Excalibur
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Excalibur
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[Client Values; Actual values in
3,100  Cost |
| 840168 HP Hit Points |
| 27.38/3012.83/30 t Weight Limit |
- Commander
- Gunner
- Driver
- Loader (Radio Operator)
| 500500 hp Engine Power |
| 50/15 km/h Speed Limit |
| 3535 deg/s Traverse |
| 18.2638.97 hp/t Power/Wt Ratio |
| YesYes Pivot |
| // mm Hull Armor |
AP/APCR/HE
AP/APCR/HE Shells |
180/2800/235
180/2800/235 Shell Cost |
| 150/150/190150/150/190 HP Damage |
| 165/192/70165/192/70 mm Penetration |
|
13.33 r/m ▲
13.33 r/m Standard Gun ▲ Rate of Fire Standard Gun |
|
1999.5 ▲
Standard Gun
▼
Standard Gun
▲
1999.5 Standard Gun ▲
Standard Gun
▼
Standard Gun
▲ Damage Per Minute Standard Gun |
|
0.3 m ▲
0.3 m With 50% Crew: 0.372 m ▲ Accuracy With 50% Crew: 0.372 m |
| 1.8 s 1.8 s Aim time |
| 2222 deg/s Gun Traverse Speed |
| 200° Gun Arc |
| -10°/+20°-10°/+20° Elevation Arc |
| 6060 rounds Ammo Capacity |
| 1515 % Chance of Fire |
| 360 m 360 m View Range |
| 750 m 750 m Signal Range |
VI
3100
The Excalibur is a British tier 6 premium tank destroyer.
A project for an airborne amphibious tank destroyer. A full-size prototype was manufactured, but further development was discontinued.
The Excalibur is a first reward tank from that can be obtained by completing the first set of missions in the Second Campaign personal missions set.
Modules / Available Equipment and Consumables
Modules
Guns
| Tier | Gun | Penetration (mm) |
Damage (HP) |
Rate of fire (rounds/minute) |
Dispersion (m/100m) |
Aiming time (s) |
Weight (kg) |
Price (  )
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VI | 76 mm 'Excalibur' Gun | 165/192/70 | 150/150/190 | 13.33 | 0.3 | 1.8 | 1000 | 50000 |
Engines
| Tier | Engine | Engine Power (hp) |
Chance of Fire on Impact (%) |
Weight (kg) |
Price ( )
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VI | L50 | 500 | 15 | 500 | 30000 |
Suspensions
| Tier | Suspension | Load Limit (т) |
Traverse Speed (gr/sec) |
Rmin | Weight (kg) |
Price ( )
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VI | Excalibur | 30 | 35 | 0 | 7000 | 12000 |
Radios
| Tier | Radio | Signal Range (m) |
Weight (kg) |
Price ( )
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | C42/B47 AFV stations complete | 750 | 80 | 54000 |
Compatible Equipment
Compatible Consumables
Player Opinion
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Abnormally high HP pool for tier 6 TD (840)
- Great penetration and rate of fire, including 70mm pen HESH
- Excellent gun handling, has quick aiming time, great gun depression/elevation, as well as 200 degrees of firing arc
- High mobility and quick traverse speed
- Handy crew slots that match with vehicles from British turreted TD line.
- Low ammunition cost; decent credit earner
Cons:
- Horribly oversized, finding a place to cover or hide can be troublesome
- Very poor armor, can be easily destroyed if not covered
- Has "turret" which can be damaged and/or jammed. also, turret's rear is extremely prone to HE shots and it can be exposed when aiming at another angle
- Poor shell velocity, inaccurate at long range
Performance
Think of this tank as a bigger KanonenJagdpanzer that trades camouflage for gun handling and flexibility. The interesting turret placement allows for some quirky positioning - it is possible to hide the rear of the tank behind cover and only expose the very front of the tank around a corner, although the absurd size of the Excalibur can make this difficult. The lack of armour and low alpha damage of the gun can make this tank tricky to use at close range, so mid to longe range should be what is used. This way the excellent accuracy and aim time of the Excalibur can be taken advantage of, as well as the nice DPM. The HP pool (which is on par with Tier VI mediums) can then be conserved for nearer the end of the game, where your rate of fire can be used to mop up any low health stragglers.
