Swingfire
Contents
Description
The FV438 Swingfire is a Rank V British tank destroyer
with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.63 "Desert Hunters".
Swingfire is the first dedicated ATGM of British nation tree. It doesn't have any cannons, just a mediocre machine gun. Instead, it has two ATGM launchers that are reloaded separately and fire upwards with missiles that are guided by mouse. Missiles are slow and relatively easy to control, as long as they are visible by the ATGM camera. You can only directly control the missile that you fired last.
The main point is that you can fire while being completely concealed and fire on people that try to hide from you, whether they are hiding behind rocks (vertically) or houses (horizontally). You just need to turn the missile into their cover, which surprises people who expect you to just fire from 2 km range like other ATGMs. But other side of that is, it's very easy to see your missiles coming and hide from them, making it twice as hard for you to hit enemy with them, unless you can judge distance well and drop missile right on them.
Because of that, main purpose of the Swingfire is either control of hills, castles, streets and so on to block enemy offensive pushes or assist in team assaults by hiding behind teammates or rocks and blasting enemy out of covers, without having someone to get shot.
General info
Survivability and armour
Swingfire's hull can be easily damaged by anything, as it has almost no armour. This leads people to thinking that Swingfire is useless in close combat and firing just MG at it, or ignoring it altogether. Despite that, most of the hull can sustain 7.64 mm MG fire, but whatever you do, avoid exposing the right side of the tank's hull, as a short spray of 12.7 mm MG there will destroy the tank immediately.
Area around launchers have the least armour on the tank, so even shrapnel of MG rounds hitting the launcher can accidentally hurt commander and loader.
If tank got set on fire, it will likely take long time until fire reaches ammunition rack, in best case scenario allowing you to fire back 6 times until engine melts completely and quickly sets ammo rack off.
Tank can be hull broken by 105 mm chemical shots and artillery. It is also possible to get hull broken by 120 mm kinetic shells, if they hit the missile launchers. With some luck, hostile ATGM (HEAT warhead) can be blocked by engine, stopping hull break, but probability of this isn't that high. When fighting on hilly maps, be exceptionally vigilant about hiding the camera podium, as it is much higher than the rest of the hull and in Arcade Mode some people may drop HESH or HEAT over hill right into it, resulting in hull break.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 12 mm (42°) Front glacis 10 mm (38°) Lower glacis |
12 mm Top 12 mm (13°) Bottom |
10 mm (2°) | 10 mm |
| Turret | 10 mm | 10 mm | 10 mm | 12 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels and tracks are 15 mm thick, though the torsion bars are 10 mm thick.
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 | 57 | 10 | 15.9 | 341 | 458 | 21.45 | 28.81 |
| Realistic | 53 | 9 | 212 | 240 | 13.33 | 15.09 | |
Mobility of the Swingfire is low. It can't go fast backwards and it has very poor turn rate. If someone flanks you at close range, you won't be able to turn your launcher in time. It can follow heavy and some medium tanks, when goes forward.
Armaments
Main armament
| 170 mm BAe Swingfire ATGM (x2) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| 14 | N/A | ±30° | N/A | 13.00 | 11.5 | 10.6 | 10.00 |
- The turret is represented by camera to the right of missile launchers. Improving its rotation speed affects responsiveness of missile, whether you see or don't see the target directly.
- Camera can only really turn 90 degrees in each direction, so it cannot automatically control missiles behind Swingfire. It still can send commands to missile, allowing you to hit targets manually, though it is rather hard to do due to player camera spinning around at a speed different from the missiles, and mostly relies on a miracle or muscle memory to happen.
- Inability to see your target and missile at same time disables automatic guidance system, forcing you into manual mode.
The Swingfire is a giant box, which has two enormous launcher tubes on its left, that face upwards and a big control camera near to them, which is also your gunner's camera. Whenever you want to fire, you want that camera to see as much as possible, as losing the sight of missile will make you lose easy control over it. Without direct sight, you will only be able to control them with mouse movements, but not with the targeting reticle point. You also can only initially launch missiles forward.
People may think, that your missiles inside launchers explode violently when shot by MG, but it won't destroy you even if that happens. Still, the launchers are very fragile and they are a large target, that can be easily shot by HE, instantly destroying the tank in process. For that reason alone, enemy might stop and stare at your cover, waiting for your move, like with most ATGM tanks. What they generally don't realize, is that you don't even have to drive out of your cover or into their territory to attack them.
