Shturm-S

Shturm-S

IT-1

Object 775

Shturm-S

IT-1

Object 775

USSR

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.7	8.7	8.7

Class:

Tank destroyer

ATGM vehicle

Research:160 000

Purchase:450 000

Show in game

Description

The 9P149 Shturm-S is a rank VI Soviet tank destroyer with a battle rating of 8.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.89 "Imperial Navy".

General info

Survivability and armour

ESS

Creation of a smoke screen in the direction of movement of the vehicle

Armourfront / side / back

Hull14 / 7 / 7

Turret0 / 0 / 0

Crew2 people

Visibility65 %

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	14 mm (54°) Front Plate 7 mm (80°) Upper glacis 14+5 mm (38°) Lower glacis	7 mm (23°) Top 7 mm Bottom	15 mm Middle 7 mm Top/Bottom	7 mm
Cupola	7 mm (30°)	7 mm (30°)	7 mm (30°)	7 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick while tracks are 15 mm thick.

Pretty much every enemy tank in the game will be able to destroy the Shturm-S including rank 1 anti-air.

From the side, within 200 m the crew compartment can be penetrated by 7.62 mm. It can also be destroyed even by HEAT overpressure, which is terrible. Artillery and airstrikes are especially lethal to this tank, so much, that the vehicle might as well be without armour.

The front is more or less protected from .50 calibre, so, if necessary, it can be exposed towards an enemy who still has his heavy mg working.

There are very few areas on this tank that can be hit by a cannon round and survive. The entire front is essentially an instant kill zone, as even a scratch by APFSDS will cause enough spalling to obliterate one of the crew members, destroying the tank as a result even in arcade mode, as this tank has no "last stand". Very rarely, a HEAT shell falling straight to the middle might fail to completely knock out crew members, but the chance is very slim.

The only place where Shturm-S can survive a side shot by a cannon is the engine room in the very middle. Thus it is very important to present the tank completely flat when flanked, as to make centre of mass shot seem more lucrative (for example, in AB, some people might not even bother aiming manually and just press "aim assits" and "fire", which results in a shot straight to the middle)

Given that this vehicle only has 2 crew, susceptible to overpressure damage with paper-thin armour and has no "last stand", generally, avoid everything. Put a solid piece of dirt between you and the enemy and only fire and gain attention of enemies if the kill is guaranteed.

Mobility

Amphibious

The design allows you to swim and control movement in the water

Speedforward / back

AB67 / 12 km/h

RB and SB62 / 11 km/h

Number of gears11 forward

2 back

Weight11.8 t

Engine power

AB458 hp

RB and SB240 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB38.8 hp/t

RB and SB20.3 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	67	12	11.8	341	458	28.9	38.81
Realistic	62	11		212	240	17.97	20.34

The mobility is best described as nippy but not fast. Compared to Russian tanks of its BR, the Shturm-S is faster but compared to other nations it is slower.

The mobility hindrance in higher BRs is much more noticeable for the Shturm-S, being 50% slower than MBTs such as the M1A1. The rear gear only goes up to -10 km/h. This reduces amount of sniping spots the carrier can reach before it gets countersniped.

The Shturm-S lacks neutral steering meaning that turning around can take some time.

Modifications and economy

Repair costBasic → Reference

AB4 400 → 5 865

RB5 038 → 6 715

SB5 336 → 7 112

Total cost of modifications130 000

229 000

Talisman cost2 400

Crew training130 000

Experts450 000

Aces2 000

Research Aces890 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

160 / 210 / 250 %

214 / 214 / 214 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Research: 9 400 Cost: 15 000 370 Suspension Research: 8 000 Cost: 13 000 310 Brake System Research: 8 000 Cost: 13 000 310 Filters Research: 12 000 Cost: 19 000 470 Transmission Research: 9 200 Cost: 15 000 360 Engine Research: 9 200 Cost: 15 000 360	Improved Parts Research: 2 800 Cost: 15 000 370 Improved FPE Research: 2 400 Cost: 13 000 310 Crew Replenishment Research: 12 000 Cost: 19 000 470 ESS Research: 9 200 Cost: 15 000 360 9P149M Research: 9 200 Cost: 15 000 360	Horizontal Drive Research: 9 400 Cost: 15 000 370 130mm_9m120_ATGM_ammo_pack Research: 8 000 Cost: 13 000 310 130mm_9m120f_1_ATGM_ammo_pack Research: 12 000 Cost: 19 000 470 130mm_9m220o_ATGM_ammo_pack Research: 9 200 Cost: 15 000 360

Armaments

Thermal imager

Allows to see thermal radiation in the infrared range day and night

Main armament

9M114 ATGM

Autoloader

Automatically feeds projectiles into the breech. The speed does not depend on the skills of the loader

Ammunition12 rounds

First-order11 rounds

Belt capacity1 rounds

Reload8.3 s

Fire rate8 shots/min

Vertical guidance-5° / 15°

Horizontal guidance-85° / 85°

Fire on the moveup to 6 km/h

9M114 Shturm ATGM					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	12	-5°/+15°	±85°	N/A	22.0	30.4	37.0	40.9	43.5	13.0	13.0	13.0	13.0
Realistic					14.9	17.6	21.3	23.5	25.0

Shturm-S uses ATGM launchers by picking them up with a special handle at its rear. Once the missile is fired, the handle simply discards them and picks up a new one from inside of the tank.

