ItPsV Leopard
Contents
Description
The ItPsV Leopard 2 Marksman (Finnish: Ilmatorjuntapanssarivaunu 90; Anti-Aircraft Tank 90) represented the retrofitted fleet of SPAAG in Finnish Army by combining the chassis of Leopard 2A4 and Marconi Marksman turret systems from previous T-55AM chassis. Finland ordered 7 Marksman system from British in 1990 as their supplementary to low-altitude air-defense, these systems were originally installed on seven Polish T-55AM chassis and have been served in the Finnish Army since then; due to the aging of T-55AM chassis and seeking for more reliable chassis, the previous fleet has been stored since 2010 until new stock of Leopard 2A4 has arrived, which 7 of these tanks were converted as the new ItPsV 90 in service at 2015.
Introduced in Update "Sky Guardians" as part of the Swedish/Finnish SPAA line, instead of the well-known T-55AM which gained the name of the gun systems, Finnish retrofitted the gun system with spare Leopard 2A4 from Germany. Not only improving its mobility vastly thanks to the powerful MTU diesel engine, it also provide reliable air-defense for Swedish players and can be relocate to any combat position where it needed; whether against aircrafts or ground vehicles, it can handle them all with relatively ease.
General info
Survivability and armour
The vehicle's survivability is rather odd, because the Hull can be durable due to it being the hull of a 2A4, but the turret is extremely weak.
Frontally, one can get lucky and bounce some shots from the hull being barely scratched, but should not expect miracles, the Leopards always relied to their turret in armour, somewhat neglecting the hull. Hits to sides will also penetrate its armour with most guns, including autocannons although the fuel tanks and tracks might absorb those if lucky, but one should be weary.
The oddity begins especially when begins the talk about the elephant in the room, the Marksman turret. It can block heavy MG fire and that's it. Any hit to the turret will very likely lead to the vehicle's demise, due to it not only housing 2/3 of your crew, but the ammo reserves too. That also makes the driver it's only somewhat protected crewmember, he sits at front left (when looking at the tank straight on) behind a composite screen of armour and has some composite slats added to the sides of the tank's front to cover him.
The vehicle can survive unscathed if it gets shot from the side below the turret, because there is just empty space there, but that's not really a good trait, more so a case of getting lucky with the enemy having a bad shot.
Shots to the rear will always immobilize the vehicle, since the whole engine and transmission are there, coupled with fuel tanks in front which will likely result in the need to use FPE before starting repairs.
Generally, one should try their best to remain unseen by enemy armour, the guns might be able to dish out damage, but the vehicle can barely take any. Planes will also prove deadly if they can get their guns on it, due to the thin turret armour and extremely thin roof armour.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 40 mm (51°) Lower Front Plate 35 mm (53°-82°) Upper Front Plate |
10 mm Top 35 mm Mid 20 mm Bottom |
20 mm | 20 mm |
| Turret | 25 mm (19°-39°) 30 mm Turret ring |
20 mm (varied angles) | 20 mm | 10 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
Players can tell the engine as soon as they take a drive on it - the iconic turbocharging sound of MTU MB 873 Ka-501 will give itself right away; thanks to its high power output and reliable transmission with good reverse speed, ItPsV 90 can relocate faster than all its counterparts both in NATO and Eastern Bloc.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 75 | 34 | 49.2 | 2,131 | 2,862 | 43.31 | 58.17 |
| Realistic | 69 | 31 | 1,327 | 1,500 | 26.97 | 30.49 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The vehicle is armed with two Swiss made 35 mm Oerlikon KDA cannons with a rate of fire of 550 RPM. As an SPAA, it can engage and track targets which move rapidly. Ammo pool is respectable at 460 rounds, and reloading at a point is rather quick as well.
| 35 mm Oerlikon KDA (x2) | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 500 (230) | 550 | -10°/+85° | ±180° | Two-plane | 79.3 | 109.7 | 133.2 | 147.3 | 156.7 | 1.30 | 1.15 | 1.06 | 1.00 |
| Realistic | 53.5 | 63.0 | 76.5 | 84.6 | 90.0 | |||||||||
Ammunition
The ItPsV 90 has 3 types of ammunition available:
- High-explosive incendiary tracer (HEI-T): the shells are self-destroying, but the self-destruction range is the same as the radar's lead indicator maximum distance, therefore making the shells practically unusable at longer ranges
- Armour-piercing incendiary tracer (API-T): they can be used extremely effectively against lightly-armoured vehicles and enemy SPAAs. Even though the damage to enemy aircraft is reduced unless hitting a critical module, because of the lack of HE filler. The shell can still be used outside of the radar range because it is not self destructive. Although it might not be able to penetrate heavier targets frontally, the guns will do short work of nearly every enemy vehicle from the side (even the heaviest IS tanks if one is able to aim and ricochet their shots well enough from the drive wheels)
- High-velocity armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS): They can be used against targets mentioned above and provide way easier time due to their higher penetration, requiring less precise aiming to wound or destroy the target, but one should bear in mind the ammo amount is rather limited, so ammo should not be wasted needlessly. The APDS rounds can be used against aircraft and helicopters as well, but it is not advisable to do so due to their very limited count.
