Antelope

Description

The Antelope Air Defence System is a rank Chinese SPAA with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Dance of Dragons."

General info

Survivability and armour

The Antelope uses the chassis of a modified Toyota Dyna truck. It has a relatively small profile compared to the MBTs, but its tall radar mast significantly increases its visibility and makes it harder to find a proper cover. With only 4 mm thickness of hull armour overall, the Antelope can be penetrated by a 7.62 mm AP bullet from 500 m. Any hit from HE shells, artillery strikes, autocannons, and air attacks can be lethal. Thankfully, the Antelope has a relatively long hull, and the crew is in an independent compartment at the front of the vehicle. It also has no reserve ammo rack, and the transmission module is resistant to overpressure damage. Therefore, many HE shells and ATGMs may hit the unmanned turret without damage to the crew and movement ability.

Armour type:

• Structural steel (Hull, windows, radar)
• Rubber-fabric screens (Fenders)

Notes:

• Wheels are 10 mm thick.

Mobility

The Antelope has brilliant mobility, climbing, and off-roading capability. It has good acceleration on plain terrain that can reach 90 km/h maximum speed within 30 seconds and ~70 km/h on average. Its turn radius is quite small, allowing it to steer agilely in city terrain. However, due to its low floor chassis and tiny wheels, the Antelope can easily get stuck by rocks. Never try to drive over trenches.

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

The only armament of the Antelope is the TC-1L InfraRed guided missiles. The TC-1L was originally a 3rd generation WVRAAM that was modified and mounted on the Antelope as a surface-to-air missile. The TC-1L is like a mixture of AIM-9L and AIM-9M, with IRCCM capability from 9M and a smoking rocket motor from 9L. Besides, the TC-1L has a better overload capability of 35 G and a larger explosive mass of 5.81 kg TNTe. These features make it very capable of hunting high-speed and manoeuvring jets. Furthermore, the seeker of the TC-1L can be slaved by the Antelope's radar, which is common in top-tier AAMs yet rare in SAMs in the current game. Such a feature, combined with the suspended animation type of IRCCM the TC-1L owns, helps the TC-1L correctly lock the aircraft that is spreading flares and chaffs.

However, the TC-1L also has many flaws that make it work poorly in its BR. First of all, the TC-1L doesn't have the capability of contrast-seeking guidance. With its infrared seeker, the TC-1L can only lock helicopters from 1.5 km and scout drones from 0.5 km. It is utterly useless against UCAVs and helicopters with HIRSS and DIRCM. Even when fighting jets, the 3 km all-aspect lock range also makes the Antelope very vulnerable to rockets and bombs from CAS. Aside from that, the TC-1L also has a long reaction time of ~0.5 seconds from launch to start steering to the target. It significantly ruins its performance against crossing jets at close range. There are plenty of A-10 and Su-25 CAS around its BR, which have low infrared signals and can only get locked from 1 ~ 2 km for TC-1L's seeker. It's vital to use Antelope's IRST to help TC-1L lock the correct target. Nevertheless, experienced players can still easily dodge the TC-1L with proper evading movement and flares.

Ammunition

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Antelope

Radar

Different from the foldable one in real life, the Antelope in War Thunder is equipped with a fixed tracking radar. Compared to other useless tracking radars on the IR-guided SAM launchers, the tracking radar on the Antelope has a unique capability to increase its combat performance. Because the seeker of the TC-1L can get slaved by the radar, the Antelope can use its decent tracking equipment to help the missile distinguish the right target and the flares. Its IRST is very brilliant for ignoring flares and stably locking flying objects except for missiles and rockets. On the other hand, its radar tracking is rather inferior and cannot lock scout drones and slow objects. It will only come in handy when the target is out of IRST's range or the player wants to check the distance of the target.

Usage in battles

Most people will notice its poor ammo amount and all-aspect lock range at first glance. In AB, it takes around 2 minutes to automatically receive the ammo reserves, but in a capture point, it only takes 20 ~ 30 seconds to do so. Therefore, the Antelope needs to stay near a capture point without revealing its location to the enemy. Thankfully, the Antelope has good mobility to swiftly translocate itself after launching the smoky TC-1L. It can also launch its missile at full speed, which gives it the capability to fool some low-tier helicopters with SACLOS ATGMs or bombs. Besides, the Antelope has a pretty high POV in binocular vision, which makes it a competent scout vehicle to help your allies.

Unfortunately, the UCAVs are available around its BR, so avoid revealing yourself and call for help when you notice an enemy UCAV. Helicopters with good avionics and long-range ATGMs such as 9M114 Shturm and AGM-114B Hellfire are also common around its BR.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Agile IR-guided missile that is very capable of hunting jets
• Brilliant mobility and steering
• Gen 1 thermal sights that help it find the target
• High POV in binocular vision and can launch missiles on the move

Cons:

• Can only lock helicopters from 1.5 km and scout drones from 0.5 km. Useless against UCAVs and helicopters with HIRSS and DIRCM
• No search radar
• Long reaction time of ~0.5 s and relatively short head-on lock range of 3 km significantly ruin its close-range performance
• Paper-thick armour, high profile, and no secondary armament lower its survivability
• Low-floor chassis that can bring trouble when crossing trenches and rocks

History

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Media

Images

See also

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• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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