KM-5

Description

The KM-5 is a premium rank German motor torpedo boat with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Drone Age".

General info

Survivability and armour

Talk about the vehicle's armour. Note the most well-defended and most vulnerable zones, e.g. the ammo magazine. Evaluate the composition of components and assemblies responsible for movement and manoeuvrability. Evaluate the survivability of the primary and secondary armaments separately. Don't forget to mention the size of the crew, which plays an important role in fleet mechanics. Save tips on preserving survivability for the "Usage in battles" section. If necessary, use a graphical template to show the most well-protected or most vulnerable points in the armour.

Mobility

Write about the ship's mobility. Evaluate its power and manoeuvrability, rudder rerouting speed, stopping speed at full tilt, with its maximum forward and reverse speed.

Modifications and economy

Armament

Primary armament

The 15 mm MG 151 is an excellent gun, with an impressive fire rate of 750 rounds per minute, allowing it to easily shred boats and aircraft at its BR.

It has two types of ammunition, an API shell that has great penetration and incendiary capabilities, which can penetrate the armoured turrets of some higher BR boats and even some frigates. The second is the HEI shell, which deals a massive amount of damage to enemy boats, destroying compartments and has a high chance of setting fires. It is also excellent against enemy aircraft, with a short burst capable of downing an enemy dive bomber. The gun is mounted on a turret that has excellent firing angles and traverse speed, which makes it easy for the KM-5 to lead and destroy enemy targets.

There are three ammunition belts available:

• Universal: API-T · HEF
• 15 mm APIT belts: API-T · API-T · API-T · HEF
• 15 mm HEIT belts: HEF · HEFI-T* · HEF · API-T

Secondary armament

The secondary armament of the KM-5 consists of two MG34 machine guns on a twin mount located directly on the back of the 15 mm MG 151 turret. There are 3,000 rounds of ammunition available for the turret, with 1,500 for each gun.

The MG34s are good against enemy aircraft and enemy boats found at the KM-5's BR. It has an excellent rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute, causing it to have a decent damage output despite it only being rifle calibre. However the MG34's small calibre will prove to be a weakness, as it makes it hard to do meaningful damage to larger boats, having no explosive filler.

Additional armament

Describe the available additional armaments of the ship: depth charges, mines, torpedoes. Talk about their positions, available ammunition and launch features such as dead zones of torpedoes. If there is no additional armament, remove this section.

Usage in battles

Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

Cons:

History

The KM-5 (Küsten-Minenleger-5) is one of the KM-class (KM1-KM36) built as a minelayer by Germany in World War II. KM-class boats were built to lay mines on enemy coastlines, but because of the unreliability of the engines, they were used in the lakes, rivers and coastal areas of the Eastern Front. As a result, 20 of the 36 ships in the KM series were stripped of mines and modified to be fitted with torpedo tubes. The KM-5 is one of them. The other 16 were used as minesweepers. Most of the KM-class boats remained until the end of the war and were requisitioned by the Soviet Union. The KM-5 was laid down in 1942 by Roland Shipyard located in Bremen, northern Germany, launched in 1942, and entered service on August 8, 1942, and was deployed to Lake Ladoga, Europe's largest lake, located in Estonia, and then to Lake Peipus, on the Estonian-Russian border. It was disposed of by self-scuttling. On July 3, 1944, she was raised near Kastre, Estonia, and was captured by the Soviet Union at Ventspils, Latvia in May 1945.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

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

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.