Admiral Hipper is the lead ship of her class of three heavy cruisers, built for the Kriegsmarine during the mid 1930s. After having seen extensive use during WWII, Admiral Hipper is now ready to make an appearance in War Thunder too, becoming the first German heavy cruiser, soon available to all captains with update 1.91!

Admiral Hipper, heavy cruiser, Germany, IV rank.

Pros

• Hard-hitting main guns
• Large crew complement

Cons

• Relatively low maximum speed

In War Thunder, Admiral Hipper will be the first heavy cruiser, arriving to rank IV of the German naval tree with the release of the upcoming update 1.91. Combining devastating firepower, armour protection and a large crew complement, Admiral Hipper will truly justify the “heavy” part of its heavy cruiser classification and will offer captains with an experience like no other ship of this class does!

Admiral Hipper rocks a primary armament consisting of a total of eight 203mm cannons, spread across four dual turrets. As a result, Admiral Hipper will certainly belong among the more powerful warships in the game as far as primary firepower is concerned, meaning that aspiring captains of this vessel don’t need to worry much about how to sink their opponents as long as the shells find their target.

Apart from the already formidable primary weapons, Admiral Hipper also sports a not so inconsiderate arsenal of secondary weapons. Namely, captains will have access to six double 105mm dual purpose cannons, six paired 37mm semi-automatic machine guns, as well as 20mm cannons - 10 single and three quadruple mounts! All of this additional firepower is then rounded off by the presence of four triple 533mm torpedo launchers, two at each side of the hull in addition to the torpedos already loaded, the ship carried 10 more torpedoes in reserve.

Those captains that Admiral Hipper failed to impress with its firepower thus far, will at the latest be now impressed by its survivability. The armour on the Admiral Hipper although modest in thickness for a ship of such size is distinguished by its protected armoured space. In typical German fashion, Admiral Hipper is fitted with a turtleback-style armour arrangement, consisting of an 80mm thick belt plate and a further 30mm armour plate sloped back behind the belt. Admiral Hipper also has 10mm thick bulges which increase both ballistic and torpedo protection to a certain degree. Additionally, Admiral Hipper also has a massive crew complement of 1,600 sailors - the largest crew complement of any ship currently in the game!

However, the large displacement coming from all of this firepower and armour does come at a certain price of mobility. Although powered by three steam turbines, generating a respectable 132,000 horsepower, Admiral Hipper is only capable of reaching a modest top speed of 32.5 knots (60 km/h). While this is certainly not bad by any stretch, it is still less than some other cruisers in the game, meaning that this vessel is more likely to take on the role of a second-line ship, at least until the frontline fighters get taken out that is.

The highly anticipated Admiral Hipper is arriving to War Thunder naval battles with the release of the upcoming update 1.91 and will formally become the first heavy cruiser available to German captains. Until then, calm seas and happy hunting!

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