- Default: API-T* · HEI-T*
- DM11A1: HEI-T* · HEI-T* · HEI-T* · API-T*
- DM13: API-T* · API-T* · API-T* · HEI-T*
- DM23: APDS
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEI-T* | 11 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | |
| API-T* | 68 | 66 | 57 | 47 | 39 | 32 | |
| APDS | 127 | 125 | 118 | 110 | 102 | 95 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEI-T* | 1,175 | 0.55 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 204 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| API-T* | 1,175 | 0.55 | 1.2 | 9 | 37.4 | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
| APDS | 1,400 | 0.38 | - | - | - | 75° | 78° | 80° | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Usage in battles
When players first get on hand with ItPsV 90, they will have deja vu from a very similar vehicle in British tech-tree: Chieftain Marksman. Since both systems shared the same Marconi Marksman turret, players from British tech tree can get used to the gun very quickly; as ItPsV 90 now uses Leopard 2A4 chassis, it can now moves faster than its counterparts at its tier with ease.
One thing players will soon notice is the rather huge size of ItPsV 90 - a Leopard 2A4 is at around 3 m, due to the ammo fed systems and radar electronics, the vehicle is now at 4.82 m; not only it gives the vehicle away even from afar and behind cover, it will also be a major problem as enemy explosive ammunitions i.e. HEFS, HEAT or missiles now have better odds to hit the vehicle and triggering overpressure. Another note is that, like any other SPAA at its tier, the turret is rather unprotected against bullets above .50 caliber; if it faces US, Eastern Bloc or Chinese tanks which usually have pintle .50 cal HMG, the turret crew will very likely been shattered by the bullets, let alone IFVs with autocannons. Even if the enemy only has GPMG, if their main cannon is not knocked out right away, chances are penetrated shots in the face (literary) can send the turret sky high or even disintegrate ItPsV 90 from existence. Therefore in most cases, do not push ItPsV 90 to frontline unless it has been cleared. To migrate the mobility problems, Finnish upgraded ItPsV 90 with Leopard 2A4 chassis (previous T-55AM with 690 hp engine); not only it has doubled the power output, thanks to the lighter weight (at only 48 tons vs 55.2 tons of Leopard 2A4), it now enjoys superior mobility against most vehicles at its tier with up to 30.5 hp/ton power ratio. If players opted for more aggressive approach and using ItPsV 90 as an oversized IFV, be sure to utilize its superior mobility and move to appropriate vantage points i.e. corners of road intersections where enemy might not play attention when they are pushing through, thanks to the penetration of Oerlikon 35 mm autocannon, most vehicles will fall victim of ItPsV 90 if the shells land on their weak spots (Soviet tank usually have 80 mm hull side, so hitting them on where the torsion bars are), for more reliable penetrations, the 40 spare rounds of all Oerlikon 35 mm gun systems are in fact for APDS when researched, they can make very short work of enemies; just be sure to spare your ammo if there are multiple targets.
When facing what it has been intended for - aircrafts, the radar system can detect targets within 12 km radius, the distance is more than enough for players to react albeit other systems have longer range. Thanks to the flat ballistic of 35 mm, it can hit targets at up to 3 km given the target didn't evade; for maximize efficiency, it is better to lure the target within 2 km where they will have very little reaction time for the oncoming shots, choosing targets which flies straightly or those at very low energy can earn some quick victories for ItPsV 90. Beware for the target altitude though as tracking radars will misalign with the target when they flies too low.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Very good mobility provided by the Leopard 2 hull and powerpack
- Technically possesses the best mobility out of all Leopard 2s due to its light weight, giving a power-to-weight ratio of 30.49 hp/ton spaded in RB
- 35mm cannons are effective against aircraft and light vehicles, as well as most tanks from the side
- Better hull protection than most SPAA at its tier
- Commander override for turret for last-ditch retaliation
- Very versatile compared to the VEAK 40, its speed, tracks, and API-T/APDS rounds means it's faster than many light tanks at its tier and can take on medium tanks frontally.
Cons:
- Very unprotected turret rated only for rifle-caliber bullets
- Huge profile, can be spotted from afar (4.82 m vs 3 m on Leopard 2 series)
- Relative short radar search range at only 12 km
- Struggles at taking out air targets beyond 2-3km unless using precious ammo (generally APDS maxes out at ~4km). Lack of proximity shells means unpredictable moving targets are very hard to hit
History
The ItPsV-90, or Ilmatorjuntapanssarivaunu 90, is a Finnish SPAAG. Used for low-air defense, the ItPsv-90 was used to shoot down low-flying aircraft and UAVs. Orignally, the ItPsV-90 was on a Polish T-55 tank hull used in the 1990s. Finland had several units until 2010, when the systems were moved into wartime storage. Five years later, in 2015, the systems were installed on the Leopard 2A4 hull. The ItPsV-90 variant in-game with the 2A4 hull would enter service for the Finnish army in 2016 and is still in use with 7 units made.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- Other vehicles of similar configuration and role
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Sweden anti-aircraft vehicles | |
|---|---|
| SPAA | Pvlvv fm/42 · Lvtdgb m/40 · Pbv 301 · Lvkv 42 · U-SH 204 GK |
| Radar SPAA | VEAK 40 · Lvkv 9040C |
| SAM | Lvrbv 701 · ASRAD-R |
| Finland | L-62 ANTI II · ▄ZSU-57-2 · ItO 90M · ItPsV Leopard |
