KF41
Contents
Description
The KF41 Lynx is a modern IFV design from the German Rheinmetall company, exported to the Hungarian Army. On July 31, 2024, the Hungarian army received its first KF41. The order was for 209 KF41s to be delivered in seven variants, ranging from the regular IFV, command variants with improved communications, all the way to medical transports and mortar carriers. By 2024, it is expected to receive 46 KF41s in the first delivery batch. The production of the vehicle was set up in a production plant in Zalaegerszeg with 51% investment from Rheinmetall and 49% from the Hungarian government.
It was introduced in Update "Sons of Attila" as part of the Hungarian branch of the Italian tech tree. The KF41 invites comparisons with the PUMA VJTF IFV; they are both heavily armed and armoured IFVs with good mobility and much heavier and bigger than their counterparts like the BMP-3 and the American Bradley IFV, but in reality they couldn't be any further apart. Unlike the PUMA, KF41 focuses on maximizing its scouting potential and is optimized for combat centered around fire-and-forget ATGMs by having a unique AMAP-ADS hard-kill active protection system, as well as a high amount of smoke grenades. In doing so the KF41 sacrifices aspects of the PUMA, like the unmanned turret, soft-kill APS, and ERA/NERA. Because of this, it is extremely vulnerable to attacks that the hard-kill APS cannot stop. Nevertheless, thanks to the Spike ATGMs and extremely good commander sight, it is a capable support vehicle and extremely potent capture point defender, being able to achieve long-range kills with its APFSDS and ATGM against both tanks and helicopters. For the latter threat, it can also utilise its AHEAD rounds from the 30 mm autocannon which are more capable at dealing with air threats.
General info
Survivability and armour
Despite its contemporary design akin to the Puma IFV, the KF41 exhibits a notable shortfall in protection against conventional rounds, as NERA is replaced by the AMAP-ADS APS which can only intercept objects flying at 70 to 700 m/s which means it can only really destroy ATGM (and not really all of them). The APS is incapable of intercepting HE shells as they generally fly at 850 m/s speed at the BR. This APS mainly ensures that the KF41 is the only vehicle around that is allowed to use the Spike ATGM freely, as well as stopping any cannon launched ATGM upon launch, which can sometimes help against light and medium tanks.
The APS is somewhat unreliable and will often fail to intercept attacks that are supposed to be within its capacity to hit. Its coverage also isn't homogenous, with sides having much less APS ammunition, particularly at the front. If attacked by other light tanks, which generally carry at least two missiles at the BR, KF41 should present its front or the back and hide the sides.
Any big gun at the BR should be able to obliterate the KF41 instantly. Even in AB, direct hit will put the tank into crew replenishment mode with obvious consequences. Nevertheless, its hull demonstrates commendable resilience against autocannons. The inclusion of external fuel tanks positioned behind the Active Protection System serves to bolster armour capabilities against smaller calibre projectiles, and the gunner with commander sit inside a basket that can prevent shrapnel and small shells from reaching them. However, the effectiveness of this additional protection is contingent upon various factors including impact angle, projectile type, as well as distance. The void spaces within the compartment enhance the vehicle's survivability, particularly when subjected to certain angles of attack.
The turret is entirely different, and while it is impossible to use mere 12.7 mm to hit ammo racks of the KF41, it is vulnerable to 20 mm cannons and above. The shrapnel basket also doesn't extend into the turret, so anything penetrating the turret will hit the crew. This makes the tank protections mostly null and void, as almost everyone fire at the turret first anyway (partially, because it is the best way to disable the Puma as well). A direct hit on the turret would result in near-immediate incapacitation even in AB.
Similar to the Puma, the crew compartment is compartmentalized, with the entire rear section, designated for infantry, remaining unoccupied. However, the amount of people at such high rank that would fire at the empty back of the tank is extremely low.