Since your launcher faces upwards, to attack enemy you just have expose your camera, or even nothing at all, and send missile over cover straight at them. If they are at least 150 m away and camera have direct sight on enemy, missile will correct itself back on target without hitting the ground, otherwise you might need to aim in specific ways, or manually correct it, by pulling mouse to steer it away from obstacles or ground, depending on missile flight path. If hostile target is too close (closer than 100 m away), simply aim into the ground in between of the Swingfire and them, then correct missile manually after launch to achieve a hit. If enemy is attempting to ram the Swingfire directly, simply aim below missile carrier itself to land a fatal turret shot.
Because of how launcher and camera work, missiles cannot be fired precisely backwards or close to your sides, even though missiles can turn that hard. If your target is far enough, you can try and use Third Person view to force missile into sharp turn behind you. If you can't allow yourself to miss - make sure your opponent is at least 100m away from you, turn your hull until you can aim camera directly at your enemy in sniper mode, then launch missile in opposite direction and only then turn camera towards enemy and aim straight at them in sniper mode. Firing such shot without sniper aim is only as precise as calling artillery strike, which makes hitting people behind you more of a miracle than skill, since you cannot control missile after it went behind you, and it's not guaranteed, that it will be aimed straight at them, or just fly into space by that point.
Each launcher has 7 missiles, that reload separately. In AB, if you spent entire magazine for one launcher, game will rearm exactly that magazine completely. In RB you can only rearm at capture points. Rearms can happen for both launchers at the same time, but you only see one timer at once.
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 | ||
| BAe Swingfire | ATGM | 535 | 535 | 535 | 535 | 535 | 535 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Range (m) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||
| BAe Swingfire | ATGM | 185 | 4,000 | 37.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 3,470 | 80° | 82° | 90° |
- BAe Swingfire missiles are specifically designed for cover-busting and attacking out of unexpected places, so it's initially slower than most ATGMs out there, and its max speed isn't very impressive.
- Missile tends to fall down after flying about 150 m forward, so if you aren't attacking someone in their cover, but need to fire relatively close (about 250 m) you might need to aim higher, to avoid dropping it on the ground.
- In case you are firing at range <150 m, missile will fly roughly double the distance you aimed for. (so if you fire at target that stands in 50 m range, you should aim at ground before it in 25 m .)
- Dead zone of launcher is ~5 m, but even if someone got that close to you, it's still possible to aim reticle right below you, to force missile to drop straight down, resulting in generally fatal turret roof shot, assuming you hit the target and it doesn't ricochet.
- Despite its low speed, this model of BAe Swingfire is one of few ATGMs that can fly for 4 kilometers. This means, that you can snipe across the map and even attack ATGM helicopters in hover mode, even if they are out of map bounds, because it has 4 km range and they like to sit at about 3 km. Beware of instant retaliation, since maximum speed of this missile is also below average, and helicopter pilot must be very busy to not notice your attack, dodge it and attempt to fire back at you.
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|
| 14 | No |
Notes:
- It is not possible to select how many missiles to bring into battle.
Optics and night vision
| Swingfire Optics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of optic | Magnification | Night Vision Devices | ||||
| Image Intensifier | Thermal Imager Resolution |
Notes | ||||
| Resolution | Light Mult | Noise Level | ||||
| Gunner's Sight | X4 - X8 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Not Fitted | |
| Commander's View | X6 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Not Fitted | |
| Driver's View | X1 / 3PV | 800X600 | ? | high | Not Fitted | Only useable with tier 4 upgrade |
Optics are specifically placed above the tank to prevent detection of a tank. If you are playing as a hulldown sniper and already can see the landscape, you should not expose any more of your tank, otherwise enemy might spot and attack the carrier or launchers, resulting in damage or hull break. The camera itself can be hit but not destroyed.
Having medium zoom can be a problem, when firing from very far away at an enemy that also have cover, so keep this in mind when picking sniper position.
If necessary, driver view can be used to see and move around at night. Night vision can also be used to easily spot tanks with their IR lights on, though it won't help to aim at them, as it is invisible to gunner scope.
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm L3A1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 2,500 (250) | 500 | -5°/+25° | ±45° |
The small calibre of the L3A1 machine gun makes it largely ineffective against all armoured vehicles but the ones with an open compartment. It still can be used to ping targets as a rangefinding help or to mow down minor obstacles blocking your line of sight.
Usage in battles
- Combat tactics
Whatever you do, always try to hide behind something, whether it is terrain, allies, or indestructible obstacle.
The most important quirk of your missiles, is that when you target someone on your level and they are too close, your missile initially drop really hard on ground and may detonate. To avoid this aim your reticle a bit higher than your target, at least initially. Alternatively - have the high ground, which will solve this problem, but adds a problem of firing precisely. If you need to duel someone at 100 meters or closer you can abuse the quirk of missile and aim your reticle into the ground in Third person view. This will force missile to land in front of you. Any more precise firing will require practice.
