Pr.183 BM-21
| This page is about the premium Soviet motor gun boat Pr.183 BM-21. For the regular version, see Pr.183. |
Contents
Description
The Pr.183 BM-21 is a premium gift rank III Soviet motor gun boat with a battle rating of 3.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Apex Predators" as a reward for Battle Pass: Season X, "Royal Guard".
A non-standard Project 183 PT boat (AKA P-6 in NATO code) exported to Egypt with its rear-turret and torpedoes removed for the installation of a BM-21 MLRS; although having one less turret than its tech tree counterpart, the ship itself performs identically to the latter while the 40 rockets onboard will make sure light vessels will meet a miserable end from the bombardment of 122 mm rockets from distance.
General info
Survivability and armour
The overall dimension of this variant of Project 183 is identical to its counterpart in tech-tree, while both are called by this name, the major difference of Egyptian boats is a rectangular box on the aft of the boat- which upon closer inspection is in fact a BM-21 Grad 122 mm MLRS straight from its land-based cousins; as well as a new radar (albeit being aesthetic than operable) replacing the original, dome-like one. But all this didn't change the basis of this boat: being one of the last PT boats built by Soviet Union, the ship itself is rather unprotected (as of many other PT boats) where the hull are still made of wood, only the 25 mm autocannon turret and the superstructure are made with 4 mm harden steel. To say at least: for most of the time, anything that is larger than rifle caliber will have no problem penetrating the mere 4 mm of steel, let alone the hull itself with only 10 mm; this also means that a near-miss from higher caliber cannons can do serious damage to the ship itself.
Mobility
Like its base model, the ship is propelled by the same, four M50-T diesel engines with 4 shafts, propelling the ship at up to 70 km/h (37.8 kts); this might not be the fastest boat at its tier, but this still ensured the overall flexibility of the ship to retreat from heated battlefield or navigating through complicated channels of water.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 109 | 44 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 81 | 33 | |
Modifications and economy
2 × 100 / 150 / 50 % 2 × 154 / 154 / 154 % | Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
Egyptian removed the aft turret and torpedo tubes onboard for their needs, thus the only main weapon onboard is the front 25 mm 2M-3 twin mount autocannon. While the ammo count and the penetration of the cannon is more than enough to tear down small vessels, do remember this is all the player get as primary armament- keep the turret in operation at all cost to maximum its efficiency.
Special armament
Commonly known as the "Grad" (Hailstone), the 122 mm BM-21 rockets, which are one of the most common export Soviet weapons, are now installed as a MLRS on Pr.183 instead of being on Ural trucks; the launcher itself could traverse 360° thanks to its clearance to the superstructure. While the original intention of MLRS on an attack boat is purely for coastal bombardments against enemy ground targets, if enemy boats or auxiliary ships i.e minelayers or destroyer escorts are within its range, all the 40 rockets onboard with almost 10 kg TNT equivalent of explosive contents will certainly give them a bad day, either from being detonated on impact or critically damaged by the salvo.
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:
- Extremely lethal twin 25 mm turret with high ammo count and devastating firepower
- Small and nimble for navigating through inland channels
- 40 rocket salvos with high explosive content, extremely lethal to smaller vessels
Cons:
- Equipped with only one turret and its rocket launchers
- Extremely fragile to gunfire
- The size of the rocket launcher could trigger a detonation and lead to complete loss
- Relative small crew pool for replacement
History
As one of the last PT boat class built by Soviet Union, the Project 183 Bolshevik Class PT Boat has been one of the major export vessel of the Union to allied countries including PLAN (which they later built domestically as the Type 6602 under the June 4th Agreement), KPAN and notably, Egyptian Navy.
During the Nasir, the President of Egypt at the time, was still on the chair, the country saw better relationship with the Soviet Union which the latter provided a large amount of aids and military equipment ranging from assault rifles up to jet fighters, the abundant Project 183 was also among one of the sales to Egypt with around 46 of them delivered to their navy. Although being already obsolete by the time of late 1960s with Israel which led to some losses to the Project 183s (2 by Eilat, on July 1967), the Egypt Navy revenged by sinking Eilat on 21st, October 1967 and claiming the very first AShM kill in war history using the heavily-modified Project 183R with P-15 missiles.[1]
While the Egyptian Navy maintained a fairly large fleet of Project 183s, 12 of such boats were then modified to carry BM-21 Grad MLRS at the cost of some onboard armaments; these ships would have likely been decommissioned by late 20th Century and very scarce images left marks of their existence.
Media
- Videos
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
| USSR boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | D-3 · G-5 · G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123-bis · Pr.123K (A-10bis) · Pr.123K · Pr.183 |
| Motor gun boats | TKA-412 · MO-4 · OD-200 · Pr.253L · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M |
| Motor torpedo gun boats | Pr. 206 · Pr.206-M · MPK Pr.12412 · MPK Pr.12412P · MPK Pr.11451 |
| Gunboats | Groza |
| Armoured gun boats | BMO · MBK-161 early · MBK-161 late · MBK pr.186 · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 early · Pr.1124 late · Pr.1124 MLRS |
| Pr.191 · Pr.191M · Pr.1204 · Pr.1204 late | |
| USSR premium ships | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | G-5 (ShVAK) · Pr.123K (A-10bis) |
| Motor gun boats | TKA-412 · Pr.183 BM-21 · Ya-5M |
| Motor torpedo gun boats | MPK Pr.12412P |
| Armoured gun boats | MBK-161 early · MBK pr.186 (MK 85) · Pr.1124 MLRS · Pr.1204 |
| Sub-chasers | MPK Pr.122bis |
| Frigates | Rosomacha |
| Destroyers | Kerch · Ryany · Leningrad · Stroyny · Smelyi · Neustrashimy · Blagorodnyy |
| Light cruisers | Murmansk · Kerch · Zheleznyakov |
| Battleships | Marat |