The primary survivability feature of the KF41 lies in its capacity to attack on a move and out of cover, enabling it to swiftly navigate the battlefield, evade and pressure enemy tanks until commander managed to reach the strategic chokepoint. The tank has commander scope, 12.7 mm machine gun and the ATGM launchers put on the very top of the tank. they are located so high, that common HEAT shells and small ATGMs will do nothing but cause fires if they hit at the topmost part of the optics, which is only a mild inconvenience, compared to being hit directly. HE shells and strong ATGM like the MIM146 still can cause overpressure damage wide and strong enough to implode the tank, so at least some care should be taken when enemy starts actively firing back.
The tank also has a huge amount of smoke grenades (20, fired in 10 pairs), which are most likely installed to break lock-on of IR and laser guided missiles of helicopters. They are also quite useful to sow chaos among enemy ranks, as enemy might fail to hit the KF41 turret and start compulsively firing at the more sturdy hull instead if they are completely blind.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | ___ mm | ___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom |
___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Turret | ___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet |
___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm | ___ - ___ mm |
| Cupola | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm | ___ mm |
Notes:
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 | 84 | 36 | 44 | 1,790 | 2,204 | 40.68 | 50.09 |
| Realistic | 76 | 33 | 1,022 | 1,155 | 23.23 | 26.25 | |
The mobility of the KF41 falls short when compared to similar armoured vehicles. Even heavily armoured counterparts like the T-80BVM and Leopard 2 series boast higher top speeds and overall mobility, highlighting the KF41's relatively lacklustre performance in combat, evidenced by its power-to-weight ratio of 26.3, in contrast to the T-80BVM's 27.2. Nonetheless, it maintains a respectable level of mobility, enabling the vehicle to swiftly navigate the periphery of the battlefield and deliver flanking manoeuvres against enemy vehicles.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
The KF41 is equipped with the Mauser MK 30 automatic cannon, renowned for its powerful ammunition type and decent firing rate. While it may lack effectiveness against armoured vehicles in direct engagements, it proves highly advantageous for flanking manoeuvres and short-range anti-aircraft defense against helicopters or slow-moving, low-flying enemy jets. Players that already used VCC-80/30 and it's Bushmaster autocannon will feel right at home with this weapon, noting slight increase in penetration power and magazine size.
When operating within a group, the cannon becomes instrumental in targeting critical components such as tracks or cannon barrels, thereby supporting allies engaged in frontal combat. Always try to aim for the sides or small weak spots in the turret front when there is nothing obvious left to hit. Randomly firing at the enemy tank upper hull plate will achieve nothing and will only make the target angry, as well as attract more unwanted attention from other tanks (or even aircraft), while firing at the turret may randomly cause internal damage or completely ruin the gun breech.
It is advisable to utilize the APFSDS belt in most situations, reserving the AHEAD fragmentation belt for engagements with aircraft or lightly armoured vehicles. AHEAD will detonate at ranges fed to it by the anti-air IRST located in the sniper seat. The IRST cannot be locked on by the commander, so pay attention to which seat are you currently in.
| 30 mm MK 30-2/ABM | 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 | 348 (116) | 200 | -10°/+45° | ±180° | Two-plane | 57.1 | 79.1 | 96.0 | 106.2 | 113.0 | 0.26 | 0.23 | 0.21 | 0.20 |
| Realistic | 35.7 | 42.0 | 51.0 | 56.4 | 60.0 | |||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| APDS | 87 | 86 | 81 | 75 | 70 | 65 | |
| HEI-T | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 | |
| Ahead | 44 | 42 | 34 | 26 | 20 | 16 | |
| APFSDS | 121 | 119 | 111 | 97 | 93 | 83 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| APDS | 1,480 | 0.19 | - | - | - | 75° | 78° | 80° | ||||
| HEI-T | 1,080 | 0.36 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 54.4 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| Ahead | 1,100 | 0.36 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| APFSDS | 1,405 | 0.16 | - | - | - | 78° | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Additional armament
The KF41 is outfitted with Spike-LR II IR fire-and-forget missiles, which exhibit a somewhat inconsistent reliability. While they offer the potential as stand-off weapons effective against heavily armoured targets as well as slow-moving, low-flying aircraft, their reliability can vary based on several factors including the target's speed, launch angle, distance, and the carrier's velocity. They also cannot be fired into a smoke screen.
