[Review] Fast and Furious- T49 Light Tank

 

History



Basically, the T49 was a prototype M41 Walker Bulldog with a 90mm gun (crew of 4). In the late 40′s and early 50′s, it was recognized that a 76mm gun is no longer enough to combat modern Soviet medium tanks, specifically the T-54. And so, in January 1950, a commanding officer of Detroit Arsenal recommended developing a light tank with a 90mm gun, specifically to install a 90mm smoothbore gun on the M41 chassis. This 90mm gun was a new weapon, designated T123. It started as a smoothbore, but after bad tests results, when it came to accuracy, it was modified with shallow rifling, creating the T123E3 gun. Two of these were mounted in the production M41E1 turrets and this combination was redesignated T49. The turret was modified too: it was somewhat higher and it was equipped with a stereoscopic rangefinder. Further modification were made when in the ammo stowage compartment. The gun itself could fire three types of rounds: HE, HEP (HESH) and HEAT rounds.


The two T49′s were sent to Aberdeen, where they were tested between May 1954 and May 1955. The tests of the vehicle were somewhat satisfactory, but the gun still had issues with the ammunition used: specifically the HEAT round was very inaccurate, making the HEP (HESH) round the preferred way to deal with armor. There were some other issues too and as a result, the army lost interest in this vehicle. The prototypes were stored in Aberdeen – I am not sure whether they still exist or were scrapped.

It’s worth noting that the T49 is not the “only” 90mm Walker Bulldog project – Cadillac made a proposal to arm the Walker Bulldog with a 90mm M41 gun from the M48 Patton in November 1958. At this point however, the army was focusing on creating new and superior light tank and so this project never passed beyond the drawing boards. (Source: For The Record)

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-Good firepower: 152mm gun-launcher, without the missiles of course
-Good DPM:3046,4
-Gun elevation: -9,5/+19,5
-High top speed: 72 km/h
-Good Acceleration and Agility: 20.72 hp/t
-Nice looks  



Cons:
-Tall
-Paper armor: Hull 25.4/25.4/19.1mm Turret 25.4/25.4/25.4mm
-Unreliable gun  

Play style 

I think this vehicle in the game as something like current Chaffee: quite tall, good passive scout, good firepower and hulldown capability.

 

The tank does not really move well, so it’s likely pre-destined to be some sort of passive scout. It's camouflage, from what I tested a little is okay, it works, but again – the gun is a problem. The blast demasks you completely – if you fire, a half blind artillery on the other end of the map with its entire crew dead will see you. It’s really bad, basically in high tier matches, you will be reduced to pure scouting (or scout killing). I wrote the other thing intentionally, because this vehicle does kill other scouts rather well. It has a lot to do with the fact that you can reduce a tier 8 light tank to 20 percent (or in extreme cases, one shot him) with one shell. The gun is terribly inaccurate and you won’t be doing any sniping with it (hopefully), but if you position yourself well to intercept any incoming scouts and manage to catch the speed (remember, sluggish vehicle), you’ll eat him for breakfast.
What I noticed is the tendency of enemies to somewhat ignore this little tank in matches, that were not full of enemy scouts. Basically, their scout tries to reach arty at all costs, you pursue him, fire off that massive gun and if you are close, you hit him, reducing him to 20-30 percent (plus some juicy crits of course). At that point he will realize he’s fucked and he will turn on you, but it’s too late, unless you miss, he’s toast.

The gun however is quite unpredictable. I think this vehicle will find its niche in killing scouts and dagger thrusts towards enemy artillery but against high tier vehicles, it will be sort of pointless (the HEAT penetration is insufficient against anything of tier 8 and above – if you hit (big IF!), it will bounce). The 90mm gun without gold ammo seems utterly pointless. With gold ammo, it’s a killer, but it’s expensive to operate and few people will do that I think. Definitely a gold eater.

Crew Skills (Recommend)

1. Commander (Radio Operator): Sixth Sense, Camouflage, BiA
2. Gunner: Camouflage, BiA, Snap Shot
3. Driver: Camouflage, BiA, Smooth Ride
4. Loader: Camouflage, BiA, Safe Stowage 

Equipment (Recommend)

Vertical Stabilizer, Optics, Camo Net