To fire at enemy in cover or above hills you just need to fire above it, then, when missile is actually near to them and above cover, aim straight at enemy or below them, depending on how close missile is to them. It is possible to do so from long range. In case if your aim is bad, just expose your camera and aim straight at them in sniper mode.
If you must fire at enemy behind a building or a high rock, that makes you unable to fire at them directly or from above, first take about 100 m distance from the corner of their cover, then fire a bit away from it and force missile to take sharp horizontal turn into enemy. If done right, enemy will get hit by missile in their side. After a bit of practice you will always hit someone. The further away is the cover, the sharper the turn you can make. For point-blank fights its usually better to just face the passageway or the corner with your camera before firing, since you can wiggle the missile in between houses, even if your launcher faces house, as long as you have control and at least 40m away.
It's very tempting to fire second launcher immediately in case of a miss, but if you are alone you should let first launcher to reload at least half-way before firing again, so you wont get overrun if you miss again. If they are already rushing you - fire at will. This is very important against fast targets.
In RB, it's possible to destroy planes with missiles, achieving "unguided" reward. It's not recommended to do in AB, since planes there can do harder maneuvers without crushing themselves into ground or ripping their wings off. Helicopters can be shot down with 4 km range ATGM, but remember that Swingfire missile is rather slow and cautious pilot will just dodge your shot.
If enemy can be hullbroken - just hit them with missile anywhere. But be aware, that all hullbreakable SPGs, most light tanks and SPAAs can instantly destroy your tank by just firing in your general direction. Do not leave your cover.
If enemy is behind smokes: in AB try to fire closer to ground, that way you at least de-track it, which is crucial in case of fast tanks. You can try to disable the gun for slower tanks, but be aware that 12.7 mm MG can still destroy your tank. In RB you might want to fire at turret first regardless, because if missile takes out their gun barrel, enemy becomes very uncomfortable with chances of jamming their gun completely, along with long repair times, and you sort of know where they are now.
- Specific enemies worth noting
Soviet tanks: You should aim for hull, as hits there are usually deadly and their turrets have way too high ricochet chance. If you can't angle missile right, at least hit their track when they try to move, so they turn over and expose their side to your fast follow-up shot, or unable to chase you, while your second launcher reloads. If you have to fire at turret - aim for the gun, and then try to destroy MG operator, to make them unable to do anything to you. If it's too late and they are already reaching point-blank range - attempt to fire at the roof top, and if they carry enough ammunition, they will blow up.
German medium tanks: They rely less on machine guns and move fast. Spook them away with single missile shot, remember how it went to adjust your aim. After that, if you missed, keep second one just in case if they try to rush you. Ideally, you want to disable the driver.
Heavy tanks in general: they will usually be afraid of you, but if they will manage to call in medium tank friend, and you aren't skilled enough, you should just run away, as it's not possible to fight both heavy and medium at same time as Swingfire, because heavy tank can just hull break or MG your crew, and most medium tanks can flank the missile launcher easily. You just cannot reload fast enough.
Fences and trees: If street is full of high fences, it's not worth defending that street. Destroy them all with your machinegun. If they are solid - you can't do anything about it yourself. Trees also obscure your vision, but you cannot do anything about them. If you use them as cover - do not push your launchers in front of one, it will make you waste ammo.
ATGM: Avoid attacking other ATGM carriers directly - abuse the fact, that you can fire over tall obstacles in front of your carrier and they usually cannot. Destroy them before they can reach you or try to curve missiles into your cover, as your hull is very long and tall, which makes it vulnerable to top-down attacks of other vertical ATGM.
Fighter planes: drive backwards and pray they wont hit the ammo or tank commander in your back.
- Counter-tactics
Swingfire cannot really damage vehicles that are directly behind it or directly on its sides. The closer you are to it, while being behind it, the harder it is for the gunner to pull off a miracle shot.
Explosives and SPAA guns destroy it easily. Same with artillery, if Swingfire is stuck facing its cover.
Being in front of Swingfire in 200 meter range is a very bad idea, regardless of your cover, as if its launchers will reload in time, you can suddenly be destroyed. If you have to do that, at least face it with your armor and never show your sides, so missiles have harder time destroying your tank. Having tall cover further improves your chances of survival. Forcing it to move around by dropping artillery on it or its retreat route before pushing is also a good idea. In the worst case scenario - try to shoot down its ATGM with your MG.
