Falcon
Contents
Description
The Falcon is a rank V British self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle
with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB) and 8.3 (RB/SB). This vehicle was introduced in Update 1.57 "Battle March". While being an anti-aircraft vehicle, the Falcon has optimal performance against everything, assuming you have enough modifications. There are SPAA with higher fire rate, which can destroy planes instantly or harass them from great distances but have problems with medium tanks or tanks in general. There are SPAA which can destroy tanks but can't shoot down anything besides bombers. Falcon can potentially do both.
The Falcon looks like light tank chassis with a slightly sloped round turret on the back. Turret also has two long autocannons on its front. It's easy to recognize a Falcon due to its unique features as there are not many vehicles like it on a field at its battle rating.
General info
Survivability and armour
The armour is not very good, it can protect against 7.64 mm machine guns, but that's about it. Even fighter aircraft can destroy it, however, this vehicle is mobile and fast, compared to most adversaries it faces.
It is also worth mentioning, that some APHE shells do not detonate upon impacting falcon's armour, like IS-7's AP(HE)CBC, allowing the tank to sometimes make narrow escapes.
Problem is, the very same shells can hull-break the Falcon as long as they are of 120+ mm calibre and hit a critical module of the tank. One of the confirmed critical modules are autocannon breach, and so the hit to them can also spell doom for the vehicle, so it seems more up to luck if tank survives or not. Also, most of the tanks that use huge guns also carry 12.7 mm or 14.5 mm machine guns and will fire them at the Falcon, as soon as they realize, that it somehow survived main cannon shot, so don't stop running away if you can move.
The tank will also most likely instantly explode if hit by 105 mm chemical ammunition or artillery.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 10 mm (80°), 12.7 mm (2-19°) Front glacis 12.7 mm (37°) Lower glacis |
12.7 mm Top 12.7 mm (13°) Bottom |
10 mm (2°) | 10 mm |
| Turret | 10 mm (4-64°) | 10 mm (14-26°) | 10 mm (2°) | 6 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick while tracks are 15 mm thick.
- Armour is so thin, some heavy-calibre rounds won't detonate and only do damage in a straight line. However, most tanks like this have heavy machine guns, which can take Falcon down even faster, unless it destroys them first.
Mobility
| Mobility characteristic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Weight (tons) | Add-on Armor weight (tons) |
Max speed (km/h) |
| 15.9 | N/A | 52 (AB) |
| 48 (RB/SB) | ||
| Engine power (horsepower) | ||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded |
| Arcade | 303 | 372 |
| Realistic/Simulator | 188 | 213 |
| Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | ||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded |
| Arcade | 19.06 | 23.4 |
| Realistic/Simulator | 11.82 | 13.4 |
Armaments
Main armament
Falcon carries two 30 mm autocannons with a high rate of fire. Together, they can shred tanks and planes apart in mere seconds.
Autocannons tend to overheat if continuously fired, short bursts work best. Don't fire for longer than 6 seconds, unless you try to destroy enemy tank's protection for allies.
Recoil from guns slows you down and pushes you back. If you want to do run-n-gun attack, keep that in mind and try to fire a broadside, if possible, as otherwise, tank's turret might actually catch up to you.
Ammunition is stored in one belt, which is good for last stand type of fight, but bad in general. Rearming the belt is only possible when you are empty, you can do that in capture point. It takes almost a minute, and then you also have to reload it for about a minute. You really don't want to run out of ammo, if your team is bad at controlling the map. You can be easily taken out even by fighter planes at that state because your armour is weak.
| 30 mm HSS-831L (x4) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity (Belt capacity each) | Fire rate (shots/minute) |
Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance |
Stabilizer | |
| 620 (310) | 600 | -10°/+85° | ±180° | Two-plane | |
| Turret rotation speed (°/s) | |||||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. |
| Arcade | 70.45 | 97.51 | 118.4 | 130.94 | 139.29 |
| Realistic | 47.6 | 56 | 67.8 | 75 | 80 |
| Reloading rate (seconds) | Rearm rate (seconds) | ||||
| Stock | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. | ||
| 65 | 57.5 | 53 | 50 | ~60 | |
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration in mm @ 0°/60° Angle of Attack | |||||
| 10m | 100m | 500m | 1000m | 1500m | 2000m | ||
| Default | AP-I | 52/26 | 50/25 | 39/20 | 29/14 | 21/11 | 16/8 |
| APDS-T | APDS | 110/42 | 101/39 | 95/36 | 69/26 | 52/20 | 41/16 |
Note: Description of the belt only displays the penetration for strongest shell in the belt.
