World of Warships Supertest: U.S. Tier VIII Premium Cruiser San Diego

Historical background

USS San Diego (CL-53) was an Atlanta-class light cruiser of the United States Navy. The ship was laid down in March 1940, launched in July 1941 and commissioned in January 1942. San Diego stands as one of the most decorated ships in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War with a total of 18 battle stars, serving in the Pacific theater.

While the ship would miss the Battle of Midway as she was busy escorting the USS Saratoga, she would dive into action during the Invasions of the Solomons. Sadly, she would be witness to the sinking of USS Wasp and later USS Hornet. Her anti-air would then serve the big sister USS Enterprise during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The ship would then continue to serve for the rest of the war as an anti-air escort. She would also have the occasion to play an artillery support role, shelling the island of Minami Daito Jima.

San Diego, on the 27th of August 1945, was the first Allied warship to enter Tokyo Bay and assisted in the occupation of the Yokosuka Naval Base and the surrender of the battleship Nagato.
Her last action in the Pacific would be as part of Operation Magic Carpet, bringing American troops back home.

After almost 5 years of active service, San Diego was decommissioned in November 1946 and would later be sold for scrap in December 1960.

If you want to know more about the Atlanta-class as a whole, here is a video from Drachinifel about it:

In World of Warships, San Diego is somewhat similar to Austin in terms of archetype but relies far less on her Main Battery Reload Booster and has access to AP shells. She also gets a special Defensive AA Fire, similar to U.S. destroyers.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s camouflage

For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedoes
San Diego	Propulsion: 75 000 HP	‎‎Mk8 mod. 1	127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.29 mount	Mk15 mod. 3

General Characteristics

Main Armament

8 x 2 127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.29 mount
Maximum Firing Range	16.020 km
Reloading Time	5.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	7.2 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	32°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	31°
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	144 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	SAP – 127 mm SC Mk38
Alpha Damage	2 700
Penetration capacity	36 mm
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.27
Projectile Mass	25.0 kg
Ricochet Angles	60° – 75°
Type of Projectile	AP – 127 mm AP/SC Mk38 Mod 2
Alpha Damage	2 100
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.21
Projectile Mass	27.0 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 598
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Detonator threshold	21 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Torpedo Armament

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4	Slot 5
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Repair Party Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: +0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 50%	Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 60 s Damage from continuous DPS: +100% Damage from flak explosions: +300%	Main Battery Reload Booster Number of charges: 2 Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 180 s Effect: -50% Main battery reload time

The Armor

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Citadel armor protection:

Personal Opinion

Since her rebalancing, San Diego looks pretty good. Her damage output won’t be overly reliant on the Main Battery reload booster and in terms of ballistics, it is fairly similar to Druid or Worcester. This means that it won’t be a struggle to hit targets at long range.
Since she gets AP shells now, it will offer her the capacity to properly capitalize on broadside targets, especially since the AP is pretty good for such low caliber.

The fact that she also gets a Repair Party, especially with the 50% repair on citadel damage will also help to compensate for her lack of armor.

It would have been nice that she gets something like Benson or Fletcher torpedoes instead of the same 4.5 km torpedoes as Atlanta but I guess that you can’t have everything.

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