Don't think, that it cannot fire forward in 30 meter range, it actually can. It's just very hard to do accurately.
If you want to destroy it with machine guns from front - fire straight in middle around the place where camera is, then spray the bottom of it. It's more likely to break something important or disable the gunner (commander) that way.
If you see Swingfire driving around and going on a murder spree, while being on fire - it just means that someone underestimated its operator. Don't repeat someone's mistake and attack with everything you've got, before it set you on fire as well - Swingfire can destroy a quite a few tanks, until it burns out, don't dismiss it for that reason alone.
Any solid obstacle can stop missiles, and trees make it hard to see you, so the more things there are between you and Swingfire, the better.
Modules
| Tier | Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Tracks | Parts | |||
| II | Suspension | Brake System | FPE | ||
| III | Filters | Crew Replenishment | |||
| IV | Transmission | Engine | Smoke Grenade | NVD | |
Pros and cons
Pros:
- The missiles are very agile in both vertical and horizontal plane, they can even do 180 degree turns, but guidance system on this tank is not the best and can only control them well in frontal semisphere of the carrier
- Can blast enemy out of their own cover by firing over or around it, without having to deal with them personally, sometimes completely denying them access to controlled area
- Technically can attack even without direct sight at close ranges by firing from behind allies or other cover and then quickly adjusting missile direction towards the target
- Sniper setup and missile effective range allows Swingfire to attack from almost anywhere on the map, while staying relatively hidden
- Together, two launchers can reload faster than most conventional tanks by chaining shots, or one of them can be kept to deter heavily armoured opponents, which most light tanks and IT-1 can't do
- Has significantly more ammo than Type 60 ATM, which allows it to hold off sieges in a less risky and stressful manner
Cons:
- It's hard to see how long a reload will be, you have to guess by looking at launcher's animation, unlike with Type 60 ATM
- Missiles are rather slow on launch and accelerate slowly, which can be a problem at long range
- Missiles launchers are facing upwards, only initially fire forward and have rather long reload rate, so if you used both shots at once and missed due to aim difficulty, then opponents can get behind Swingfire and destroy it
- Sluggish and unarmored, so it is possible to get outflanked and shot down by medium or light tanks, or to get trapped and destroyed by artillery strike or an air raid
- Vulnerable to overhead shots in AB due to 1km range aim assist gifted to all conventional tanks in that mode, can also be hull-broken by hitting launchers with high caliber kinetic ammunition, so it is generally easier to destroy than RakJPz 2. The use of solid cover for the launchers and the hull at close ranges or longer than 1 km range is often required, particularly on hilly maps.
- Does not have Night Vision for sniper scope, which means that during the night it will be at a severe disadvantage at long range against most rank VI tanks
History
Developed in the early 1960’s, “Swingfire” was a relatively slow missile that would allow directional changes of 45 degrees on the horizontal and 20 degrees of elevation which created the apt name. It was a 60 pound (27 kg), 3.5 ft (1 m) long rocket with range of 2.5 miles (4 km), capable of penetrating up to 500 mm of enemy armour. The FV 438 was a British light anti-tank vehicle, equipped with the wired-guided “Swingfire” missile. The 438’s primary weapon was launched through two Swingfire ATGM launchers, or bins, which could be reloaded from inside the vehicle. Apart from the 2 missiles stored in launchers, it could carry up to 12 additional reloads. Its only secondary armament was a 7.62 mm M1919 General Purpose Machine-Gun.
FV 438 Swingfire was based on the FV432 armoured personnel carrier, a vehicle that was very lightly armoured - it was meant to deliver its crew to combat, while keeping it protected from machine-gun fire. This platform was used for several other modifications amongst which is its sister vehicle already in game - the Falcon. FV 438 “Swingfire” was powered by a Rolls-Royce K60 multifuel engine with maximum of 240 horsepower. It was a quick and nimble vehicle with weight slightly exceeding 16 tons, which could reach up to 32 mph (52 km/h).
Although the Swingfire missile was used during various engagements on other platforms, the 438 carrier was never used in combat and was decommissioned in the 90’s. The vehicle was built in rather smaller numbers.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- Vehicles equipped with the same missile
- Other vehicles of similar configuration and role
External links
| Britain tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| Infantry tank derivatives | Archer · Gun Carrier (3-in) |
| Light tank derivatives | Alecto I |
| M10 Achilles | Achilles · Achilles (65 Rg.) |
| Centurion derivatives | FV4005 · Conway |
| ATGM | Swingfire · Striker |
| Other | Tortoise · ▄M109A1 |
| Canada | QF 3.7 Ram |
| South Africa | G6 · ZT3A2 |
