Tashkent
Contents
Description
The Pr.20, Tashkent, 1942 is a rank II Soviet destroyer with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic".
The most powerful Soviet destroyer at the outbreak of the war, Tashkent certainly lives up to its reputation, being larger, faster, and more heavily armed than any preceding ship. It is armed with 6 130 mm guns in 3 twin mounts, giving it a large broadside while also having a decent reload, a good AA suite of automatic 37 mm guns, and 9 fast but short-ranged torpedoes. It's fast, in fact one of the fastest destroyers in-game, allowing it to quickly reposition itself. However, Tashkent is also quite large, having a larger profile than other destroyers, and despite its size, is also unarmoured, allowing HE and small-calibre weapons to damage its modules.
General info
Survivability and armour
Overall the armour on the Tashkent leaves much to be desired. Ships at its battle rating have the upper hand with regards to the armour. Low calibre weapons (20 mm to 40 mm) will not struggle penetrating the turret and hull, though will cause little damage compared to higher calibres (57 mm and above). Armour is nothing to be relied on and this ship should never be used as a frontline vessel unless it faces patrol crafts and coastal fleet. Even then, some coastal fleet vessels can cause serious damage to this destroyer if not careful enough. The Tashkent also has a rather small crew of only 250 men, meaning that it won't be able to take as much hits to its modules and is more vulnerable to fires.
Mobility
The Tashkent is one of the fastest destroyers in-game, faster than even the Cold war era ships like the Spokoinyy or the other destroyer leaders like Moskva or Attilio Regolo. Compared to the previous destroyers, the Tashkent is like a bullet to an arrow. Taking into consideration the acceleration and mid-combat interferences, the speed can be dropped dramatically. However, this ship will have no problems with catching up that speed again. Manoeuvrability-wise, the Tashkent has much better capabilities compared to previous destroyers, especially rudder performance.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 97 | 40 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 79 | 32 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armament
Primary armament
The Tashkent is armed with 6 x 130 mm/58 B-13 semi automatic cannons divided into 3 dual-mount turrets, capable of effectively destroying enemy vessels, including cruisers at the BR range that the Tashkent might face. The 130 mm cannons have access to 3 types of shells, HE, SAPCBC and HE-VT. It is recommended that the captain gets access to the SAPCBC as it has the penetration of an AP shell but the explosive power of an HE shell, and excels at both whittling down enemy crew count and disabling engines and internals. HE-VT shells can provide additional air defence. They will decimate any enemy plane with an airburst but they are only recommended to be used when attacking slow aircraft like bombers at long ranges (past 10 km) as the low fire rate and targeting speed will cause issues engaging faster aircraft (fighters or even attackers).
Secondary armament
The Tashkent is armed with a 76 mm 39-K cannon in a twin mount. They are capable as multipurpose guns but don't excel in any specific use, with a shell type for any enemy, HE against light boats, APHEBC against large ships, and HE-TF against aircraft. This twin turret can be used in an anti-air, though its HE-TF is less reliable than the HE-VT.
Anti-aircraft armament
The Tashkent is armed with 6 x 37 mm/67 70-K automatic cannons divided into 6 single-mount turrets, capable of shredding anything but destroyers and above. The 37 mm cannons fire the default belt of 1:1 HE and AP. The 37 mm are your main line of defence against light vessels at close range as the fast fire rate (180 RPM) can cause fatal damage with even just one burst. They are also your main line of defence against any aircraft at any range from 0 to 10 km (AI gunners will not engage targets past ~10 km). They will destroy incoming enemy aircraft within seconds. It is recommended to let the AI gunners engage the targets when the threat is closer than 5 km as the captain will be able to focus on more threatening enemies (other vessels or even aircraft). When letting AI gunners engage targets, be aware of which targeting setting is set (airborne and surface, airborne, surface, none) as each turret will only engage one target at a time.
The DShK is nothing we have not seen before, only useful against enemy aircraft and light boats.
Additional armament
The Tashkent is armed with 9 torpedoes in 3 triple launchers. These are very effective against heavily armoured threats or when doing attacks at a distance. The torpedo must travel 50 m at minimum to be armed (most of the time "point blank" engagements will be between 100-500 m). Depending on the map, game mode and captain's discretion, torpedo depth can be adjusted in order to achieve multiple tasks. Stock, the torpedoes are extremely fast, but have a tiny range of 4 km, with the Torpedo Mode modification, the torpedo range is extended to 10 km, though it loses a bit of its speed.
1 meter depth:
This is the most universal depth used for all types of engagements, being in deep water or at shallow waters. This depth is capable of hitting all sorts of vessels, including PT boats. The main downside is that enemy ships can see the water trail made by the torpedo which allows enemies to spot and evade it.
