Drones
Drones were introduced into War Thunder in Update "Drone Age" as an additional vehicle available in ground battles.
Description
Drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV), are vehicles that are controlled remotely and as such do not have a pilot inside.
With their introduction in Update "Drone Age", drones are now an available asset for ground combat players to make use of in battle. Drones come in two classes, Scout Drones and Strike Drones.
Scout drones
Scout drones are small, unarmed drones that can patrol the battlefield and provide visual intelligence to players. These are available as a modification for all rank VI-VII "light tank" class vehicles. Scout drones currently come in two iterations, with and without thermal visions. Scout drones launched from rank VI light tanks do not have thermal visions, while those launched from rank VII light tanks do contain thermal visions.
Scout drones can be launched in the middle of the battle and flown across the arena, with the ability to swap between controlling the drone and light tank. In case the scout drone is shot down, light tanks can "reload" the scout drones on captured points.
It is recommended to use scout drones with means to communicate with teammates as the scout drone cannot independently scout the enemy. As such, scout drones are a greater asset to players in squads, especially with voice chat. If using the scout drone with squadmates with no voice chat, one method to quickly mark individual targets for the squad to be aware of is to use the control [Set target for squad] to mark the precise location where the enemy has been located. In case there are no squadmates nor teammates to quickly communicate to, one way to signal the location of the enemy is to fly the scout drone obnoxiously over the enemy's location. While this leaves the scout drone at greater risk to being destroyed, it is a method to notify nearby team members, and since the scout drones do not count as the vehicle's loss, it can be used in this expendable manner.
Strike drones
Strike drones are larger drones that can be equipped with guided air-to-surface missiles. Strike drones are able to be spawned in ground battles upon earning 750 spawn points.
Strike drones contain up to two missiles that can be expended onto targets down below before the drone needs to reload back at the airfield. However, while drones spawn at a high-altitude and are relatively small targets compared to manned aircraft, they are not very fast nor manoeuvrable are easy targets for fighter aircraft and SPAAs that spots them.
A list of strike drones and their individual pages for more details can be found in the table below:
| Strike UCAVs | |
|---|---|
| USA | MQ-1 |
| USSR | Orion |
| China | Wing Loong I |
Media
See also
- Shipboard reconnaissance aircraft - Another class of aircraft launched from a different vehicle.
