Supertest: U.S. Tier X Freemium Cruiser Austin

After the Soviet Smolensk and the French Colbert, the U.S. fleet is getting its own tier X AA light cruiser, the Austin.

The Austin is based on an AA cruiser preliminary design (S-511-66: “5”/54 Cal. Cruiser – Scheme “C”). This design was calling for an 8 550 tons light cruiser armed with new 127 mm/54 guns in twin turrets equipped with a new auto-loading system and was the basis for the CL-154 class. It was, however, abandoned in March 1945.

In World of Warships, Austin represents what the finalized design could have looked like using more modern twin turrets both for the 127 mm/54 main battery and the 76.2 mm/70 AA guns.

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
Austin	Propulsion: 110 000 hp	Mk.10 mod. 1	127 mm/54 Mk.18 in a turret	533 mm Type16 mod. 1

General Characteristics

Main Battery

6 x 2 127 mm/54 Mk.18 in a turret
Maximum Firing Range	15.000 km
Reloading Time	8.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	4.5 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	30° for 6 turrets 25° for 5 turrets
Optimal firing angles at the rear	30° for 6 turrets 25° for 5 turrets
Sigma	2.05 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	137 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Mk.41
Alpha Damage	1 800 HP
Damage	550 HP
Penetration capacity	21 mm
Explosion size	0.44
Fire chance	9 %
Projectile Speed	808 m/s
Air Drag	0.21
Projectile Mass	31.75 kg
Type of Projectile	SAP – 127 mm CS Mk.42
Alpha Damage	2 700 HP
Penetration capacity	36 mm
Projectile Speed	808 m/s
Air Drag	0.21
Projectile Mass	31.75 kg
Ricochet Angles	60° – 75°

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	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 4 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous damage: +50% Damage from flak clouds: +300%	Main Battery Reload Booster Number of charges: Infinite Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 125 s Reload time: -75%	Repair Party Number of charges: 4 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration speed: +0.66%/s	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

The Armor

The Austin presents an armor protection somewhat similar to Atlanta but with 32 mm sides and a 225 mm citadel deck under the turrets somehow.

External armor protection

Front and rear internal protection of the middle section

Citadel protection

Personal opinion

Right now, I’m fairly interested in the Austin due to her unique (and very strong on paper) design. The potential of a -75% reload booster on SAP shells or even HE shells simply looks insane, the armor is actually not that bad and on top of that, she has the same improved Repair Party as Colbert from what I can see. Another thing worth noting is that her ballistics for such a low caliber is just fantastic due to the very low air drag. You have less flight time than Des Moines’ AP shells as a reference point.

Considering her size, she will also be the same overpenetration fiesta as Smolensk and she also have the advantage of having an already fairly good range which adds up to her survivability.

Finally, I actually want to mention that against carriers, the ship does look quite beefy against carriers with high DPS, 10 flaks from the start which is the highest number of the game as far as I remember. Her citadel will be fairly resilient against AP bombs as well because she is either way too deep or so thinly protected that the bombs will barely have enough time to trigger.

Also, for those that would be interested, here is a model size comparison made by Ch0m1n with other tier X light cruisers:

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Yuzorah

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