In Development: 2T Stalker

Commanders!

As we’ve announced already, there is a new set of Contract Mission coming in Update 0.33 along with a brand-new reward vehicle, the Belarusian 2T Stalker Tier 8 Premium AFV (this vehicle was previously announced as a Tier 9 one, but its parameters have since been adjusted). Today, we’d like to tell you a bit more about it.

The 2T Stalker (named so after the role and missions it was supposed to carry out, it has nothing to do with the Stalker movie, let alone videogames) was a heavy Armored Fighting Vehicle, developed by Minotor-Servis, a company based in Belarus, as a private venture primarily for export. The goal of this project was to design an armored vehicle, which would be able to operate independently behind enemy lines and act as both a capable recon platform and a deep raider.

To that end, a lot of emphasis was put on it being stealthy with powerful optics and radar/sensor suites (of an undetermined type, possibly PNSR-5K or PNSR-8K) installed in its turret.

The Stalker also carried powerful armament in the form of a 30mm 2A42 autocannon and two retractable missile launchers with two tubes each, one being a twin 9K114 Shturm ATGM launcher and one for the Igla SAMs. The 9M120 missiles fired from the 9K114 launchers penetrate up to 800mm of RHAe (after defeating the target’s ERA) at 6000 meters thanks to their tandem warheads (later models increase the penetration to 950mm and the range to 8000 meters). Thermobaric warheads (9M120F) are also available.

Interestingly enough, the autocannon did not allow for very high elevation (-3.5 to +9 degrees, unlike for example the BMP series), indicating that the SAMs were there to take care of helicopters as well as other aerial targets while the automatic cannon was there for ground targets only, making its use limited in urban and mountainous areas. The vehicle carried 500 (some sources claim 700) rounds of 30mm ammunition.

Additional anti-infantry firepower was provided by a 7.62mm PKT machinegun with 2000 rounds of ammunition, 30mm grenade launcher and the Stalker also carried 12 anti-tank mines to lay down ambushes.

The commander and the gunner both had several sets of stabilized day/night optics at their disposal along with a laser rangefinder and an automated target tracker.

The vehicle had a newly developed hull (specifically designed to make it stealthier than usual, including in the IR spectrum), although the motive system used various elements from the GM-355 tracked platform. The hull was made of welded steel with the frontal armor (specifically (40 degrees to each side from the axis of the vehicle to each side) protecting the crew against 30mm autocannon rounds at 300 meters. The rest of the hull was only resistant to small arms and machinegun bullets. Some other sources claim that the front was resistant to 35mm armor-piercing shells and the rest of the hull to 14.5mm armor-piercing bullets. It’s even possible the project was upgraded this way as the development went on.

Additional protection was provided by a laser warning system, integrated turret-mounted Tucha smoke grenade launchers and a NBC system.

The 27.4 ton Stalker was powered by a V-46 series diesel engine (likely the 780hp V-46 or the 840hp V-46-2S1 variant) located at the rear of the hull on the left side, allowing it to go as fast as 95 km/h. The suspension was based on the GM-355 chassis and was, at least according to some sources, hydropneumatic, allowing the vehicle to change its clearance from 130mm to 570mm. The self-entrenching device, installed in the front of the vehicle, allowed it to dig itself in rather quickly.

Interestingly enough, the project had started with a crew of three men but would later switch to the standard Russian recon vehicle configuration of five in order for the crew to operate its many sensors effectively. The gunner and the commander would sit in the turret, the rest of the crew (driver, communications officer and sensor operator) in the hull.

The project was first mentioned in 1999 and by 2001, a single prototype was ready and presented to the public at the IDEX 2001 expo in Abu Dhabi. However, despite being truly an interesting design and the promises of the Belarusian government to order 30 or so pieces, it failed to find any customers and the project was terminated.

As we mentioned already, in Armored Warfare, the 2T Stalker will be a Tier 8 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle, available as a reward for the next set of Contract Missions. As the description above suggests, it’s going to be a rather stealthy, if large, vehicle but before we take things any further, here’s the thing. We haven’t really balanced it for the upcoming Tier 7-10 changes yet, so everything written here is very much a work in progress, more so than usual. It’s very likely that the characteristics will change, although this text should give you an idea what we are aiming at.

With that being said, let’s start with this vehicle’s protection – or the lack of, because the Stalker will be, despite its size and weight (27 tons), only resistant against bullets. Autocannon rounds will likely go right through (except for ricochets). There will not be any hard-kill APS either; the whole vehicle will be very vulnerable. But armor’s not really what this AFV will be about anyway.

The firepower will not be bad though. We’re talking about a single 30mm autocannon and an Ataka ATGM launcher with two tubes, some 850mm of penetration and tandem HEAT warheads.

Now, you may be thinking that this isn’t right since the screenshots clearly show two double launchers. The situation here is more complicated though. As we mentioned before, in real life, one of these launchers belongs to a short-range SAM system. The thing is, we don’t have airplanes in Armored Warfare, so we originally thought to replace the SAM launcher with another Ataka ATGM one and have the vehicle fire four missiles before fully reloading, not just two. After some discussions, however, we realized that combined with the excellent stealth and mobility this vehicle offers, it might be a bit too much, which is why we are now thinking of leaving only one ATGM launcher available, the way it was in reality. Which solution would you prefer and why? Let us know on Discord!

One other special characteristic of sorts can also be divined from the attached screenshots. As you can see, the launchers are elevated far above the actual hull of the vehicle. In game terms, you’ll be able to fire at enemy targets using your ATGMs even when your entire vehicle is hidden behind an obstacle. This will be, however, quite tricky to pull off and the damage over time dealt this way will not be high due to the longer reload time of the missiles.

The ATGM firepower will be possible to enhance with an additional progression module, allowing you to have one more missile in the air as well as faster reload time. Another firepower-related additional progression module will offer better autocannon ammunition, although, generally speaking, the autocannon damage output will be lower than on other AFVs or TDs (such as the BMPT Mod.2000).

So far, we have mediocre firepower and very poor protection but not to worry, things will get better from now on.

For one, the vehicle will be very agile and fast. We’re talking some serious acceleration and hull traverse because, after all, this is supposed to be a recon vehicle. But the Stalker will also be quite stealthy and will have excellent viewrange. Its basic camouflage factor will be around 36% and the basic viewrange will be around 430 meters. The latter parameter will be possible to boost via the Radar active ability. This ability will increase the viewrange parameters to whopping 475 meters, but only when the vehicle is standing still and, at the same time, it will reduce the camouflage factor by 5%. It’s also worth noting that this ability too will only be available via additional progression.

In summation, what we have here is a relatively fragile recon vehicle (although not as fragile as various four-wheeled vehicles) with good camouflage, excellent viewrange and great mobility. As such, it’ll be capable of both active spotting (moving in front of your team to spot enemies and retreating upon contact) and passive spotting (finding a good position with cover and staying there, not drawing attention to yourself). In combat, the Stalker will be able to set up ambushes and deal with enemy active scouts rather effectively, but head to head combat with MBTs is definitely not advised, the Stalker does not carry enough firepower or armor to be successful in that regard.

We hope that you will enjoy this machine and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!