Ro.43

Description

In 1933, the Regia Marina asked the Italian aeronautical industries for a new reconnaissance seaplane to replace the Piaggio P.6 and CANT 25 already in use on some cruisers. One of these aeronautical companies was IMAM, and thanks to Giovanni Galasso the IMAM Ro.37 Bis was modified into a seaplane version for maritime reconnaissance. Modifying the Ro.37 Bis with a different wing configuration and a central float to better balance the aircraft, the Ro.43 was born, took off for the first time on 19 November 1934, and won the competition issued by the Regia Marina, even exceeding the specifications required by the Navy itself.

Introduced in Update "Winged Lions", the Ro.43 is the only catapult-able aircraft from Italian ships in the game. It is equipped with an armament of only two 7.7 mm frontal guns and a defensive turret with a 7.7 mm, which are not very powerful but do the job. This is an excellent aircraft for shooting down other enemy seaplanes present from other nations' ships, thanks to its engine it also manages to quickly regain speed even after capturing a point, and the smoke screen can be used to protect both yourself and your allies when sailing in open waters.

Ships that carry the Ro.43

• RN Bartolomeo Colleoni
• RN Bolzano
• RN Raimondo Montecuccoli
• RN Eugenio di Savoia
• RN Trento
• RN Pola
• RN Zara

General info

Flight performance

Ro.43 has a typical performance for shipborne biplane - it's extremely agile, but relatively slow in level flight, making for a relatively easy target for any fighter or even most bombers.

Details

Survivability and armour

Similarly to other shipborne aircraft, the Ro.43 is extremely easy to destroy, rarely surviving more than a single hit from anything larger than 13.2 mm.

Armaments

Offensive armament

The Ro.43 is armed with:

• 2 x 7.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns, nose-mounted (500 rpg = 1,000 total)

Defensive armament

The Ro.43 is defended by:

• 1 x 7.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine gun, dorsal turret (500 rpg)

Usage in battles

The Ro.43 is best-used much in the same fashion as other hydroplanes with offensive armament are - going for the capture point, taking down enemy hydroplanes and capturing it for the team. Other uses are typical for the airplane of the type - spotting, laying smokescreen, and harassing enemy airplanes.

Generally it's best to keep away from enemy bluewater vessels and high-BR coastal boats, as the sheer volume of fire they can unleash is typically enough to take the hydroplane down even from 2 kilometres with just the use of automated AI gunners.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Optimal acceleration
• Very manoeuvrable
• Pilot-operated offensive armament

Cons:

• It has no access to bombs, restricting its ability to damage ships
• Offensive armament although present is very weak, struggling with anything else than other hydroplanes
• Quite heavy

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Videos

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 aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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