RU251 Historical Characteristics

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Hello everyone,

just a quick rundown of the RU251, upcoming tier 8 light tank. The numbers come from a reliable source, its author however does not wish to be listed as some of the materials concerning this tank are actually still considered confidential by the Bundeswehr.

ru251x

The picture above was taken recently. The location of the tank is currently confidential and to be quite honest, taking pictures of it is not exactly something people should do, that’s why the picture is so scrambled. There were more pictures taken and Wargaming has them at their disposal, hence the historical accuracy of the RU251 model in the game.

Empty weight: 24 tons
Combat weight: 25,5 tons
Engine type: MB 837 Aa. (same engine as the Jagdpanzer Kanone, V8 multifuel)
Engine output: 500 horsepower
Power-to-weight: 19,6 hp/t
Maximum speed: 80 km/h

Armor

Front – 30mm
Side – 20mm
Rear – 8mm
Mantlet – 30mm
Turret – 20mm

Gun: 90mm Bord Kanone (firing AP/HEAT/HESH in the game, all rounds historical – AP round was called DM13, could be fired from 90mm M36/M41 in German service, expect cca 175mm PEN in the game).

History (published earlier)

The Spähpanzer Kette was designed to replace the Germany Army’s old American M41 light tanks in the reconnaissance role. Its development began in 1960 and a prototype was completed in 1963. It mounted a Rheinmetall turret armed with the 90mm Bordkanone as used in the Jagdpanzer Kanone.

By the middle of the 1960s the Leopard tank was in production and it was decided that reconnaissance units did not need their own specialist vehicles. The development of the Spähpanzer Kette was dropped without any further vehicles being built and its role was given over to the Leopard. With hindsight, this may have been a hasty move as the wheeled Spähpanzer Luchs was eventually developed to take back this role from the Leopard.

44 thoughts on “RU251 Historical Characteristics”

  1. Souped up T21?

    I guess the big question will be if it is like the T49 and will connect back to a german Tier 9 tank. I’d assume the E-50 in that case, but that makes very little sense.

    • Actually thinking it’ll be a lot like the Chinese lights, except with better gun handling.
      Also, are you forgetting the Leopard I line?

    • Even before the Leopard line’s implementation, we knew the RU 251 would feed into it

    • I bet “all mah monies” that it’s going to connect to Leopard PT A. Also, I guess good gun depression and paperish armor, so more like the T21 than chinese lights.

      • Cant wait, great article. Anything that I can read on this an the Upcoming Panther F are always great reads. Hopefully more pics are coming. Great job, ty.

  8. do we know any more stuff? or predictions? i mean does it have good depression for example?

    • It must come quite close to hit, though. I think people in other LTs will try to maintain their distance from the T49LT.

      • Must come quite close to hit? Have you played the KV-2? Because I have little trouble hitting long-range targets with that one.

        • You forgot that KV-2 is soviet tenk, and T49 will be murican. No accuracy for you!

    • Well, if the stats of the T49LTs top gun are correct and stay like that, it can one-shot an AMX with the 152 mm into oblivion if aimed right, so things will probably get interesting. Although it’s not a long range sniper but could cause lots of explosions. ( Like any good KV-2 driver already knows :) )

      The other two will probably not bring that much advantage over others, enven though the

    • Since frying-pan-obj416 was only a novelty and seldom appears on ESL, i doubt that LT-54 will be anything different.
      RU215 will be average on it’s tier so i doubt about ESL.
      T49LT, maybe as a counter to frenchies but we’ll see if it works good enough.

      A clip is a clip and good players already have proven tanks with 4-5perks crews, so why bother? Those new tanks would have to be outstandingly better – and most probably they won’t be.

  11. So as far as we know atm, what would be the prime selling point for each LT?

    AMX 13 90 : Autoloadah
    WZ120 : Overall jack of all trades battle LT
    RU215 : WZ with better gun handling, more speed (?), but much less armor?
    T49LT : Mobile high depression HE/HESH spammer with an option for a derp gun?
    LT-54 : Pseudo medium light tenk?

    • AMX – yep, autoloadah. Essentially it’s a tier 8 BatChat so it ain’t gonna get outclassed in organised games.
      WZ-132 – agree as well
      RU251 – highest top speed of all T8 LTs but the largest of them as well. Might even end up being the toughest of them unless they bring down its HP (1300). Armor doesn’t really matter on LTs
      T49 – Only the stock gun is a HESH lobber, the other 90mm shoots AP. It might end up being the best anti-light and arty hunter of the bunch with the derp, but you’ll have to drive it into hit-them-with-my-sword range :D
      LT-54 – Essentially, yes, IF it retains 1200 hit points, but as I said, armor doesn’t really matter on light tanks. It might be able to pull off an occasional autobounce, though.

      BUT I’d take this info with a grain of salt as WG said that there are further plans for improving light tanks.

  13. “just a quick rundown of the RU251, upcoming tier 8 light tank. The numbers come from a reliable source, its author however does not wish to be listed as some of the materials concerning this tank are actually still considered confidential by the Bundeswehr.”

    If this is the case I can suddenly see why Wargaming was having such a hard time getting data on it. I mean, hell, Soviet archives probably had stuff on the Leopard 1 that they could draw from, but on RU251? That’s less assured.

    It’s possible that the RU251 might be redstamped by the German government outright, and that’s not a case you can just bribe them until they cooperate. That’d… actually be a good way to get World of Tanks shut down.

    • Not gonna happen, SerB will send his black helicopters to take care of any redstampers ;)