Light AA Mk I

Description

The Tank, Light, Anti-Air Mark I is a special modification of the first variant of the Tank, Light, Mark VI family. The Tank, Light, Mark VI was the sixth in the families of light tanks constructed by Vickers-Armstrongs for the British Army between World Wars I and II. The Tank, Light, Anti-Air Mark I was built in the aftermath of the Battle of France to counterattack air raids by German aircraft and dive bombers. It has a power-operated one-crew turret with four 7.92 mm BESA light machine guns.

Introduced in Update 1.79 "Project X", the Tank, Light, Anti-Air Mark I is an extremely vulnerable vehicle, players must take care not to expose themselves to hostile fire. Take care to position yourself so that you are not observed by enemy ground vehicles, and keep an eye out for enemy aircraft. Due to the low velocity of the ammunition, players need to wait until the enemy plane is reasonably close before opening fire. Be cautious if there is more than one enemy plane, since they may alternately strafe you. Despite being armed with four 7.92 mm BESA light machine guns, the damage is still insignificant, and players may need to score numerous hits to bring down an enemy plane.

General info

Survivability and armour

• Cast homogeneous armour (Turret)
• Rolled homogeneous armour (Hull)

The Light AA Mk I has very little armour. Most of the hull has 14 mm of armour, which is sufficient only against rifle-calibre rounds. The gunner is exposed to machine gun fire, and if he dies the entire vehicle is destroyed. This leaves you vulnerable to even enemy machine guns can kill you if they hit your gunner. You may be able to somewhat protect the gunner by aiming upwards with the machine guns as a last resort. The Light AA Mk I is vulnerable to any vehicle in the game.

Mobility

The Light AA Mk I is decently quick and manoeuvrable, and its small size allows it to fit into areas many other vehicles cannot. It can easily get around the map, and can quickly take cover from aircraft or other tanks when necessary. However, it is too light to drive through many obstacles easily, such as walls and small trees, and its suspension is too bouncy to allow it to fire with much accuracy while moving.

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

The four BESA machine guns the Light AA Mk I is armed with can be devastating to open-topped vehicles thanks to their high rate of fire, but they are completely ineffective against anything with armour. They are also less effective and less accurate over distance against planes than the cannons or heavy machine guns most other anti-aircraft vehicles are armed with, although a well-placed burst will still do serious damage to the biplanes you are likely to face. Each belt is large enough to enable sustained fire, allowing you to compensate for your poor accuracy through sheer volume of bullets.

Ammunition

• Default: Ball · T · IT - The worst option, due to the highest quantity of poorly damaging ball and tracer rounds.
• Universal: AP · T · IT · Ball - Better than default, but still has regular tracers and ball rounds which hurt damage output.
• API-T: IT · IT · AP · T - Contains a substantial amount of incendiary tracer rounds, which have a higher chance of starting fires in aircraft.
• AP-T: AP · AP · IT · T - AP rounds are still ineffective against ground armour, but deal substantial damage to aircraft components. With good aim, this belt can tear wings off, destroy engines, and penetrate cockpits glass armour.

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Light AA Mk I

Notes:

• The ammunition is divided into 16 belts of 225 bullets.
• However, ammunition is modeled as 50 boxes, grouped in 4 racks (rack 1: 12 boxes, rack 2: 13, rack 3: 13 and rack 4: 12)
• Racks 1, 2 & 3 will disappear only if you have 4 belts left.
• If you pack 16, 12 or 8 belts the 4 racks will be displayed as full.
• Racks will successively disappear if you pack 16 belts and shoot them until depletion.
• Pack the maximum amount of ammo to go into battle as you are a SPAA.

Optics

Usage in battles

The Light AA Mk I is a very vulnerable vehicle, so commanders should be careful not to expose themselves to enemy fire. Take care to find a position where you will not be seen by enemy ground vehicles, and watch the sky. Due to the low velocity of the machine guns, the Light AA Mk I should not open fire until the enemy plane is very close, probably within 1 km. If you begin to fire while the enemy plane is out of range, they will likely change course and stay away from your position. Also be wary if there is more than one enemy plane up, as you can easily be strafed to death by machine gun fire. Once you have a good shot on the enemy plane, the 4 machine guns are capable of dealing more damage than one might expect. You can down most aircraft quite quickly, although twin-engine fighters and bombers will take longer to destroy.

It is advisable to fire off your artillery as quickly as possible, since it is the only realistic way you can possibly damage enemy tanks.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 4 BESA machine guns have a high ammo load and a good rate of fire
• 4 machine guns means that you have a high hit probability
• Can be used against low tier SPAA and open-top tank destroyers,
• Small and mobile

Cons:

• Cannot defend itself from most ground attacks, as none of its belts can penetrate tank armour
• Damage output is nowhere near comparable to SPAA armed with 12.7 mm machine guns or 20 mm autocannons at this tier
• The gunner is exposed to machine gun fire from above and the front
• The armour will not protect you from 12.7 mm rounds and above
• Vulnerable to artillery and aircraft

History

The machine-gun armed Mark VI light tank formed the bulk of British tank strength in 1939. They were intended for colonial duties and reconnaissance but would see front-line combat as late as the British defeats in Java in early 1942. In 1940 they were in use in the light tank squadrons of armoured regiments and the main body of the divisional cavalry regiments. They carried a .50 calibre or 15 mm machine gun as the main armament. They were also used in the early war as command vehicles for armoured units.

As they were withdrawn from service, some Mark VI's were converted to anti-aircraft vehicles, raising the superstructure and replacing the turret. In practice the commander also being the gunner was ineffective. British armoured regiments and tank battalions were supposed to have 4-8 of these vehicles each in mid-1942. By mid-1943 they were taken out of service, replaced for this purpose by the significantly more versatile 20 mm-armed Crusader AA Mk II tank.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Light AA Mk I from live.warthunder.com.

See also

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

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

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

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