AH-99 Blackfoot

Blackfoot
Faction	NATO
Type	Reconnaissance Attack Helicopter
Seats	2 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Gunner
Item capacity	None
Top speed	~ 365 km/h
Service ceiling	~ 3,300 m
Fuel capacity	500 fuel units
Weight	10052.3 kg
Slingloadable	No
Primary armament	Main: 1× Minigun 20 mm 2× DAGR Rocket Pods [Default] 4× ASRAAM AA [Default]
Secondary armament	Targeting: 1× Laser Designator Defensive: 240× Countermeasures (Flare/Chaff)
Variants	None
Games

The AH-99 Blackfoot is a reconnaissance attack helicopter used exclusively by NATO forces in ArmA 3.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Observation
  • Reconnaissance
  • Light gunship
  • Laser targeting

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A two-seat attack helicopter armed with 20 mm Minigun, ASRAAM and DAGR missiles. Even though the construction dates back some time and the program faced cancelation in the first years of the 21st century, the project was finished successfully and the Blackfoot became the first attack helicopter with stealth technology applied even to the main rotor. The Blackfoot is extremely fast, agile and hard to detect even by contemporary sensors, but it's slowly becoming outdated. Field Manual

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Design

The Blackfoot is a five-bladed, rotary-wing stealth helicopter designed for both armed reconnaissance and ground attack duties.

Armament
By default, the Blackfoot is armed with a 20 mm minigun mounted onto an external gun turret fitted beneath the cockpit. It is pre-loaded with a 1,000 round belt of high-explosive (HE) shells.

It has up to six pylons (three on each wing) stored within retractable internal bays on either side of the fuselage that support dynamic loadouts.

AH-99 pylon configuration

• Any of the following munitions can be fitted onto either the innermost or outermost pylons (1-2, 5-6):
  • ASRAAM (1×)
  • Scalpel (1×)
  • DAGR (12×)
  • DAR (12×)
• The centre pylons (3-4) on both wings can only fit the following two missile types:
  • ASRAAM (1×)
  • Scalpel (1×)

The gunner's turret also has a laser designator that can be used to mark targets for its own DAGR rockets, or for precision guided bombs dropped from fixed-wing jets like the GBU-12.

Features
The Blackfoot's rotors are modified so that they operate much more silently. It is more difficult to hear a Blackfoot flying in compared to the Mi-48, which can be easily heard from many kilometres away.

Meanwhile, its stealth coating also ensures that fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft vehicles like the ZSU-39 will have difficulty detecting it from afar; provided that the crew do not activate the Blackfoot's own radar whilst within range of their sensors.

Mobility
Unlike its bulkier and cumbersome CSAT counterpart, the Blackfoot is highly agile and very fast for its size, though subsequently it isn't as well protected in comparison. Nonetheless, it can gain lift and generate thrust rapidly at almost any angle and direction.

Its manoeuvrability rivals the MH-9, but in comparison is far better armoured and equipped to deal with a variety of threats. However, the Blackfoot does have a slight problem with losing a lot of lift while performing high speed/high-G turns, or from pulling out of a dive.

The Blackfoot works best as a force multiplier alongside other assets.

Drawbacks
The Blackfoot is ill-equipped to tackle heavily armoured ground threats. While its default loadout of DAGRs perform decently against medium-armoured vehicles, they will not be able to inflict much damage on Main Battle Tanks.

Its 20 mm cannon is also quite weak in comparison to the Mi-48's 30 mm autocannon, and is only effective against infantry and other low-flying aircraft.

Overall, it is better utilised either for forward air control purposes or intercepting enemy helicopters. Its minimal air-to-ground capabilities (even with Skalpel ATGMs equipped via dynamic loadouts) make it largely inferior to its CSAT counterpart for ground-attack roles.

Crew Capacity
The Blackfoot supports a crew of two consisting of both the pilot and gunner.

Protection

The Blackfoot has a base armour value of 40.

Hull

Hull damage is calculated based on the integrity of other components on the Blackfoot. Until all other parts of the helicopter have been critically damaged, the hull itself can never be "destroyed".

Engines

Each of the Blackfoot's engines can survive 28 points of damage (there are two in total). They take 300% increased damage from high-explosive (HE) type weapons.

If damaged: Reduced power output and makes it difficult to gain both speed and altitude.
If destroyed: Can potentially blow up the Blackfoot instantly if overall status of helicopter is at critical.

Fuel tank

The Blackfoot's fuel tank can resist up to 40 points of damage before failure.

Rupturing the Blackfoot's fuel tank will not result in a total loss unless the helicopter's damage levels are already at critical.

Instruments

Consists of the pilot/gunner flight instruments, Multi-Functional Displays (MFD) and Helmet Mounted Displays (HMD). They can incur 80 points of damage before failure.

If damaged: Occasional flickering of MFDs and crew HMDs. Other instruments unaffected.
If destroyed: MFDs and HMDs disabled. Instruments may not display proper readings.

Main rotor

The main rotor can survive 160 points of damage before failure. It takes 250% increased damage from HE-type weapons.