The handle is put down if the vehicle speeds up too much (faster than 19 km/h), but if it was reloading while the tank was moving, it will pull the launcher out at the end of the reload, whether you want it or not. When launcher is pulled out, it is always pointing forward.

DO NOT hold "fire" button while reloading or waiting for launcher to pull out, because launcher has a tendency to malfunction if you don't wait fot at least 0.2 sec after it finished. This "malfunction" causes the missile to simply disappear.

Each missile type has great manoeuvreability, but the launch sequience is greatly complicated by the fact, that launcher (located in the very back of the tank) is offset from the actual guiding camera (located on the front-right of the tank), and missiles are launched at high speeds, causing them to often miss at close range. Since the launcher is pointing forward when pulled out, firing too early might also cause the missile to miss, depending on how much it needs to turn and compensate to get on course. Aim assist of arcade mode also has a tendency to aim lower than it should because of this, so it should not be relied on.

Shturm-S cannot properly fire or aim from medium tank hulldown spots, so it is inferior to IT-1 in that regard.

The vehicle can carry up to 12 of missiles. It is necessary to choose next ATGM type before firing the current one because Shturm-S can't change payload choice after firing and can't put the wrong launcher back.

When rearming on a capture point, the main type of ATGM is replenished first (the one on top-left of "ammo distribution" UI), so choose carefully. Rearming on a cap is rather slow with about 15 seconds for one missile, full rearm outside of cap in AB is about 35 seconds.

The list of available ATGM in order of acquirement:

HEAT - Default ATGM, which has about 550 mm penetration. Launched at atleast 230 m/s with high acceleration. Can deal with anything of BR 8.3-9.3, but does only punctual damage like HEAT-FS. Tanks with heavy NERA or ERA amount will resist it and suffer less than fatal damage or no damage.

Tandem HEAT - ATGM with a double payload. Launched at atleast 230 m/s with high acceleration. Extremely high post-penetration damage. Designed to annihilate ERA and other countermeasures and then destroy the tank in one hit. Each payload can penetrate about 800 mm of composite armour at a flat angle. Tandem warhead ignores ERA and penetration should be calculated as if it was not present, unless you hit the target at an extreme angle, launching the actual projectile into yet another ERA layer.

HE - A guided missile with a HE payload. Launched at about 130 m/s with poor acceleration. Can penetrate about 55 mm of armour, making it on par with the second strongest HE shells in terms of pure damage. Can be used to cause overpressure damage by hitting tracks or tank's roof, similarly to HE shells, but has negligeble area of effect and is weak against ERA plating. Due to its low launch speed it is suitable for close range combat, particularly in AB. Outside of tanks own BR, can be used as a utility ammo to destroy NERA tanks, which tandem HEAT might not be able to even scratch.

Proximity HE - A guided missile specifically designed to destroy planes and helicopters. Has a proximity detonator, which activates after missile flies about 300 m away from carrier, which helps with hitting aircraft despite not having radar or any other targeting devices. While detonator is set to explode next to the aircraft (about 5 m away) if possible, certain support helicopters can survive the explosion. Missile has enough fuel to fly for about 7 km away. Whether Proximity HE can cause overpressure damage or not is currently unknown.

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
9M114	ATGM	560	560	560	560	560	560
9M120	ATGM (tandem)	800	800	800	800	800	800
9M120F-1	ATGM-HE	55	55	55	55	55	55
9M220O	ATGM-VT	51	51	51	51	51	51

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%
9M114	ATGM	400	6,000	31.4	0	0.01	2,470	80°	82°	90°
9M120	ATGM (tandem)	550	6,000	49.5	0.4	0.01	3,800	80°	82°	90°
9M120F-1	ATGM-HE	550	6,000	49.5	0.4	0.01	6,930	79°	80°	81°
9M220O	ATGM-VT	550	7,000	49.5	0	0.01	6,160	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	7th rack empty	8th rack empty	9th rack empty	10th rack empty	11th rack empty	12th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
12	12 (+0)	11 (+1)	10 (+2)	9 (+3)	8 (+4)	7 (+5)	6 (+6)	5 (+7)	4 (+8)	3 (+9)	2 (+10)	1 (+11)	no

Ammo racks of the Shturm-S

Mechanized Ammo Rack capable of automatic loading.

