU-57-2 · ◔ZSU-23-4 |