Using the good mobility of this tank to reposition is key, in order to keep the gun firing, as you do not have the alpha damage to take huge chunks of hit points off with one shot. Relocate often, abuse the unusual turret and great gun handling stats and harass the enemy with the great rate of fire - just remember that only your generous health pool will keep you alive, not your armour.
Do not be deceived by the turret's traverse speed--while it is better than most of the turreted tank destroyers in its tree, it is still woefully lacking and will not be sufficient for brawling. Resist the temptation to get close; stay in the second line and provide fire from there. If you are forced to fight up close against an enemy, take advantage of any cover available and the extreme front-mount of your turret by pre-aiming in their direction, poking just far enough to clear a shot, and reversing immediately. Your 15 kph reverse speed is unimpressive, but sufficient for a retreating shot.
Be wary of artillery, as the Excalibur is extremely vulnerable to their fire. The engine deck is enormous and will get penetrated by even tier 4 artillery on a direct hit. Lucky or careful artillery drivers can drop a shell square where your turret meets your hull; with only 7mm(!) of armor on the top rear portion of the turret, you will take full damage and suffer widespread crew and equipment damage. Play carefully if you cannot take hard cover against artillery.
Early Research
Special vehicle, comes elite in its stock configuration.
Suggested Equipment
Gallery
Historical Info
Excalibur Light Airborne Tank Destroyer
The Excalibur was a British light airborne tank destroyer designed at the School of Tank Technology in the 1960s. A project arrived that called for a machine that
a) weighed less than 30t
b) could fit inside a RAF Blackburn B-101 Beverley heavy transport aircraft
c) was fully amphibious
d) had excellent mobility
e) had a weapon capable of destroying any existing Soviet tank and
f) had as low a profile as possible.
During this period, the primary threat to NATO was the Warsaw Pact (USSR and its satellite states) and, more importantly, its vast tank formations which were massed along the East German border. Many vehicles studied or designed in the School of Tank Technology during the 1960s focused on 'maneuver and destroy tactics', with rapid reaction airborne vehicles being sought after to plug the expected Soviet breakout tactics.
The Legendary Name: This vehicle is named after the legendary sword of the mythical King Arthur who, in English folklore, was conceived in the Cornish Tintagel Castle. Excalibur was the sword the King “pulled from the stone”, although a significant number of versions of the Arthurian Legend say it was given to him by The Lady of Shalott who lived in a lake near Camelot, Arthur's royal court. The legend has it that after the death of the mythical King in Avalon, it was thrown back into to the lake from where it came, with the Lady retrieving it.
Development
In line with the name, the designers chose to go with a quite unusual configuration. Rather than the casemate layout, standard for British SPGs at the time, the engineers chose to mount a semi-rotating turret on the front of the tank chassis to allow for maximum gun traverse whilst keeping a relatively low profile. This design overcame several core problems with casemated designs, including their weakness to immobilization. Casemated (or turretless) tanks with the gun mounted in a frontal superstructure rely on their tracks to pivot and make adjustments before firing. Any damage or terrain that prevents this effectively neutralizes the vehicle’s offensive ability as their gun traverse is often very poor once immobile. By having a front-mounted turret with a 45° arc of fire to either side, the Excalibur overcame this problem as it no longer needed to rely on hull adjustments to bring its weapons where needed. This would help to conceal it better and, therefore, also increase its survivability.
In order to keep combat weight down to meet the criteria of fitting and being transported in the Beverley aircraft, the developers went with a light aluminum armor layout. The hull front and turret superstructure were 50 mm of well-angled armor tapering down to 40mm on the lower front plate. The superstructure is 25 mm and 15 mm at the rear. The sides of the vehicle have several stowage boxes built-in and a 5 mm separate backing plate remained behind this spaced plate.