Usage in battles

Overview

The Shturm-S can be effective in battles if used correctly. Shturm-S commanders should make sure to use their advantages while playing to negate the weaknesses of the vehicle. For the Shturm-S, playing in a backline role behind cover at medium ranges is the best option and specific approaches depend on game mode.

RB Strategies

Players should use the thermal sights to spot enemies easily and ambush them while they are not looking. Use of cover is essential due to the total lack of armour on the Shturm, even a .50 cal machine gun can penetrate some points in the frontal armour. It is ill advised to push aggressively in the Shturm due to the ATGM launcher which will retract when moving. Additionally, engaging at long range may be difficult as the ATGMs can take some time to reach the target, meaning the target has plenty of time to move into cover. Using the Shturm at close range is suicidal. Luckily the ATGMs on the Shturm are quite satisfactory. The 9M120 ATGM has a tandem shaped warhead which negates ERA protection, and the 9M220O ATGM has a proximity fuse which can easily destroy helicopters. It is recommended to use these two ATGMs, taking mostly the 9M120 HEAT ATGM to destroy enemy armour, with a few of the 9M220O ATGM to deal with enemy helicopters.

AB Strategies and survival tips

Since Shturm-S is essentially countered by AB mechanics and every tank only needs to press "aim assist" and fire any weapon to destroy it, some extreme and outlandish tactics must be used.

To understand, whether to even spawn Shturm-S or not, follow these questions:

1. Can you even make it to the sniper point before being shot by a hypothetical Leopard?
2. Can you fire through or over obstacles at your sniping spot, and how many of them is there?
3. Is it physically impossible to snipe you from any other side, but front (so that you can see it coming in third person view and dodge)?
4. If it is possible to snipe you from a side, is your entire team on that side (just three tanks do not count)?
5. If you have to snipe from an open spot, is it at least 1.01 km away from enemies, so that they don't have aim assist on you?
6. Can you angle upwards at that sniper spot, so that you can snipe easier?
7. Can you destroy Dardo or M3A3 Bradley (if they are present) and do you know where they are?
8. In case enemy team currently does endless air raids, do you have ATGM-VT?

If you answered negatively to at least two questions, it is probably better to spawn something else according to the situation, as otherwise you will just get destroyed.(For hulldown camping or battle in town or forest IT-1 works better, for a heated brawl BMP-1 works just fine, etc.)

It is possible, that following the questionnaire, you were unable to find any use for Shturm-S. Do not worry, as it is possible to make it work by imitating a vertical ATGM tank and by using hill hulldown spots which seem lunatic at first, but work just fine for Shturm-S in Arcade.

These are the tips and thought processes that you can go through to make your life easier:

First of all, you have to deal with carrier's weaknesses, as Shturm-S can't take a hit and survive. It is ideal to fire at opponents when their marker is still dark red or just became bright red, as it means that they can only fire at the camera or, maybe, the launcher. When using HEAT warhead, an indirect shot of such kind is only possible if an enemy is at least 180 m away from Shturm-S, HE missile is somewhat slower and a 100 m shot might become possible, but it requires better aim and won't work against certain tanks.

There are a few obvious choices to make using this mentality: you want to occupy a corridor in urban enviroment, that has some rubble, slight uphill or tank carcasses in a way, so you can fire over them and enemies can't do anything about it, OR you want to occupy a hill, steep cliff or an angled rock, which will cover your entire hull and allow you to slide down when needed.

Secondly, you have to work on your hulldown technique. Since even a scratch to a corner of the carrier's front will obliterate it, you should ensure that no kinetic shell can land on the tank itself, it should be absolutely physically impossible.

Angle in a diamond shape and pull your right-front corner out of cover. Camera should be on the very front as you pull the tank up. Move up ONLY until any one enemy tank is highlighted in bright red, meaning that you have aim assist onto enemy tank's turret. This will ensure that only an enemy ATGM tank or chemical shells can destroy you. If you were following the rule of "impossibility of being shot from any side but the front" you should be able to notice any shells coming at you and back off before they connect with the camera. Kinetic shells, which fly at insane speed, will not destroy Shturm-S if they hit the camera, so you don't need to worry about that anymore.

Third step is learning new firing techniques. Since Shturm-S has to imitate vertical ATGM tanks in AB, you can use ANY cover, however ridiculous, as long as your tank can support vertical stance behind that hill, cliff, or whatever cover of your choice.

