- For a general overview on SAM Turrets, see SAM.
The SAM Turret (Surface-to-Air Missile) is a killstreak reward item featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Heroes, a scorestreak in Call of Duty: Mobile, a Support Strike Chain in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, a Field Upgrade and Zombies Power-Up in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, an enemy weapon in the Spec Ops mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and a Killstreak and Scorestreak in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. It was cut from Call of Duty: Ghosts.
Overview[]
The SAM Turret is an unmanned weapon which automatically locks onto any aircraft killstreaks and fires missiles to destroy them. The turret is capable of taking out nearly any airborne killstreak (exceptions include the Stealth Bomber and Blackbird). However, the SAM Turret has a limited amount of missiles and is completely defenseless against ground targets. The SAM Turret will fire at aircraft from any location it's placed, even if it means firing at a wall.
Call of Duty: Black Ops[]
The SAM turret can shoot down all enemy airborne killstreaks, including Valkyrie Rockets, but not the Blackbird. Airstrike-like killstreaks such as Napalm Strike and Rolling Thunder can't be shot down.
Like the Sentry Gun, this killstreak must be called in by airdrop before placing it. As such, users must be careful when calling in a SAM Turret, as the user will become a high priority target while awaiting for the SAM Turret to be dropped. Like any other air drop, it can be taken by teammates, as well as taken by the enemy team, and even booby trapped. Unlike the Care Package, players cannot re-roll the SAM Turret package's contents if they have Hardline Pro.
The SAM turret only fires a limited number of missiles, and then self-destructs. The player can only place two SAM turrets at once, as placing a third turret will destroy the first one. Like the Sentry Gun, the SAM turret can be destroyed by the enemy team, as well as hacked. Combined with needing to be placed in a position where it can get a clean shot on aerial killstreaks, proper SAM Turret placement is vital to getting the most out of it, and in certain situations, it'd be wise to hold off on deploying the SAM Turret until the player finds a position they truly like.
The SAM turret picks its targets based on how long they've been active, not by how dangerous they are. For instance, a SAM Turret would first destroy a Spy Plane that's been active for 20 seconds then attack a Gunship that has been up for 10 seconds. The rocket from it travels fast, even faster than the Valkyrie Rocket. One knife slash will destroy it. SAM turrets last 1 minute and 30 seconds - three times the time of Counter Spy Planes. The SAM Turret will wait until the Spy Plane scans the map one time before firing a missile at it.
Flares will successfully divert SAM Turret missiles, but the SAM Turret has extra missiles and can be reliably used to take down helicopters that use flares, so long as the SAM Turret has enough ammo left to fire a follow up shot.
The SAM Turret has the potential to kill players in highly unlikely scenarios, much like the Strela-3. First, the SAM Turret missile, if diverted by a flare, could potentially be redirected into the playing area and explode. The other potential scenario is if an enemy jumps in front of the SAM Turret missile as it is firing, allowing the missile to directly hit the enemy and kill them. Users should not expect to get any kills from the SAM Turret.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3[]
The SAM Turret returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as an 8-point Support Strike package pointstreak. It takes a few seconds to automatically lock on to enemy air support and fires a salvo of four surface-to-air missiles at it. The missiles can trigger flares and be diverted. The missiles launched by the turret are significantly weaker than those fired by the turret in Black Ops, requiring all four to hit a simple UAV or counter UAV to destroy it; other pointstreaks, such as helicopters, will require over four missile hits to be destroyed. This is somewhat balanced by the turret's ability to fire a seemingly unlimited amount of missile salvos at air support.
Unlike in Black Ops, it does not need to be airdropped in and can be deployed as soon as the player earns it. Destroying an enemy SAM Turret also adds a point to a player's pointstreak.
Placing it in an open area is recommended, as many buildings and/or structures have a tendency to block the SAM Turret's missiles, though this could lead to it being destroyed by enemies more quickly.
Call of Duty: Online[]
The SAM Turret returns for Call of Duty: Online. It behaves like the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 SAM which does not need to be airdropped, but reuses the Call of Duty: Black Ops model.
Call of Duty: Ghosts[]
- "SAM Turret ready for deployment."
- — Cut audio files.
The SAM Turret was cut from Call of Duty: Ghosts, but audio files remain for it.[1]
Call of Duty: Heroes[]
The SAM Turret reappears in Call of Duty: Heroes. It can be built at a Level 1 Command Center.
Call of Duty: Mobile[]
- "The SAM Turret is an unmanned weapon that uses missiles to automatically lock onto and destroy hostile aircraft Scorestreaks."
- — In-game description
The SAM Turret returns in Call of Duty: Mobile as a Scorestreak.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War[]
The SAM Turret returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War as a Field Upgrade in Multiplayer and as a Power-Up in Zombies.
Multiplayer[]
- "Launches missiles at enemy air scorestreaks and player-piloted helicopters."
- — In-game description
In Multiplayer, it functions like its predecessors, as an AI targeting system that focuses on both aerial scorestreaks and player controlled vehicles.
Zombies[]
The SAM Turret appears in the Zombies mode of Black Ops Cold War as a Power-Up available on the map Dead Ops Arcade 3: Rise of the Mamaback. It functions like its Multiplayer counterpart, however, will target all Zombie types.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II[]
The SAM Turret returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II featured in Denied Area Special Ops mission.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III[]
- "Launch a targeted missile strike against air vehicles."
- — In-game description
The SAM Turret returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III as both a Killstreak and a Scorestreak, functioning similarly to the previous games.
When it detects an enemy aerial killstreak/scorestreak, it locks onto it, displaying a red-colored laser, firing its missiles. The amount of fired missiles depends on the target, while a UAV or Mosquito Drone takes a single missile hit to be destroyed, large-sized vehicles like the Overwatch Helo or Gunship require more hits to be shot down. The turret's missiles can activate the use of chaff if the target has it available.
The turret holds three missiles. Once all of the projectiles have been fired, the turret self-destructs.
The turret is capable of killing enemy players or the player that set it if the missile hits a wall and explodes near them.
Videos[]
Trivia[]
Call of Duty: Black Ops[]
- The turret can kill its owner if its owner is standing near the rocket explosion. The rocket will pass through friendly players without detonating, but if it impacts a wall or its target and its owner is too close, it will kill them.
- SAM Turrets can destroy enemy Valkyrie Rockets.
- The killstreak selection menu background is Nuketown.
- A notable feature about this turret is that the launcher portion is made out of 2 minor retextures of the beta version of the Strela-3.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3[]
- Unlike in Black Ops, a red laser will appear to indicate which aircraft it is targeting.
- The SAM Turret at CoD XP could take down an Attack Helicopter in one missile but in the final version it can't.
- It is possible to kill another player with a SAM Turret if they stand in front of the missiles when the turret is locking on. At close range the SAM turret will be destroyed as well.
References[]
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