USS Mitscher
Contents
Description
The Mitscher-class, USS Mitscher (DL-2), 1954 is a rank II American destroyer with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Ground Breaking".
General info
Survivability and armour
Built during the early Cold War to serve as a "Destroyer leader" to be armed with various armaments for different targets, the Mitscher is unusually large. At a whopping 150 m in length and over 4,800 tons of displacement, she even dwarfs the Japanese experimental cruiser Yubari and has a size closer to that of light cruisers.
The Mitscher is barely armoured. The ship only has thin armour to protect the two cannon turrets and a gun shield for Oerlikon autocannons, the ship will attract incoming fire from all gun calibres and take full damage. Her internal modules are unprotected and can be easily damaged, especially her rocket ammo racks that can be easily detonated due to lack of protection.
Mobility
Being a destroyer, the Mitscher is reasonably fast and manoverable, though her large displacement for her class and long length limit her acceleration and agility.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 83 | 35 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 68 | 29 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
The main armament for the Mitscher is two 127 mm/54 Mark 18 autocannons mounted in a single turret at the bow and stern. The main turrets can be fully traversed over 360 degrees and consequently have very good coverage. While there are only two main guns for the ship, which severely limits its burst damage, and has notably worse accuracy compared with other 127 mm guns, these weaknesses are compensated by an extremely fast rate of fire of 40 shells per minute, and thus allows the Mischer to deal a similar continuous damage output as other destroyers at her BR range. Moreover, the shells fired by the Mitscher are heavier and more powerful than WW2-era 127 mm shells in terms of both penetration and explosive filler.
The Mitscher has three type of shells; an HE shell with similar damage output to other American destroyers, an SAP shell with very good penetration of 156 mm at 5,000 m that is capable of damaging enemy cruisers, and an HE-VT shell that is very useful for engaging aircraft thanks to the gun's wide coverage and fast reload, especially when used with the anti-air radar that the Mitscher is equipped with.
Secondary armament
Some ships are fitted with weapons of various calibres. Secondary armaments are defined as weapons chosen with the control Select secondary weapon. Evaluate the secondary armaments and give advice on how to use them. Describe the ammunition available for the secondary armament. Provide recommendations on how to use them and which ammunition to choose. Remember that any anti-air armament, even heavy calibre weapons, belong in the next section. If there is no secondary armament, remove this section.
Anti-aircraft armament
An important part of the ship's armament responsible for air defence. Anti-aircraft armament is defined by the weapon chosen with the control Select anti-aircraft weapons. Talk about the ship's anti-air cannons and machine guns, the number of guns and their positions, their effective range, and about their overall effectiveness – including against surface targets. If there are no anti-aircraft armaments, remove this section.
Special armament
The Mitscher has access to two 320 mm Alfa antisubmarine rocket launchers. These rockets are very powerful, with an explosive mass of 113kg of TNT, but are heavily limited by a range of 600 meters. These mounts have very exposed ammunition storages which deal a significant amount of damage to the Mitscher when detonated. However, the relatively high crew count and large size of the Mitscher means that the damage inflicted by a detonation of these rockets will not critically damage or wholely incapacitate the ship. Overall, the Alfa antisubmarine rockets are not recommended in general, but can be taken in some close-range maps.
Additional armament
The Mitscher can be equipped with four 533 mm Mark 35 torpedoes in fixed mounts. These torpedoes are not powerful compared to contemporary torpedoes, nor are they particularly fast, but still retain sufficient explosive power at the Mitscher's battle rating. The primary limiting factor for these torpedoes are the fixed firing mounts, which means these torpedoes cannot be used with the same level of utility as on other destroyers.
Usage in battles
Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Rapid-firing 127 mm autocannons capable of delivering continuous damage
- Main turrets have good coverage and is fully traversable
- Wide range of autocannons to deal against surface and aerial targets
- Rockets can prove devastating at close range
Cons:
- The largest destroyer in the game with the size of a light cruiser, can be easily targeted
- Only two main guns, its effectiveness is significantly decreased when one or both is disabled
- Very poor burst damage
- Rocket ammo racks can be easily detonated
- Fixed torpedoes mean ship has to be manoeuvred to aim
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
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
| Bath Iron Works | |
|---|---|
| Patrol Torpedo Boat (PT) | |
| 89’ Experimental PT | PT-810 |
| Destroyer Escorts (DE) | |
| Dealey-class | USS Dealey |
| Gun Destroyers (DD) | |
| Wickes-class | HMS Montgomery* |
| Somers-class | USS Davis |
| Gearing-class | USS Frank Knox |
| Destroyer Leaders (DL) | |
| Mitscher-class | USS Mitscher |
| *USS Wickes in UK service | |
| USA destroyers | |
|---|---|
| Clemson-class | USS Welborn C. Wood · USS Barker · USS Litchfield |
| Farragut-class | USS Aylwin |
| Bagley-class | USS Bagley |
| Porter-class | USS Porter · USS Phelps · USS Moffett |
| Somers-class | USS Somers · USS Davis |
| Fletcher-class | USS Fletcher · USS Bennion · USS Cowell |
| Allen M. Sumner-class | USS Sumner |
| Gearing-class | USS Gearing · USS Frank Knox |
| Mitscher-class | USS Mitscher · USS Wilkinson |