A disabled main rotor makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the Blackfoot's lift. Unless the tail rotor has also been disabled however, the Blackfoot can still be (reasonably) controlled at low airspeeds.

Tail rotor

The tail rotor can resist up to 120 points of damage before failure. It receives 600% increased damage from HE-type weapons.

A disabled tail rotor will drastically increase torque from the main rotor. At low airspeeds, the Blackfoot will become extremely difficult to control due to constant yaw shifting to one side.

Stealth

The Blackfoot provides limited stealth against active radars and infrared sensors. When pitted against fighter radars, it has a higher chance of staying undetected by hovering above ground clutter rather than flying over open terrain:

RCS

The Blackfoot has a radar cross-section rating of 0.7, which lowers the maximum detection range of active radars by 30%.

IR

The Blackfoot has reduced visibility on the infrared spectrum, and can only be detected at 80% of an infrared-based sensor's maximum range (factor of 0.8; reduction of 20%).

Visual

The Blackfoot does not apply any reductions to visual-based sensors and can be tracked at full ranges.

Sensors

Capable of both reconnaissance and providing fire support, the Blackfoot utilises several types of sensors optimised for its role as an air-to-ground platform:

Teal = Active Radar
Orange = IRST
Green = Visual

Active Radar

It has an active radar range of 5 km against aerial targets, and 4 km against ground targets. Azimuth coverage is set to 180 degrees, while elevation coverage is at 90 degrees.

Targets can be identified once they come within 3 km range. They can only be tracked if they are moving at speeds of 450 km/h or less.

Infrared Search and Track/Visual Sensor

IRST detection extends out to a maximum range of 3 km against aerial targets and 2 km against ground targets. Visual detection on the other hand, is limited to just 2 km for aerial targets and 1.5 km for ground targets.

Each sensor has an azimuth/elevation coverage of 46 and 34 degrees respectively. They have a minimum operating range of 500 m, and can recognise targets once they are 2 km out from the Blackfoot's position. Targets can only be tracked if they are moving at speeds of 252 km/h or less.

Both sensors are located in the Blackfoot's turret and have an elevation offset of 30 degrees. The sensors work independently of the Blackfoot's actual heading and will rotate according to where the gunner is aiming the gun's camera.

Radar Warning Receiver/Passive Radar

The RWR has a 360 degree detection radius and a target recognition range of 12 km.

Laser Spot Tracker

Laser markers and infrared strobes can be tracked within a range of 6 km. It has an acquisition cone of 180 degrees.

Armament

NOTE: Only the weapons used on the default loadout for the Blackfoot are listed here. For full details on ordnance that can be mounted on the Blackfoot's pylons, refer to the dynamic loadouts article.

The gunner position controls all weapon systems on the Blackfoot. Except for the Minigun 20 mm, both the DAGR rocket pods and ASRAAM missiles are stored on racks located inside the Blackfoot's internal weapons bays located on both sides of the fuselage.

For optics, the turret's camera has access to three fields of view and can toggle a day, night or black-hot/white-hot thermal vision modes. The turret itself has a horizontal rotation limit of 120 degrees in both directions. Vertically however, it is restricted to a depression of 51 degrees and an elevation of only 9 degrees:

Minigun 20 mm

Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)	Penetration depth (mm)
60	-0.00078	1,030	51.63

Primary weapon affixed onto the Blackfoot's nose turret. Fires 20 mm high-explosive (HE) shells that are effective against infantry, unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles and low, slow-flying aircraft. Its HE shells have a blast radius of 1.6 metres.

It can attain a fire rate of up to 1,500 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 1,030 m/s. Accuracy-wise, the Minigun 20 mm has a dispersion of 0.0055 rad at distances of 1,800 metres.

Its fire control system features automatic lead/zeroing on targets moving at speeds of up to ~ 110 km/h, but requires 0.5 seconds to finish adjustments. The Minigun 20 mm can also be zeroed manually by the gunner, though it is only available in 100 m increments up to 800 m, which then jumps to 1000 m, 1200 m, 1500 m, 1800 m, 2100 m and finally 2500 m.

DAGR

Main article: Dynamic loadouts#DAGR

Infrared-guided air-to-ground anti-vehicle rockets. Relies on the Blackfoot's Infrared Search and Track sensor to function.

ASRAAM

Main article: Dynamic loadouts#ASRAAM

Infrared-guided air-to-air missile. Relies on the Blackfoot's Infrared Search and Track sensor to function.

Trivia

• As stated in the Field Manual, the Blackfoot's origins are derived from the real-world "RAH-66 Comanche" prototype helicopter. Unlike the Blackfoot however, the Comanche was eventually cancelled by the U.S. Army in 2004 and it is highly unlikely that its development will ever be revived.
• Prior to the release of the Tanks DLC, the Blackfoot lacked the ability to use a laser designator unlike its real-world counterpart. The DLC's release finally gave the gunner the ability to use a laser designator (slaved to the turret) to mark targets for laser-guided munitions.

Gallery

The interior of the Blackfoot's cockpit.

External links

• Wikipedia: Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• Mi-48 Kajman (CSAT counterpart)
• AH-1Z (U.S. Army/USMC predecessor, ArmA: Armed Assault/ArmA 2 only)