SU-100P
Contents
Description
The SU-100P is a rank IV Soviet tank destroyer with a battle rating of 6.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.71 "New E.R.A.".
General info
Survivability and armour
The armour on the SU-100P is mediocre except against low-calibre machine guns. Due to being an open vehicle, any tank with machine guns is able to kill the crew (with exception of the driver). This has its benefits as it is considered a "glass cannon with paper armour", meaning it barely has armour but said armour is thin enough to not trigger APHE fuses or create any sort of spalling at all, making the survivability of the SU-100P an unreliable armour yet effective in some cases. The main issues with the tank's survivability are front shots. Rounds fired at the hull will not only destroy engine but will create enough spalling to take a considerable amount of crew members, not only the driver but also the loaders. The crew on the turret are somewhat safe due to the high elevation. This is also an issue as the spalling can over penetrate and hit the ammo rack which is located at the back of the tank. Side shots, on the other hand, will only take the engine, lit the tank on fire and kill the driver if the round is fired at the center of mass of the hull, leaving the turret fully operational. Due to the construction of the turret, most front shots will take 2 crew members at most (commander and a loader or gunner and a loader). Front shots (unless they are at an angle) will not disable your breech most of the times, side shots will destroy the breech and take the two turret members. Due to the way the turret is arranged, most of the players will kill your commander trying to disable your gunner (as gunner in most tanks is located at the left side of the turret if seen from the front, in this case the gunner is at the right side of the turret if seen from the front) leaving them defenceless while they reload and retreat and only being able to fire machine guns but the armour is enough to stop machine gun fire.
One of the most noticeable double-edged swords is the turret rotation mechanism. Due to being a manual guidance, the turret rotation and gun elevation is really slow but due to this, the SU-100P will not be affected if the tank looses all of its power compared to the rest of the tanks which have a hydraulic assisted rotation, this is an advantage if the engine is taken out.
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, gun shield, gun mantlet)
- Structural steel (gun breech, gun mount)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 15 mm (74°) Front glacis 25 mm (31°) Radiator housing 25 mm (16°) Lower glacis - upper part 15 mm (49°) Lower glacis - lower part |
15 mm 5 mm Radiator vent |
8 mm (21°) | 6 mm (86°) Front 6 mm (81°) Rear |
| Gun shield | 20 mm (30°) Front 25 mm Gun mantlet (spheric) |
15 mm | N/A | 6 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 20 mm thick while tracks are 15 mm thick.
- Bottom of the hull is 6 mm thick.
- The engine is placed in front of the vehicle and can absorb shots to some extent.
The armour on the SU-100P is best described as non-existent and although it may sometimes not trigger APHE fuses it would be unwise to rely on it in any way especially since most of your crew is exposed to MG fire and overpressure mechanics.
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 | 69 | 26 | 21.6 | 568 | 763 | 26.3 | 35.32 |
| Realistic | 64 | 24 | 354 | 400 | 16.39 | 18.52 | |
The SU-100P has good mobility with a top speed of 70 km/h on a flat road capable of getting you into good firing positons early-on in the battle.
It does benefit from neutral steering when idling but not while on the move (the unsolicited track just locks, making it more difficult to turn as you lose speed).
The reverse speed is good enough to enable you to disengage easily and play peek-a-boo with the enemy.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The main gun is a 100 mm rifled D-50 cannon, almost identical to the D-10T of the T-44-100 and T-54/55 only with a higher velocity. The armament is very powerful for its BR but lacks a fully traversable turret.
The open configuration of the turret gives the 100 mm an impressive 7.5 seconds reload time with an upgraded crew.
| 100 mm D-50 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 50 | -4°/+37° | ±77° | N/A | 6.2 | 8.5 | 10.4 | 11.5 | 12.2 | 9.8 | 8.6 | 8.0 | 7.5 |
| Realistic | 4.2 | 4.9 | 6.0 | 6.6 | 7.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
The main ammunition of the SU-100P is the BR-412 with the BR-412D variant being the most deadly with the best penetration values especially at longer distances and with only a smaller TNT filler (93.94g equivalent) compared to the BR-412B (100.1g).
The 3D3 smoke round can be used to provide cover for your team and block the enemy's line of sight.
| 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-412 | APHE | 218 | 213 | 192 | 169 | 148 | 130 |
| BR-412B | APHEBC | 218 | 214 | 195 | 173 | 154 | 137 |
| BR-412D | APCBC | 239 | 236 | 223 | 207 | 192 | 178 |
| OF-412 | HE | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 |
| 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-412 | APHE | 895 | 15.9 | 1.2 | 19 | 100.1 | 47° | 60° | 65° |
| BR-412B | APHEBC | 895 | 15.9 | 1.2 | 19 | 100.1 | 47° | 60° | 65° |
| BR-412D | APCBC | 887 | 15.9 | 1.2 | 19 | 93.94 | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| OF-412 | HE | 900 | 15.6 | 0 | 0.1 | 1,460 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| 3D3 | 880 | 15.6 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 272 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | 1 (+49) | No |
Notes:
- Each row of shells is depleted from left to right. Rows are then depleted from front to rear.