Belt types
| Belts | Shell composition | Combat usage |
| Default | AP-I, HEI-T* | General combat. Avoid heavily armoured MBT at all costs, punish other SPAA and light tanks. |
| 30x170 HE-I-T | HEI-T*, HEI*, HEI*, AP-I | Belt adapted to hunt down planes. Damage to light tanks and SPAA is reduced severely |
| 30x170 APHE-I | AP-I, AP-I, AP-I, HEI-T* | Belt adapted to hunt down light tanks. Damage to planes is reduced, but still adequate. |
| 30x170 APDS-T | APDS, AP-I*, AP-I*, HEI-T* | Anti-tank belt. Flank and destroy careless MBT's, damage heavy tanks, while doing AA duty. |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 620 | 310 (+310) | 0 (+620) | N/A |
Usage in battles
Generally, Falcon drives around the battlefield, trying to hide in hard to notice flank positions or behind houses and shoots at planes. In case if someone drives by - flanks them and destroys them, if has AP belt.
It's generally better to stay out of sight, using terrain elevation or houses. You only can choose one belt, AP belt is adequate for any work. If you want to shoot just planes you can take explosive ammo, but then you are completely useless against armour. APDS belt allows harassing even heavily armoured vehicles from sides. You won't need to reload until you are done.
In case if some tank noticed you and wants to destroy you, you can use the fact, that tanks turrets are usually far from the front of the tank. Bait enemy towards your cover, stand far enough away from the corner to see enemy tracks, but not to see an enemy turret, and shoot cannons at the track that is further away from you. That will force the moving tank to topple over and mess with the enemy aim. Before enemy realized what has just happened shred their side armour and destroy them. If that failed - run, they won't be able to get you anyway. You can do that in duels as well, however, just destroying them is better at that point.
In RB, it's possible to hide in forests, waiting for relatively poorly armoured German medium tanks, light tanks and alike, however, if they notice your vehicle first you probably won't do enough damage to stop them from firing again.
In AB, it's possible to just drive around and shoot at everyone, since it's even faster there, however, people dislike being shot at by autocannons, and someone will certainly notice the noise and kill-feed, so don't expect to live long, especially against Soviets, who have lots of frontal armouring and BMPs, which are superior to you in every way.
Some enemies to be concerned about:
- ATGM: These are worse than any tanks because they won't accidentally hit your loader with AP shell, they will just explode you. Attack only when having the upper hand, be that long range, cover, or surprise.
- Maus: It's invulnerable to you and has 2 cannons. Even IS-7 can technically be defeated in point blank duel with APDS from the rear, but not The Maus. In AB this means, that you can't drive anywhere it can look and fire at.
- Soviet tanks and heavy tanks: A lot of them sport 120 mm cannons, which means, if they fire back at your guns, the shell may just break the hull. They also have superior frontal armour, so try to be careful around them.
Counter-tactics
Ground:
AP and APDS belts are most effective when fired at your side armour or back of the turret. If you are attacked by a Falcon, just turn both hull and turret to take better angle against them.
It's best to not let them get a jump on you at all, since it may be able to destroy 2 tanks before anyone even realizes what's going on. Just don't stand with your sides open towards flank directions, instead, turn your hull's front and back there, if the enemy you are currently fighting cannot fire at your hull anyway.
On rare occasions, ramming the Falcon damages it's guns. Ramming at full speed often damages tracks or at least temporarily stops it.
Air:
The Falcon has questionable accuracy at 2 km range, but it still can force you to disengage just by firing in your general direction. It's still better to not mess with falcon and avoid flying too much near to buildings if you know it's there.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- High penetrating APDS rounds can actually do some major damage at the tier
- Very high one-second burst mass
- Only has one ammo belt per gun so no need to reload
Cons:
- Weak armour
- Shotgun effect when fired continuously for more than 10 seconds. Will most likely overheat at that point, too
- Approximately 30 seconds worth of ammo before needing to rearm at a capture circle, which takes a long time
- High repair cost in arcade battles of 15k + about 2k for APDS ammunition when spaded
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's devblog entry (if applicable) and the ingame encyclopedia description (under === Encyclopedia Info ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Britain anti-aircraft vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Crusader AA | Crusader AA Mk I · Crusader AA Mk II |
| Wheeled | Staghound AA · AEC AA |
| Radar SPAAG | Chieftain Marksman |
| Missile SPAA | Stormer AD · Stormer HVM |
| Other | Light AA Mk I · Falcon |
| Canada | Skink · ADATS (M113) |
| South Africa | Ystervark · Bosvark · ZA-35 |