The positioning of the launcher and overall stability of the KF41 hull enables quasi No Line-of-Sight launches, contingent upon factors and the target's exposure level, albeit rendering the missile ineffective at distances shorter than 250 m (unless the target moves sideways, forcing the missile to slow down further). Since the launcher is located on the very top of the tank, it can lock even on a machine gun or radio antenna poking over a hill, allowing launches straight into enemy cover as soon as they try to pull up. Due to this, it is almost impossible to trade against loaded KF41 without getting hit as well. Do note, that it is the launcher that locks onto enemy tanks and not the commander scope, and it may be possible to lock when the enemy tank is not even visible.
Spikes are blinded by the vegetation, but liberal application of the 12.7 mm M2HB MG located on top of the commander scope should be enough to remove any bushes that could block missile vision. If that isn't enough, the main weapon can destroy any remaining obstacles until there is nothing left.
Despite featuring a small warhead, Spikes can inflict significant damage on enemy tanks upon successful penetration and will almost surely attack the gun breech. A "double tap" with both missiles will obliterate or heavily damage the target tank with a probability of 90% if enemy does not drop smoke screens immediately. Sometimes, their capability for top-down attacks may encounter limitations, particularly against heavily protected tanks featuring NERA components on the roof like the Strv 122 or Leopard 2A7.
The only thing truly holding the KF41 back from becoming a globally acknowledged menace is its pitiful ammo reserve of only 4 missiles (2 being pre-loaded into the launcher). It is, therefore, only possible to take out 2 tanks reliably until rearmed. Rearm on a capture point takes 15 seconds, which is the same with reload speed. KF41 that managed to make it to a secure capture point with great vantage can perpetually control at least two targets at once and can ruin an entire team on its own unless destroyed.
In Arcade battles, spending all 4 missiles outside of a capture point is self-destructive, as the automatic rearm will take 2 minutes, without being able to shorten it afterwards. This, as well as the common map sizes, make the tank rather niche in arcade mode. It still can be extremely powerful if it manages to make it to the capture point while using only three missiles, probably even more so than in the RB due to it being able to spot anything via scouting.
| Spike-LR II missile | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity (Belt) | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer |
| 4 (2) | - | - | - |
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 | ||
| Spike-LR II | ATGM (tandem) | 900 | 900 | 900 | 900 | 900 | 900 |
| Missile details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Range (m) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | ||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Spike-LR II | ATGM (tandem) | 180 | 20,000 | 13.5 | 0.4 | 0.01 | 1.27 | 80° | 82° | 90° | ||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Machine guns
| 12.7 mm M2HB | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 1,200 (200) | 575 | -10°/+65° | -95°/+20° |
| 7.62 mm M240 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 1,800 (200) | 941 | - | - |
Usage in battles
The KF41 can be loosely compared to the VCC-80/30, in which case the KF41 is an even further specialization in long range combat over kilometers of range. There are numerous in-game situations in which VCC is objectively better, simply because it has more missiles, better attack angles and smaller profile. It is often downright useless when engagement ranges reach 500 m, simply due to how strong the medium tanks are. Unfortunately, it's not possible for one player to have a complete control over the map, and what happens on the other end can affect you in the form of incoming airstrikes, which the KF41 can handle better.
The KF41 can be likened to a larger-scale R3 T20 in its operational approach. Despite its armour offering limited protection against only certain types of threats, its agility and firepower allows to use it in a range of roles. In addition to its primary functions of flanking enemy positions (preferrably with a teammate capable of finishing off the survivors), the KF41 excels as a platform for suppressive fire, capable of keeping adversaries pinned down with an additional threat of ATGM rain, while allies manoeuvre for advantageous positions. Furthermore, its often designated as a budget anti-aircraft asset - while not equipped with the extensive detection systems of dedicated anti-aircraft platforms, its weaponry and its built-in IRST make it a formidable deterrent against helicopters and low-flying aircraft.