- 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.
Usage in battles
The SU-100P is never to be played as a frontline vehicle as the open hull structure is the main weakness which will make enemy team get a free kill by just using their machine guns, this is why the SU-100P should enter the support role. Support role has a wide variety of tactics and course of action, going from a simple cap defender to the enemy's worst flanking nightmare. The tank is one of the most agile, versatile and fast tanks at the battle rating with a really powerful cannon, able to one shot practically all the vehicles it faces, most of them even frontally.
As a sniper:
As expected, the SU-100P has no place in the frontlines and thus it must be used as a support vehicle. Its high speed, relatively low profile, and powerful gun make it one of the best "Hit N' Run" snipers in the BR. This means the SU-100P should stay at a spot, strike as much as possible and relocate in order to avoid detection and enemy engagements. It is not to be used as an extreme long range sniper as it lacks high velocity ammunition (APCR or APDS) and powerful zoom optics (only x8).
As a flanker:
Whenever the situation feels like being an urban map, a closed and tight spaced place, etc, the SU-100P has all the requirements of being an amazing flanker specially when facing the sluggish and slow German and British tanks such as the Panther and Centurion. Be aware as the SU-100P has no machine guns or smoke grenades, it has a relatively slow reload speed and it is not able to strike as fast if tanks are aware of your presence. Due to the fast speed, it is able to poke-fire-retreat as many times as needed in a continuous way with relative high frequency.
List of opponents important notes when facing frontally:
- Panther/M48/Pershing: all front can be penetrated with BR-412D
- Tiger II: gun mantlet can be penetrated by BR-412D, hull is impenetrable (aim at the left side of the turret to take gunner, commander and possibly breech. Aim at right side of the turret if the tank is facing at you for a safe reload as this will take his loader out in case he fired)
- Centurion: all front can be penetrated with BR-412D
- Jagdtiger: everything except lower frontal plate is impenetrable
- Leopard 1/AMX-30: all front can be penetrated with BR-412D and higher penetration rounds
- T95: gun mantlet and hull are impenetrable, cupolas can be penetrated with APHE
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Hard hitting and accurate gun
- Reloads as fast or faster than the 85 mm, while using the 100 mm gun
- Decently mobile hull, reasonably high average and maximum speed when spaded (same as on the Object 120 but without the extra weight of the turret)
- It has a turret unlike other SU SPGs, although it can only turn 77 degrees in either side and will not save from a flank by itself
- Very stable hull, shooting on the move and while stopping is easy
- Low silhouette
Cons:
- Any shell capable of overpressure damage will annihilate it in one hit, and many tanks at a BR range have HEAT as their top (or even only) shell
- Crew is exposed to MG fire even from the front due to a poorly placed gun shield, tank can be strafed from the sky with no effort
- Sometimes, APHE hitting the gun shield will detonate the ammo rack as well
- Gun traverse is very slow
History
The SU-100P was a project for an artillery piece in 1945 as well as provide anti-armour capabilities and counter battery (against enemy artillery positions). The main objective was to make it capable of destroying enemies with direct fire. As Europe and the United States were developing Self Propelled Howitzers (SPH) which could fire at close positions and relocate with speed, this was a big concern as towed artilleries were being removed and counter battery started to become a harder task. The Russian artilleries at the time did not have the enough gun elevation to accurately provide artillery support even with towed guns, thus, the main focus was to create a gun which had almost a +40° elevation. The gun chosen for it was the D-50 100 mm rifled bore cannon, a derivation from the widely used D-10 100 mm cannon, the main gun used on the SU-100 tank destroyer.
The SU-100P chassis with this turret configuration proved a wide variety of errors and it never saw mass production but it was the base of many prototype and serviced vehicles at the time, pre Cold War and during Cold War, this being the following:
- SU-152 "Taran" SPG (Object 120)
- SU-152P SPH
- ZSU-37-2 SPAA
- 2S3 Akatsiya SPH
- 2S4 Tyulpan SPH
- 1K17 Szhaite SPL
- 2K11 Krug SAM
- 2K10 Ladoga TBMC
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- Vehicles equipped with the same chassis
- Other vehicles of similar configuration and role
External links
| USSR tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| SU-76M | SU-76M · SU-76M (5th Gv.Kav.Corps) · SU-85A |
| SU-57B | SU-57B · SU-76D |
| T-34 Derivatives | SU-122 · SU-85 · SU-85M · SU-100 · SU-122P |
| Heavy Tank Derivatives | SU-100Y · ISU-122 · ISU-122S · SU-152 · ISU-152 · Object 268 |
| SU-100P and Derivatives | SU-100P · Object 120 |
| Wheeled | YaG-10 (29-K) |
| Airborne | ASU-57 · ASU-85 |
| Rocket | BM-8-24 · BM-13N · BM-31-12 |
| ATGM | IT-1 · Shturm-S · Object 775 · Khrizantema-S |
| Artillery | 2S1 · 2S3M |
| Other | SU-5-1 · ZiS-30 · SU-122-54 |
| USA | SU-57 |
