Ladies and Gentlemen, I salute you. Today, we will have a look at the Smolensk, the new upcoming Tier X premium Soviet cruiser. I wish that this article came earlier but the schedule was just too crowded.

The Smolensk is based on a project of small light cruisers from the Soviet Navy that started after World War 2. These cruisers were meant as Anti-air cruisers to support the capital ships (Project 24 for example) that were also still in the minds of Stalin and co.

The armament varied quite a lot from one design to the other with either 4, 5 or 6 twin turrets with 130 mm for one part. These turrets were either those carried by Grozovoi or the secondaries of Moskva, Stalingrad and Kreml. Some other designs were carrying 152 mm guns either in 4 twin turrets or in 3 triple turrets. Then, among all these designs, there is a particular design that caught the interest of Wargaming.

One of the designs was indeed carrying 16 130 mm guns in 4 quadruple turrets and this design was chosen to create Smolensk. If you want to see a bit more about these AA cruiser designs, here is a link to some documentation about them. It’s in Russian though.

The 3D preview is sadly not available for now but I will update the article when I will get it.

Modules Hull Engine Gun Fire Control System Main battery Torpedoes Smolensk Propulsion: 108 000 hp GFCS X mod. 1 130 mm/57 BL-132 53-51

Characteristics General Main Battery Torpedo Tubes Air Defense Consumables Tier X Health 32 400 HP Main Armament Maximum Firing Range 15.551 km 130 mm/57 BL-132 4 x 4 130 mm Torpedo Armament Maximum Firing Range 8.000 km 533 mm Quintuple PTA-53-68-bis 2 x 5 550 mm Maximum speed 35 kt Turning Circle Radius 750 m Rudder Shift Time 8.2 s Surface Detectability 12.78 km Air Detectability 5.64 km Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke 5.9 km 4 x 4 130 mm/57 BL-132 Reloading Time 4.5 s 180 Degree Turn Time 6.0 s Optimal front firing angle

31° Optimal rear firing angle 30° Sigma 2.00 sigma Maximum Dispersion 132 m Shells Type of Projectile HE Alpha Damage 1 800 HP Damage 500 HP HE penetration 21 mm Explosion Size 0.43 Chance to Cause Fire 8 % Projectile Speed 950 m/s Air Drag 0.291 Projectile Mass 33 Projectile Krupp 1 Type of Projectile AP Alpha Damage 2 600 HP Chance to Cause Fire -0.5 % Projectile Speed 950 m/s Air Drag 0.294 Projectile Mass 33.4 Projectile Krupp 1900 Projectile Detonator 0.01 s 2 x 5 533 mm Quintuple PTA-53-68-bis

Reloading Time 131 s Maximum Distance 8.0 km Optimal front firing angle 35° Optimal rear firing angle 30° Damage 14 400 Speed 60 kt Surface Detectability 1.2 km 4 x 4 130 mm/57 BL-132 Sector range 3.5 km – 6.0 km Hit chance 90 % Sector’s damage 540 Sector’s damage frequency 1.64 s Sector’s damage per second 327 Flak clouds number 8 Flak cloud damage 1890 6 x 4 45 mm SM-20-ZIF Sector range 2.3 km – 3.5 km Hit chance 90 % Sector’s damage 260 Sector’s damage frequency 0.80 s Sector’s damage per second 325 Flak clouds number 7 Flak cloud damage 1120 4 x 4 25 mm 4M-120 Sector range 0.1 km – 2.3 km Hit chance 85 % Sector’s damage 150 Sector’s damage frequency 0.71 s Sector’s damage per second 211 Sector reinforcement Sector reinforcement bonus +25% Sector reinforcement time 10 s Sector reinforcement shift time 10 s Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 Slot 4 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 90 s Number of charges: 2 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 120 s Number of charges: 1 Number of charges: 1 Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 240 s Radius: 450 m Smoke Duration: 89 s Number of charges: 2 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 120 s HP Regeneration speed: 0.5%/s Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Number of charges: 2 Work time: 20 s Cooldown: 160 s Radius: 450 m Smoke Duration: 89 s Number of charges: 3 Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP Regeneration speed: 0.5%/s Number of charges: 2 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 180 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km Number of charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.5 km Ship spotting range: 5.0 km

The armor

The Smolensk’s armor fits quite well to her role of AA cruiser. It is quite thin to say the least and just like the Bayard that is currently in testing, she has 13 mm thick bow and stern. Looks like it’s a new trend from Wargaming, possibly linked to what they announced a while ago about changing the armor plating of cruisers.

The bow section

As I said above, her bow section is only protected by 13 mm of armor. This means that 203 mm AP shells and above (which is extremely common at tier X) will be able to overmatch the ship.

For the protection of the middle section, the casemate and the upper part of the citadel’s athwartship (surrounded in black) are 100 mm thick. However, the lower part of the citadel’s athwartship that is deep below water is only 16 mm thick. Basically, with this ship, you never want to be bow-on to a ship shooting AP at you. Otherwise, you will really not last long.

The middle section

The plating on the middle section is fairly standard for a tier X cruiser. The deck and the sides are 30 mm thick. The main belt (AKA the citadel) is only 70 mm thick so nobody will have troubles at penetrating it.

For the horizontal protection, the roof of the citadel is 50 mm thick. With some luck, AP bombs might just go through that ship but it remains to be seen.

The stern section

As for the stern, it is covered by 13 mm of armor with the exception of the steering gears, protected by 20 mm of armor. These steering gears are exposed so HE shells will be able to jam them. You will consider running last stand with this ship.

For the protection of the middle section, the casemate and the upper part of the citadel’s athwartship are 100 mm thick.

For the lower part of the citadel, it is only 16 mm thick so once again, people shooting AP at you will have no issue at going through this.

The superstructure

The Superstructure is protected by 13 mm of armor just like the Minotaur for example.

The turrets

Even though overall, the ship has paper armor, the turrets are surprisingly resistant. The face is 100 mm thick, the sides are 80 mm thick, the back is 50 mm thick and the roof is 70 mm thick.

As for the barbette, it is 70 mm thick.

Personal opinion on the ship

The design of this ship is pretty interesting. While the armor is not great, the firepower of this ship is just nuts. 16 Grozovoi guns firing all at once, I seriously can’t wait to see that. The anti-air will be quite brutal as well with that long range.

Also, the smoke generator will help the ship to compensate from the lack of armor so she isn’t completely naked.

Overall, this ship will need some kind of hybrid build between destroyer and cruisers so for a captain trainer, might not be the best.

On a side note, seriously, who wouldn’t be hyped by this?

Boy, these turrets are so cool! I just have no idea of how the loading system was working with the 2 guns on the top being right above the others.

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