Chikugo
Contents
Description
The Chikugo (ちくご, namesake: Chikugo River) was a Japanese destroyer escort, lead ship of her class, launched on 13 January 1970 and commissioned on 31 July 1971 under the Third Defence Build-up Programme. Constructed at Mitsui Shipbuilding's Tamano Shipyard, she was assigned to the Sasebo District Force upon entering service. On 26 August 1971, she was integrated into the newly formed 34th Escort Flotilla alongside the destroyer escort Mikuma. After 26 years of service, during which she accumulated a total of 503,405 nautical miles, she was decommissioned on 15 April 1996. The Chikugo-class featured enhanced anti-submarine warfare capabilities compared to the earlier Isuzu-class, replacing the Mark 108 Weapon alfa with the RUR-5 ASROC missile launcher and incorporating more advanced sonar systems. However, the anti-aircraft armament of the class was less robust than that of its predecessor.
Introduced in Update 1.89 "Imperial Navy", Chikugo-class, Chikugo (DE-215) is a Japanese frigate. Her main armament consists of a single, rapid-firing, twin 76 mm turret, effective against all kinds of targets, although it requires a substantial amount of ammunition to take down larger vessels. This can be addressed with a use of two triple torpedo launchers, which are particularly lethal against slower targets. For anti-aircraft duty, she relies on a single 40 mm Bofors turret, which can be further supported with the use of HE-VT rounds from the main gun.
General info
Survivability and armour
Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.
Mobility
Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 65 | 38 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 46 | 27 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
Chikugo carries two 3 inch Mk.33 automatic cannons in twin installation. The turret is placed at the front of the ship and can effectively cover the front and sides of your vessel, but is unable to react to enemies from the rear. HE shells can take care of unarmoured targets especially motor boats which can be destroyed within a few shots. For armoured targets and destroyers you can choose AP shells but you still have to keep in mind that it is a 76 mm multi-purpose cannon. HE-VT shells are good for use in AA roles. These guns heat up quickly so keep an eye on continuous rapid fire or you may lose one or both until repairs complete. Changing between ammunition types is time-consuming and leaves you vulnerable with no ability to return fire until switch is complete.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 100 m | 1,000 m | 2,000 m | 3,000 m | 4,000 m | 5,000 m | ||
| HC Mk.27 | HE | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| APHE | APHE | 121 | 98 | 77 | 61 | 49 | 39 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HC Mk.27 | HE | 823 | 5.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 500 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| APHE | APHE | 823 | 5.9 | 0.01 | 4 | 63.7 | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
| 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% | ||||||||||
| AA Mk.31 | HE-VT | 823 | 5.85 | 0 | 0.1 | 548 | 15 | 352.8 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |
Secondary armament
40 mm Bofors in twin installation is very capable weapon placed on back of Chikugo so it have natural blind spot in front of ship. This means that you can't completely rely on AI as anti-aircraft armament nor its help with naval targets. If you ignore that, its powerful weapon that can shoot down aircraft within seconds and can be used as backup against motorboats that are trying to sneak up on you from behind.
- Universal: AP-T · HEFI-T
- 40 mm HE clips: HEFI-T · HEFI-T · HEFI-T · AP-T
- 40 mm AP clips: AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · HEFI-T
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEFI-T | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 81 | 78 | 68 | 58 | 49 | 41 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEFI-T | 874 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 67.13 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 874 | 0.89 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
Additional armament
Two torpedo launchers each able to release three torpedoes are installed on each side of the ship. This means only three torpedoes can be released to each side. They have mediocre 7.3 km range but excellent speed of 91 km/h (one of the best in-game). They are pretty small and don't have much explosive compared to other torpedoes at this rank but will give hard time to any ship they hit.
Usage in battles
Chikugo uses the destroyer spawn but don't be fooled, it can't compete with the firepower of other destroyers at long range. The best way to stay alive is to focus on motor boats and sub-chasers and avoid any contact with destroyers even if it takes more time to get there. Then it's best to stay little back and use the excellent mid-range capabilities of your main armament. If you ever have to encounter destroyers, it should be at close range and you should give them everything you have, meaning main cannon with AP or HE shells, secondary Bofors with AP belt, and torpedoes. Try to hit lethal parts like cannons or ammunition with AP shells or you can try to get rid of his crew with HE shells.
On the other hand, the main gun can load high explosive shells with time variable fuse, when combined with functional radar and secondary armament you will be a nightmare to every pilot.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Radar
- Able to equip AP and HE-VT shells
- Secondary armament is capable against all kind of targets
Cons:
- Only destroyer spawn although its most effective against other sub-chasers
- Not able to release all torpedoes to one side
- Aiming with secondary armament can be difficult due to convergence of bridge and weapon
- Switching between ammunition types for 76mm guns takes a long time
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ship 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 ship and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Ship-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 ship's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
- Skins
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
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- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Mitsui Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. (三井造船) | |
|---|---|
| Destroyer Escorts (DE) | |
| Isuzu-class | Isuzu |
| Chikugo-class | Chikugo |
| Japan frigates | |
|---|---|
| IJN | |
| Escort | IJN Syonan |
| JMSDF | |
| Destroyer Escort | JDS Akebono · JDS Ikazuchi · JDS Isuzu · JDS Chikugo |
| Destroyer | JDS Ayanami |