A lot of helicopters will also sometimes find themselves unable to destroy the KF41 even with a maximum stealth "turn on the laser in the last 5 seconds" tactical attack, when its APS decides to actually shoot the incoming missiles rather than ignore them, and the tank commander will immediately "smoke away" from the rest of the volley. It's worth noting that while the KF41's Active Protection System exhibits an extremely random behaviour, it will reliably prevent "death charge" of Soviet and Chinese light tanks that use super powerful ATGM pre-loaded as their first shot.
On large scale battlefields like the "Fields of Sinai" or "Fields of Poland", the KF41 emerges as a potent sniper unit, utilizing its cannon or Spike missiles to engage targets at extended ranges with precision and lethality. The strategic advantage of such long-range engagement capabilities cannot be overstated, as KF41 can disrupt travelling enemy snipers and neutralize high-value targets from afar. With the commander scope placement and the rather shallow arc of the PMC287 APFSDS, enemy tanks will find out, that their APFSDS cannot even hit the KF41 back and that, regrettably, nothing short of HE or an airstrike will be able to save them. A lot of tankers refuse to take multiple ammunition types and will find themselves shot and/or burned to death.
When forced to fight in close quarters, KF41 can fire smoke grenades into enemy faces to confuse and annoy them before pushing in. In the worst case it will make them shoot at the hull, as they probably won't be able to guess where your turret is, and it will help protect your crew. In the best case they will not notice you passing through or start panicking and moving around, and you will be able to land a side or back shot on them.
Lastly, the KF41 is potentially a monster ATGM tank, severely limited by its ATGM count. It can fire over the tallest walls in the game and the enemy can barely hurt it back. There are many capture points in the game, that other snipers like to stall next to due to them being either well-protected or having direct sight onto the enemy spawn. The goals of these players are rather shallow and they generally get blasted by TOW-2B or otherwise countersniped when they get too greedy. The KF41, however, is nigh untargetable in its full hull-down state and is able to launch Spikes even at the enemy machine guns with only low possibility of a miss. Additionally, the APS and LWS will protect the tank from the worst when the enemy team finally decides to fight back. In some spots, KF41 can even endlessly fire directly into enemy spawns due to its height. Be aware, that you will probably die on your way to such a point and you will need to expose yourself to a flanking attack to be able to constantly reload and suppress an entire spawn point, especially in AB, but when you manage to entrench in such position, it's extremely worth it.
- An extreme example of a fight over a capture point
Since the KF41 is extremely good at holding capture points, but many maps are rather small for it (particularly in arcade battles), it may be a good idea to simply start the match in this tank, before the enemy had a chance to properly entrench. The capture point needs to have some kind of a rock or a building so that you can drive around it and evade incoming shots and launch Spikes over it at any incoming tanks. Capture points without any cover are bad because medium tanks will simply destroy you.
After choosing a point, you can come alone or with a friend. A friend will likely take some of your kills, but will protect you from medium tanks that managed to slip through and get too close for your missiles to hit. Likewise, you can assist them by at least dropping Spikes on any tank that tries to push them away or even by gunning the enemy down if they ignore you. If there are any drones flying nearby, you can also destroy those simply to remove them or for bomber points in AB.
In a perfect world, your situation should look something like this:
While the enemy recovers after initial loss, you need to use the drone to check on your situation (maybe someone managed to wait the fight out behind some building or a rock), use bomber points if playing AB and nobody is around, then start whailing on every passing by tank and aircraft with your missiles and autocannon. As long as nobody can come even remotely close to your capture point without being damaged, you will be able find a way to accumulate points by just existing.
Eventually your initial opponents and maybe some of their allies will return and try to push you. If your ally managed to survive, then all you need to do is just keep them alive by suppressing the opponent. If they fell, then you need to pay extra attention to any tank that managed to get within 300 m range and annihilate them on sight.
Paying attention to your immediate surroundings is extremely important, because you can't win a fight if you are severely outnumbered and outgunned at the same time. The more damage you will cause, the more time you will buy for yourself and the more seriously the enemy will treat you later on, which will help with getting into their head.