Aluminum armor was chosen as it is light enough for making airborne tanks but strong enough to stop what was required in the design specs, notably artillery fragments and MG fire. Armor that could stop the APDS rounds and guided missiles used in tanks at the time was out of the question for a light airborne vehicle. Excalibur's survivability would come from not being seen in the first place, but also agility and ambush tactics.
Several weapons were considered in the design but a 105 mm low-pressure gun was chosen. Low-pressure weapons were built to fit onto platforms or chassis that require a large caliber but cannot handle the high recoil pressures or have space for a long recoil. Such a gun worked very well with HEAT and HESH rounds that required lower velocities on impacting to work effectively. In fact, due to the way they work, the rounds are often better than the high-pressure version as they require less casing, meaning increased HE filler. Low-pressure guns do require the gunner to compensate the large drop of the shell over larger distances in order to hit far-away targets. The range of such a weapon is also significantly smaller than that of a high-pressure gun. Although recoilless rifles have similar performance to low-pressure guns in terms of velocity, they are unsuitable for any vehicle with an enclosed space, such as the Excalibur.
Close protection was provided by a pintle-mounted heavy machine gun and a coaxial pair consisting of a 0.5" (12.7 mm) and a 0.3" (7.62 mm) machine guns.
Despite the front-mounted weapons, the center of gravity was fairly good and the weight at the nose end not excessive due to the use of aluminum armor and the fact that low-pressure guns are much lighter than their high-velocity counterparts.
Excalibur could also come fitted with Swingfire anti-tank guided missiles in the main body. If required, these would be in a series of bins mounted in the boxy body above the tracks. With Swingfire’s ability to change its course by 90° in the first second of firing (something no other ATGM has been able to emulate), it would allow the Excalibur to fire from a defiladed position (behind a hill or ridge exposing little if any of the vehicle), knocking out any tank with its 800 mm of penetration, but these fittings were an optional extra. A later series of designs drawn up to a General Staff Operational Requirement (GSOR 1006) had the Swingfires mounted in several positions including along the sides and top racks. Other guns were also considered, such as 76.2 mm pieces with drum fed magazines and long HV 105 mm or even 120 mm cannons.
Power was provided by a Leyland L50 multi-fuel 2-stroke 580 bhp engine that ran on diesel or MT80 petrol, delivering a top road speed of 48 mph (77 km/h) via an Allison XTG 411-3 automatic transmission. The Excalibur a road range of 318 miles (611.5 km). The suspension was torsion type and the running gear consisted of 5 pairs of double road wheels with the 22" (55.8 cm) rubber, brushed steel tracks supported by four return rollers. The engine also had one more feature; it had a built-in waterjet system. This allowed the Excalibur to cross large bodies of water relatively quickly as the whole system required no preparation, being inherently amphibious.
The crew of three were all based in the turret at the front: the commander and gunner to the right, loader/radio operator to the left of the gun respectively. The gunner doubled up as the driver as the Excalibur was never designed to shoot on the move and the whole system could be switched from gunner to mobility mode at the flick of a switch.
Fate
The Excalibur was never built and as such, never went past the peculiar idea stage. After the Excalibur endeavor, however, the GSOR 1006 project had its plans dusted off and redesigned for a new service vehicle. Unfortunately, even that project never entered service.
Specifications
Dimensions: 25'1.20" x 8'1.31" x 11' (7.6m x 2,47m x 3,3m)
Weight (battle ready): 60,000lbs (30t) max
Crew: Commander, Gunner/Driver, Loader/Radio Operator
Propulsion: Leyland L50 2-stroke multi-fuel @580hp
Transmission: Allison XTG 411-3
Suspension: torsion bars
Steering: T-bar mechanism
Speed: 48 mph (77km/h)
Ground clearance: 16" (40.6cm)
Track: 22" (55.8cm) rubber, brushed steel
Armament:
- 105mm low-pressure gun
- 2 x 7.62mm MG
- 12.7mm HMG
- could optionally accomodate 8 x Swingfire wire-guided ATGM
Historical Gallery
Historical Accuracy Errata
* While multiple guns of various calibers were considered for use on the Excalibur, the one actually selected was a low-pressure 105mm rather than a 76mm.
