2S38

2S38

2S38

USSR

VII Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
10.3	10.3	10.3

Class:

PREMIUM

Light tank

Purchase:9 270

Show in game

Description

The 2S38 "Derivation-PVO" is a premium rank VII Soviet light tank with a battle rating of 10.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Fire and Ice".

General info

Survivability and armour

Smoke grenades

Creation of a smoke screen in front of the vehicle

ESS

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

LWS

Notifies about the vehicle's exposure to laser emissions

Self-entrenching equipment

Creation of ramparts and trenches in soft ground

Armourfront / side / back

Hull60 / 43 / 13

Turret43 / 43 / 43

Crew3 people

Visibility79 %

Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat? If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.

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

Amphibious

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

Speedforward / back

AB78 / 23 km/h

RB and SB71 / 21 km/h

Number of gears8 forward

4 back

Weight21.5 t

Engine power

AB954 hp

RB and SB500 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB44.4 hp/t

RB and SB23.3 hp/t

Write about the mobility of the ground vehicle. Estimate the specific power and manoeuvrability, as well as the maximum speed forwards and backwards.

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	78	23	21.5	_,___	954	__.__	44.37
Realistic	71	21		_,___	500	__.__	23.26

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB2 992

RB2 797

SB3 683

Crew training10 000

Experts1 160 000

Aces2 100

Research Aces2 150 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 140 / 170 / 220 %

2 × 232 / 232 / 232 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment ESS	Horizontal Drive Dozer Blade Adjustment of Fire Airstrike LWS/LR 57mm_APFSDS_ammo_pack Elevation Mechanism Smoke grenade Scout UAV Artillery Support NVD Improved optics 57mm_HE_VT_ammo_pack

Armaments

Laser rangefinder

Reduces the error and increases the maximum measurable distance of the rangefinder

Night vision device

Improves visibility by enhancing natural light or active illumination.

Thermal imager

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

Main armament

57 mm 2A90 cannon

Two-plane stabilizer

Reduces the swing of the gun in two planes while moving

Autoloader

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

Ammunition148 rounds

Reload0.5 s

Vertical guidance-5° / 75°

Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main gun. Assess its effectiveness in a battle based on the reloading speed, ballistics and the power of shells. Do not forget about the flexibility of the fire, that is how quickly the cannon can be aimed at the target, open fire on it and aim at another enemy. Add a link to the main article on the gun: {{main|Name of the weapon}}. Describe in general terms the ammunition available for the main gun. Give advice on how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage.

57 mm 2A90						Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	148	120	-5°/+75°	±180°	Two-plane	__._	__._	__._	__._	__._	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
Realistic						__._	__._	__._	__._	__._

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
BR-281	APCBC	151	147	132	114	100	87
OR-281U	HE*	5	5	5	5	5	5
3UBM22	APFSDS	225	221	209	193	177	161
3UO8	HE-VT*	5	5	5	5	5	5

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
BR-281	APCBC	1,000	2.8	1.2	9	20.02	48°	63°	71°
OR-281U	HE*	1,000	2.8	0	0.1	235.62	79°	80°	81°
3UBM22	APFSDS	1,500	0.95	N/A	N/A	N/A	78°	80°	81°

Proximity-fused shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Arming distance (m)	Trigger radius (m)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
									0%	50%	100%
3UO8	HE-VT*	1,000	2.8	0	0.1	500	6	231	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the 2S38

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
148	78 (+70)	21 (+127)	1 (+147)	Yes

Notes:

• As they are modeled by sets of 2 or 3, shells disappear from the rack only after you've fired all shells in the set.
• The visual discrepancy concerns the number of shells in rack 2 (58 shells modeled for 57 available).
• Rack 3 (autoloader magazine) is a first stage ammo rack. It totals 20 shells.
  • This rack gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
  • As the 2S38 is equipped with an autoloader, manual reloading of the gun is not possible.
  • Once the autoloader magazine has been depleted, you can't shoot until the loader has restocked the autoloader with at least 1 shell.
  • The restocking time is longer than the normal reload time of the gun. Take this into account when playing.
  • Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from racks 1 and 2 into rack 3. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.

Machine guns

7.62 mm PKTM machine gun (coaxial)

Ammunition750 rounds

Belt capacity250 rounds

Reload8.0 s

Fire rate700 shots/min

Offensive and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight some aircraft but also are effective against lightly armoured vehicles. Evaluate machine guns and give recommendations on its use.

7.62 mm PKTM
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
	___ (___)	___	__°	__°

Usage in battles

The 2S38 is played like a standard light tank: use your mobility and speed to flank enemies, and your gun is powerful enough to penetrate most tank's side and back armour. The gun has a very short reload time, at an astounding 0.5 s. The 2S38 has proximity-fused HE shells, allowing it to fire at helicopters and other aircraft to some effect.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Extremely fast reload
• High mobility
• IRST target tracking system and HE-VT round allow for good anti-air capability
• Unmanned turret
• APCBC is great for other IFVs, SPAAs, MBT sides, and APFSDS good for almost all frontal armour for MBTs at its BR

Cons:

• Weak armour
• High rate of fire depletes ammo rather quickly
• All crew in the front so knock-outs are common

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, 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></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Videos

The Shooting Range #328 - Metal Beasts section at 00:28 discusses the 2S38.

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

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.