It is not unlikely that while you are dealing with an obvious threat, someone manages to sneak up on you by using terrain features, or by simply using your reload timings against you. You need to be able to recognize this situation immediately and act ruthlessly if you want to survive or at least take down one of them with you.
If you are very lucky, you will still have a teammate around, and by simply scouting the enemy and spamming some chat messages you can get them to remove the threat for you. More likely though, is that you are completely alone and the enemy is already standing next to you, just waiting for you to look away.
If you were prudent at suppressing every enemy tank around, they are likely to be on a repair and/or are staying low, so you can immediately assault your "guest" with smoke grenades, mark them with scouting ability and proceed to shoot them with your gun. This works best if the terrain is completely flat.
If you didn't seize the opportunity, or the opponents were way too competent at covering eachother, you will find yourself in a situation, where you are outnumbered 3 to 1 from multiple sides and can't use your strongest weapon at all. Still, they don't necessarily know that you can't fire ATGM directly at them, so after being bombarded all the way to the capture point, they may have second thoughts, or hope that their teammate takes a hit for them instead.
At this point, as soon as one of them attacks you, all of them will, so you need to make it count. Mark all of them with scouting and wait until they group up, then start spamming smoke grenades everywhere in order to create a huge smoke area. If you can, drop some smokes directly into their face as well.
The bravest among them is very likely to instantly lose his cool and rush forward into the smoke to end your prank, but he will not be able to properly aim at your turret, so likelihood of you instantly dying is already reduced. Do your best to sidestep them and hit their tank on the sides (or any weak spot that you can remember), while keeping yourself as much as possible within the smoke screens. If you can't do it within smoke screens (it may be difficult in RB) - blatantly drive out of the smoke and just shoot at the "rusher"'s back until they explode and try to retreat back in before their allies tore the KF41 apart.
What happens after depends purely on the skill level of players involved and luck, so it is best to not let the enemy get so much of an advantage in the first place.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Access to fire and forget missiles
- The commander scope and launcher setup allow for extremely safe or extremely offensive attacks
- Powerful main armament
- Equipped with hard-kill APS, able to stop enemy ATGMs
- Mobile for being a tracked platform
- Great elevation angles, can easily fend off against enemy aircraft if they're near
- High amount of smoke grenades
- Technically counts as a makeshift SPAA if the commander is perceptive enough
Cons:
- Very big profile
- Weak armour against conventional ammunition, the turret is too vulnerable and looks way too much like the Puma, rendering the hull armour useless
- APS is too situational, does not work all the time
- Fire and forget missile reserves are very limited
- Cannon, although powerful, has a low fire rate and is unable to seriously damage most medium tanks directly from the front
History
Rheinmetall initiated the development of the KF series of combat vehicles to fill a noticeable gap in the market for tracked vehicles. The company aimed to create a design versatile enough to outperform direct competitors while still being able to efficiently carry out peacetime operations.
The vehicle was first unveiled in its lighter KF31 configuration in June 2016 at the Eurosatory exhibition. This debut was soon followed by the heavier KF41 variant, unveiled at the same event in 2018. By 2020, Rheinmetall had entered negotiations with several potential operators, including Australia, the Czech Republic, and the United States. Hungary became the KF41's first official operator in September of that year, placing an order for 218 vehicles.
- Devblog
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
External links
| Italy light tanks | |
|---|---|
| Italy | |
| L6/40 | L6/40 · L6/40 (31 Rgt.) |
| M11/39 | M11/39 |
| Autoblindo | AB 41 · AB 43 |
| Fiat 6614/6616 | FIAT 6614 · AUBL/74 · AUBL/74 HVG |
| R3 Capraia | R3 T106 FA |
| Centauro | Centauro I 105 · Centauro I 105 R · Centauro I 120 · Centauro RGO · VRCC |
| Freccia | VBC (PT2) · Freccia |
| Dardo | Dardo · VCC-80/60 · VCC-80/30 |
| Other | C13 T90 |
| USA | ▄M3A3 · ▄M24 · ▄M18 |
| Hungary | |
| WWII | Csaba · Toldi IIA |
| Post | ◔BTR-80A · KF41 |
