The Ka-137 is a rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle used exclusively by ION PMCs in ArmA 2. It was added with the release of the Private Military Company DLC.
Overview[]
- Roles:
- Observation
- Airborne sentry
| « | Being an unmanned multipurpose helicopter, this aircraft can be used for many unique roles, such as recoinnaissance, surveillance and data transmission. A piston engine drives a coaxial rotor-system and the spherical fuselage lacks a feature often seen on helicopters: a tail. Upon customer request, the special engine compartment can be outfitted with special imaging cameras, signal repeaters and more equipment up to a total weight of 80 kilogrammes. The Ka-137 can be controlled by pre-programmed flight programmes, by manual control from the ground or a combination of the two. Armoury Description
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Design[]
The Ka-137 is a coaxial-rotor helicopter that uses a spherical tailless fuselage, four-leg leaf-spring landing gear, and a piston engine. Intended for use in reconnaissance, border patrolling, law enforcement, aerial resupply and ground observation duties, it is a multipurpose UAV that is capable of performing many roles.
Features
It is available in two models: a basic unarmed version that only has a surveillance camera attached beneath it, and a second armed version that has an underbelly-fitted turret.
Ka-137 attacking an insurgent Military Offroad.
The armed version's turret is fitted with a 7.62 mm machine gun while the camera can toggle between using normal "day" vision or black/white hot thermal vision modes (the unarmed version does not have access to thermal vision). The mounted PKT on the armed variant feeds from a single 200-round linked belt and has another belt left in reserve.
A somewhat uniquely designed UAV, the Ka-137 serves no real purpose other than to act as a flying sentry drone to patrol remote locales. While hovering at a safe altitude (and assuming manual control), the Ka-137 can effectively be utilised as an improvised "sniper drone" to hit distant infantry targets at ranges of up to 800 metres away.
Because it has VTOL capabilities, the Ka-137 also does not require a runway to take-off or land from unlike the Russian Pchela-1T.
Drawbacks
The Ka-137 is extremely fragile and will not survive long against enemy fire; particularly against anti-aircraft missiles as it completely lacks defensive avionics. In addition, it lacks a built-in laser designator (unlike the Pchela-1T) and can't serve in a forward air control role.
Variants[]
Does not carry any armament by default. The camera is also unable to toggle any vision modes.
The turret is fitted with a PKT 7.62 mm machine gun. It is pre-loaded with a single 200-round belt and has access to one reserve belt (totalling 400 rounds). Unlike its parent model, this variant's turret camera does have access to thermal vision.
Protection[]
Both variants of the Ka-137 have base armour values of just 1.
Hull[]
The Ka-137's hull can withstand just 1 point of damage before its integrity fails.
Engine[]
The engine is only able to take 1 point of damage before it fails. Damaging the engine will reduce power output for the main rotors.
Fuel tank[]
The Ka-137's internal fuel tank can withstand a maximum of 1 point of damage before it ruptures. Damaging the tank will cause the Ka-137 to slowly leak fuel over time.
Main rotors[]
The coaxial rotors can only take 1 point of damage before they break.
Armament[]
The armed variant of the Ka-137 is the only model that has access to the underbelly-mounted PKT medium machine gun. The camera used by the AI "gunner" has access to variable zoom optics and can toggle either a day or black-hot/white-hot thermal vision mode:
PKT[]
NOTE: Only available on the Ka-137 (PK) variant.
| Base damage value | Aerodynamic friction | Initial velocity (m/s) |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | -0.00096 | 855 |
7.62 mm medium machine gun.
The PKT can attain a fire rate of up to 800 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 855 m/s. Accuracy-wise, it has a dispersion of 0.00125 rad at distances of up to 800 metres. It takes 5 seconds for the drone to reload a fresh belt.
The gun itself can be zeroed starting from a minimum of 300 m up to a maximum of 800 m. Adjustments are made with increments/decrements of 100 m.
Avionics[]
MAWS[]
No variant of the Ka-137 possesses a Missile Approach Warning System and will not alert the operator when there are incoming missiles.
RWR[]
Neither variant of the Ka-137 has a Radar Warning Receiver. The operator will not be warned when the drone is being targeted by radar-based targeting systems.
IWR[]
Both variants of the Ka-137 lack Infrared Warning Receivers. The operator will not be alerted when the drone is being locked onto by infrared-based targeting systems.
Trivia[]
- The mounted PKT is configured specifically to have extremely high dispersion when the Ka-137 is left to autonomous control.
- An unfortunate side effect of this decreased accuracy is that an uncontrolled Ka-137 will tend to use up its entire ammunition supply; often while attempting to kill a lone enemy unit.
- A bug can also occur where Ka-137s that have been left to autonomous control will be forced into using the PKT's high dispersion firemode. If a human player attempts to connect to the drone and take manual control, they will not be able to switch back to the PKT's "normal" firemode. This is because the PKT is not considered to be a select-fire weapon and its alternate AI-only firemodes are "locked" for human players.
- Prior to the latest CorePatch updates, destroying the Ka-137 would result in a disproportionally large explosion effect that did not match the drone's size.[1]
| SPOILER ALERT |
|---|
NOTE: This section contains spoilers from ArmA 2: Private Military Company's 'Operation Black Gauntlet' campaign. |
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Mazzon, M et al. 2019, CorePatch, GitHub, viewed 8 July 2023, <https://github.com/Goliath86/CorePatch/blob/master/Changelog.txt>.
- ↑ ARMA 2: Private Military Company 2010 [Video Game], Bohemia Interactive a.s., Operation Black Gauntlet, Malfunction, "FROST: Hey, Tricky.. D'you hear that, mate? DIXON: What's that? Nah, mate.. what? What's up..? Jesus Christ! Boys, spread out - hit the dirt - get down! FROST: Get the fuck up! We've got incoming - what the fuck is that?!"
- ↑ ARMA 2: Private Military Company 2010 [Video Game], Bohemia Interactive a.s., Operation Black Gauntlet, Malfunction, "Fucked if I know, mate! ..Look like bloody sputniks! Just keep your head down, lad!"
- ↑ Mořický, K 2012, 'PRIVATE MILITARY CREATORS', Karel Mořický, 23 July, viewed 8 July 2022, <http://moricky.com/2012/07/private-military-creators/>.
External links[]
See also[]
Drones of comparable role and configuration[]
- MQ-12 Falcon (Armed Pacific NATO counterpart, ArmA 3: Apex only)
 ION Services - Vehicles (ArmA 2)
| |
|---|---|
| Wheeled | SUV (Armored SUV) |
| Tracked | M113 |
| Rotor-wing | Ka-60 • Ka-137 |
| Fixed-wing | C-130J Hercules |
| (Parenthesis) denote variants. Operation Arrowhead | Private Military Company | |