Developed as part of a family of British lightly armoured fighting vehicles, the FV102 Striker served as an ATGM missile carrier with the British army right up until the early 2000s. Although being only recently retired from active service, the Striker is far from ready to enter full retirement yet. In fact, he’s getting ready to soon join the fight against some of the top-performing steel beasts in War Thunder’s 1.71 Update!
The Striker in War Thunder will not only provide fans of British vehicles with a much sought after addition, but will also add a very deadly weapon to the British high rank arsenal. Smaller and faster than the FV438 Swingfire, the Striker will be able to deliver its deadly payload of five improved Swingfire ATGMs to the target potentially unnoticed. Yes, you didn’t misread anything - five ATGMs. The Striker has a five-tube ATGM launcher, which can fortunately be reload in battle, but only once. The Striker, unlike the FV438, will feature a Mk.2 Swingfire ATGM system. This improved system not only boosts the penetration values of the Swingfire missile itself, but also provides commanders of the FV102 with a second generation semi-automatic aiming system, making targeting substantially easier. A common feature of both the Striker and the Swingfire is their armour protection. Both vehicles featured a similar maximum armor thickness, or around 12.7mm, however, whilst the Swingfire used steel, the Striker used aluminum, thus greatly saving on weight. Nevertheless, this change didn’t bolster the survivability of the Striker, in fact, the vehicle’s protection was suitable only against small arms fire and shrapnel, whilst dedicated AP bullets and cannon rounds would simply tear through the thinly armoured Striker.
To counter this, the FV102 Striker relies on its low silhouette and mobility to act as a shield against enemy fire, instead of physical armour. The combining factors of low ground pressure, lightweight armour and a good power to weight ratio, gave the Striker superb mobility both on-and off-road. Its 190 horsepower diesel engine allowed the FV102 to reach breakneck speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) on roads, whilst still retaining a good speed even on rough terrain. Thanks to the excellent mobility, players will be able to quickly position the Striker into an ambush position early on in a match, whilst the low height of the hull will ensure that the vehicle will remain undetected at least up until the point when the first missile is fired. In case the Striker does get spotted, commanders will always have the option to use the 6 front-mounted smoke grenade launchers, to lay a tactical smoke screen to cover their hasty retreat.
The FV102 Striker will join the top ranks of the British ground forces tree as the successor of the FV438 Swingfire in the upcoming 1.71 update for War Thunder. See you there!
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The War Thunder Team
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