4 meter depth:
This depth is useful when on deep water trying to do long range sneaky engagements to big ships (most of them have bulkheads more than 4 m under the waterline). This is one of the riskier techniques as there is no way to launch them on shallow waters (most shallow water maps have water depth of 2-3 m). Only the captain and the team will be able to see the torpedo symbol while traveling close to them and it will not leave any visible water trail compared to the 1 meter depth torpedo.
Usage in battles
The Tashkent is quite powerful, but as the armour is lacklustre and firepower is limited compared to cruisers and some destroyers, it is not recommended to be used as a frontline or brawling ship. Thus, it should be used as a support and anti-air ship. The twin 130 mm main guns are capable at combating destroyers and cruisers, particularly if the SAP round is used. The high speed and agility make the Tashkent a decent runner when facing enemy ships and capping points. The torpedo can be formidable if used correctly, as they are able to destroy whatever it hits, but they are harder to aim compared to other torpedoes because of their comparatively short range. Against targets the main guns can't reliably target, it is good to switch to the AA weapons as they are able to decimate light vessels and aircraft. When used in Enduring Confrontation events, is the most reliable and "Jack-of-All-Trades" ship seen in-game. Not only because it is able to dominate the skies but also because it is able to decimate enemy convoys within seconds with the firepower and torpedoes, specially if said convoys are unarmed cargo ships.
Against very heavily armoured vessels, like some heavy cruisers or battleships, the 130 mm are not very effective, not being able to penetrate the ship armour. However, they can damage and destroy outer modules like secondary guns or smoke funnels, and can start fires. When facing heavily armoured vessels, torpedoes are your only reliable weapon, but their somewhat short range means the ships has to get closer to them first, which is dangerous, especially in open water. The Tashkent should zig-zag when being fired at as a single salvo is more than enough to instantly destroy you. Zig-zagging reduces the chances the enemy has to hit and due to the long reload, opening a window to close distance and fire torpedoes.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Accurate guns with good shell velocity allow for effective long-range sniping
- Guns have fast reload, comparable to UK and US guns
- HE-VT ammunition can help with destroying planes
- SAPBC ammunition has good penetration and explosive mass
- Great auxiliary armament can eliminate coastal craft and aircraft easily
- Torpedoes are very fast, making this ship dangerous at close quarters
- Fantastic speed, one of the fastest destroyers in the game
Cons:
- Torpedoes have a short range of only 4 km and up to 10 km with upgrade
- Quite large for a destroyer, will draw a lot of attention and enemy fire
History
The Pr.20 Tashkent, nicknamed the "Blue Cruiser" for its colour scheme, was designed for the Soviet Union and built by the Italian Odero-Terni-Orlando company, to succeed the preceding Leningrad-class destroyers leaders. During testing, the Tashkent achieved a remarkable speed of 43.5 knots (80 km/h). Consequently, the Tashkent-class destroyer became one of the most powerful destroyers in the world. Unfortunately its design was incompatible with Soviet shipbuilding techniques, so further ships were cancelled and a smaller derived design, the Project 48 or Kiev-class was ordered instead, though none were completed due to the outbreak of the war.
Assigned to the Black Sea Fleet, it was originally armed with 3 single gun mounts, and was refitted in 1941 with twin turrets and an improved AA battery. It was nearly sunk by air attack in Sevastopol in 1942, where an inventive engineer allowed it to be repaired in a month and a half. During the siege of Sevastopol, it was used as a transport ship and provided shore bombardment support, dodging many attempts by German bombers to destroy it. While at port in Novorossiysk, Tashkent was sunk by air attack. The destroyer was later salvaged in 1944, but the damage was deemed too severe, and was laid out for scrapping. Its salvaged guns were later used on the destroyer Ognevoy.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on ship;
- other literature.
| USSR destroyers | |
|---|---|
| Imperial Russia | |
| Derzky-class | Frunze |
| Fidonisy-class | Kerch |
| Soviet Union | |
| Pr. 1 | Leningrad · Moskva |
| Pr. 45 | Opytny |
| Pr. 7 | Besposhchadny · Ryany |
| Pr. 7U | Soobrazitelny · Stroyny |
| Pr. 20 | Tashkent |
| Pr. 30 | Ognevoy |
| Pr. 30-bis | Smelyi · Bezuprechny |
| Pr. 41 | Neustrashimy |
| Pr. 56 | Spokoinyy · Blagorodnyy · Bravy |
| Trophies | Romania |
| Regele Ferdinand-class | Letuchiy |
