AR-2 Darter

Darter / Tayran
Faction	NATO CSAT AAF LDF IDAP
Type	Small UAV
Seats	None
Item capacity	None
Top speed	~ 100 km/h
Service ceiling	~ 1,250 m
Fuel capacity	100 fuel units
Weight	170.667 kg (g)
Slingloadable	No
Primary armament	None
Secondary armament	Targeting: 1× Laser Designator
Variants	Drone (IDAP)
Games

The AR-2 Darter / Tayran AR-2 is a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle used by several BLUFOR, REDFOR and INDFOR factions in ArmA 3.

A civilian variant also exists and is simply known as the Drone, where it is used in limited numbers by IDAP aid workers. It was added with the release of the Laws of War DLC.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Reconnaissance
  • Surveillance
  • Laser targeting

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The Darter AR-2 is a miniature remote-controlled quadcopter equipped with laser designator. It is perfect for reconnaissance, surveillance and target designation. Darters are agile, silent and hard to detect. The ability to hover in one place and use the camera to observe a location is invaluable in setting ambushes. An OPFOR arms manufacturer was able to reverse-engineer the Darter's construction and now produces a similar vehicle. The OPFOR quadcopter is labeled as the Tayran AR-2. Field Manual

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Design

Man portable and compact, the Darter is miniature VTOL-capable quadrotor drone that is small enough to be carried in a backpack.

Features
Once unpacked and assembled by the operator, it can then be connected to through a UAV Terminal and assigned tasks or be used to mark targets with its laser designator for precision guided munitions.

Eye in the sky.

It can be assigned to follow a person or vehicle while hovering at a safe distance, essentially acting as third, infrared-enabled eye for the operator (provided that they toggle the UAV's real-time camera feed).

Mobility
Its small size makes it fairly agile and true to its name, can quickly dart through small gaps in buildings or hover just above the treeline in a forest.

Drawbacks
Care must be taken with the Darter's use, however, regardless of whether it is set to autonomous operation or manual control. It has no armour plating and can be disabled with just one round to any part of the airframe. Even coming into contact too roughly with any hard surface can instantly destroy the Darter.

Camouflage

• IDAP
• White
• Grey Hex
• Digital Grey
• Geometric

1/5

All faction variants have access to the same camouflage options:

• IDAP: Flat white paint scheme with additional livery in the form of IDAP logos and signage. Used exclusively by IDAP aid workers.
• White: Pattern-less flat white paint scheme. Used on NATO AR-2s.
• Grey Hex: Light/dark grey cell pattern camouflage. Utilised by CSAT's AR-2s.
• Digital Grey: Digitised semi-fractal camouflage pattern used by several AAF aircraft and boats. Exclusive to AAF AR-2s.
• Geometric: Greyscale version of the Geometric fractal camouflage pattern on Livonian Defense Force uniforms. Only applied onto LDF-operated AR-2s.

Protection

Both variants of the drone have base armour values of just 0.5.

Stealth

As a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) the Darter cannot be targeted by most anti-aircraft systems due to being too tiny to be trackable by most sensors:

RCS

The Darter has a radar cross-section rating of just 0.1, which reduces active radar range by 90% to just 10% of their default maximum range.

Because the Darter lacks a radar module of its own however, spotting the Darter via passive radars is not possible, and detecting it on active radar is virtually impossible under normal circumstances.

IR

The Darter provides no stealth capabilities against infrared-based sensors.

Visual

The Darter is extremely difficult to track via visual-based sensors, and can only be spotted at 10% of their maximum ranges (factor of 0.1; reduction of 90%).

Sensors

Being a small UAV, the Darter has only two types of sensors that are meant to be used exclusively for tracking purposes:

Orange = IRST
Green = Human Detector

Active Radar

The Darter does not have an active radar as it cannot use any weapon systems.

Infrared Search and Track/Human Detector

IRST detection has a maximum range of 1.5 km against aerial targets, and 1 km against ground targets. Identity recognition locks in at a distance of 2 km, which means that a Darter will always be able to instantly identify a target seen via infrared once they come within range.

It should be noted that unlike other manned/unmanned aircraft, the Darter does not have or use a conventional visual sensor. Instead, it utilises a motion/thermal sensor that is designed specifically to detect humans.

This sensor can track airborne humans (i.e. paratroopers) at a distance of 750 m, while humans on the ground can be detected at a distance of 500 m. The human detector cannot recognise the identity of spotted targets even when they move within range.

Both sensors are located in the Darter's camera, and their azimuth and elevation coverage is limited to a maximum angle of 51 and 37 degrees respectively. The human detector is only able to track targets moving at speeds of up to 54 km/h, while IRST is limited to a maximum of 126 km/h instead.

Radar Warning Receiver/Passive Radar

The Darter does not have a RWR or the ability to detect radar emissions.

Laser Spot Tracker

The Darter cannot acquire laser marks or lock-on to infrared strobes.

Trivia

• The Darter appears to be based on an enlarged version of the "AR.Drone Version 2.0" manufactured by Parrot SA of France.
• Despite clearly being battery-operated, Darters can "refuel" themselves from civilian gas terminals and military fuel trucks. At the same time, they cannot be recharged with batteries used by actual electronic items (i.e. laser designators).
• A unique CSAT-exclusive variant of the Tayran exists in the Old Man mini-campaign/scenario (Classname: O_UAV_01_Mine_F).
  • These variants, generically designated as "Sentry Drones", remain visually identical to regular Tayrans and patrol the outskirts of high-security bases. However, they are designed to serve as suicide UAVs that detonate an explosive charge onto the player if they are detected by the drone.

Gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: Parrot AR.Drone Version 2.0

See also

Drones of comparable role and configuration

• Utility Drone (ArmA 3: Laws of War only)
• Demining Drone (ArmA 3: Laws of War only)