World of Tanks Supertest: Kampfpanzer 3 Prj. 07 HK Tier IX German Tank Destroyer
3 min readThree new vehicles have arrived on Supertest today (Thursday, 24 November 2022), the second of which is: IX 🇩🇪
Kampfpanzer 3 Prj. 07 HK, an unusual German tank destroyer which a strong visual resemblance to the 🇸🇪 Swedish S-tank project. (However, there is more to this German wedge than first meets the eye… more on that later.)
To quote the official reveal:
This tank is equipped with a 105 mm gun that deals 320 HP of damage per shot. With its standard shell, it can penetrate up to 268 mm; with special HEAT shells up to 320 mm. It has an aiming time of 2.7 s (1.5 s*), a dispersion of 0.36 m (0.25 m*), and a reload time of 7 s (10 s*). The top speed is 65 km/h (20 km/h*).
*Technical characteristics in Siege mode
A key feature of this vehicle is its Siege mode, which takes three seconds to switch both into and out of. Advantages of the Siege mode include better accuracy and aiming speed, which come at the cost of a longer reload time. Also, the vehicle’s maneuverability decreases in the Siege mode. Inversely, in Travel mode, the tank destroyer has a high DPM value.
Some additional characteristics (shown with 100% crew) have also been provided by WoT Express:
Siege mode:
- Transition time to siege mode: 3 seconds
- Time to switch to movement mode: 3 seconds
- Switching to the mode: NOT automatic, performed by button press
Firepower:
- Gun elevation/depression angles: -3/+17 (
-12/+20 in siege mode) - Reload time: 6.71 s (
9.59 s in siege mode) - Rate of fire: 8.94 (6.26 in siege mode)
- Aiming time: 2.64 s (1.47 s in siege mode)
- Accuracy at 100 m: 0.35 (0.24 in siege mode)
- Dispersion while moving (max.): 0.12 (7.80), 0.30 (6.00) in siege mode
- Dispersion from turning the chassis (max.): 0.12 (3.50), 0.20 ( 5.84) in siege mode
- Average damage per minute with
/
AP shells: 2,861 (2,003 in siege mode) - Average damage per minute with
HE shells: 3,755 (2,628 in siege mode)
Mobility:
- Max. forward speed: 65 kph (20 kph in siege mode)
- Max. reverse speed: 25 kph (18 kph in siege mode)
While this vehicle strongly resembles the 🇸🇪 Swedish S-tank by appearances, the vehicle’s characteristics are a fair bit different:
- the vehicle’s dispersion/bloom characteristics outside of its siege mode are actually better than inside of its siege mode,
- its accuracy and aiming time appear to be reasonable even in its movement mode, and
- the gun fires significantly slower while using siege mode (similar to the 🇩🇪 Kunze Panzer).
- Furthermore, the gun can elevate/depress independently of the hull, similarly to the 🇸🇪 UDES 03 (if only a little bit — see below).
All of this means it may actually be possible to use the gun on this vehicle in both of its modes (unlike the 🇸🇪 Swedish tank destroyers, which are essentially ineffective at firing outside of their siege modes). This obviously comes with some trade-offs — without the assistance of its hydropneumatic suspension (which is only active in siege mode), the vehicle can only depress its gun by an abysmal -3 degrees, and the accuracy/aiming time are vastly improved while using its siege mode. However, the increased forward/reverse speed and faster reload in movement mode are certainly compelling, when combined with all of the features noted above. This theoretically means the vehicle will be very diverse in how it can be played — though, be sure to keep in mind the 3-second-long switch time between modes.
Keep in mind that all of the above characteristics are subject to change before release.
Ultimately, we will have to wait and see how this vehicle turns out after it finishes going through Supertest (which may take a while).
As for the two other vehicles which arrived on Supertest today, these can be found here:
BZ-58-2, a Chinese tier IX heavy tankAbout Author