Once you have an enemy tank in you arcade mode LOS/aim assist range, go into binocular view, as it allows full 360 degree sight and is located much higher than sniper scope, allowing you to see the entire scenery freely and removing the need to expose the camera any further. Aim at an enemy tank that is located further than 180 m, press "fire" to aim AB marker at their turret or hull, exit binocular view, press fire again to launch missile at them. Do not touch anything after this to let the missile destroy them. Sometimes missile goes way too low, particularly when you try to annihilate other hulldown tanks, in such case try to pull the camera up a bit higher and aim at the very top of their turret, generally this should be enough.

Do not forget to move down from the firing spot after firing, as otherwise you are just giving opponents time to aim chemical shells or ATGM at you, which is not ideal. If you are being focused by artillery, you can retreat. Temporary retreat can be made even into a lake, since Shturm-S can swim.

If you have to fight enemy tanks directly in AB, there are only two ways you can beat someone without dying yourself:

First of all, don't do it if you only have regular HEAT missile, you are unlikely to deal enough damage to survive.

Support: If you see that enemy team is piling up onto your teammate, pull up and fire at them. As long as nobody is looking at you, you should be fine. After this, back off or keep moving towards next cover, stop each 13 seconds to fire again just to make them question if it's even worth fighting you. Try to not gain attention of more than one tank at a time.

Direct combat with tanks that do not have autocannons: Fire Tandem warhead at the tank's cannon barrel, if you are lucky enough to actually hit it, they should back off to repair. Chase them and abuse the fact that launcher pulls out after reload regardless of your movement speed and execute the enemy tank with either Tandem or HE (whichever you prefer or need for current opponent). In case if you prefer to use HE, it cannot break cannon barrels, but it is far easier to launch over terrain without direct camera assistance to reduce risks of dying to a random countersnipe.

Notable Enemies

There are many notable enemies for the Shturm-S, being basically any vehicle in the game armed with anything bigger than a rifle-calibre machine gun is capable of killing it. However, some threats are greater than others. Shturm-S commanders should watch out for:

ATGM tanks: They can destroy Shturm-S with overpressure and are far more likely to not let you go, as they understand what you are capable of. Tanks with proximity ATGM are the most dangerous, as they can obliterate you by firing over your cover and there is nothing you can do about it, but to spot and destroy them first.

Autocannon armed vehicles: These will easily shred the Shturm in seconds and should be avoided. Many SPAAs can also create a shell wall to prevent you from destroying their teammates or themselves.

Vehicles with substantial composite armour: Most vehicles at and below the tier of the Shturm-S do not have composite armour capable of stopping its top ATGM, but many top tier tanks (which the Shturm will face often) such as the M1A2 or Challenger 2 are able to easily stop its ATGM with their thick turret armour. Shturm-S commanders should learn the weak spots of enemy tanks. For example, almost all american top tier battle tanks can be destroyed by HE missile hitting the middle of their upper front plate.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Access to "Shturm" and "Ataka" ATGMs with a total of four different variants of missiles - HEAT, tandem HEAT, HE-frag, and proximity-fused HE-frag
• Fast-flying, relatively easy to control missiles are great for longer ranges where regular tank shells and shot lose velocity and become hard to hit with
• Very low profile - combined with good positioning, the vehicle can be invisible with only the launcher peeking over a hilltop or wall
• Capable of travelling across water, although relatively slowly and with poor control

Cons:

• Poor defence - the armour stops absolutely nothing but 7.62 mm MGs and may protect against 12.7 mm from a further range
• Very vulnerable from the top, making it easy prey from the air - unless equipped with proximity HE ATGM (the last one available for unlock) for self-defence against air targets
• Cannot change missile type mid-reload, nor after one is reloaded
• Rearming is rather slow, and leaves you vulnerable
• Relatively limited arc of fire; while the launcher can rotate quite a bit, either way, the guidance module sits at the front of the vehicle, and after firing at a target located to the sides of the vehicle, the missile will require some distance before flying straight - self-defence for close-range combat is difficult

History

The MT-LB, also known as "Mnogotselevoy Tyagach Legky Bronirovanny" in Russian (which stands for "Multi-Purpose Towing Vehicle Light Armoured"), has been mass-produced since 1966. The vehicle was primarily used as an artillery tractor that acted as a means of transport of the gun crew and ammunition complements. However, as it happens with every well-designed platform, the carrier ultimately became a base for all kinds of armament sets. In the early 70s, the USSR began development of an anti-tank hypersonic missile system with a strike range of up to 5,000 metres for armoured targets. The system received the designation "Shturm" and was intended to be equipped on both air and ground units. In the end, it was the MT-LB that was chosen as the base for the former role. In 1979, the new ground combat vehicle was put into service under the designation 9P149 "Shturm-S".

- From Devblog

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Shturm-S from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #154 - Metal Beasts section at 00:39 discusses the Shturm-S.

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

• [Devblog] 9P149 "Shturm-S": The Invisible Hunter