L-39ZA

L-39ZA
Faction	Takistani Army
Type	Light Attack Jet
Seats	1 seat: 1× Pilot
Item capacity	Max: 3× Weapons 20× Magazines
Top speed	~ 749 km/h
Service ceiling	~ 9,756 m
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 1× GSh-23L 23 mm 2× S-5 Rocket Pods
Secondary armament	None
Variants	L-39C
Games

The L-39ZA is a light attack jet exclusively used by the Takistani Army in ArmA 2. It was added with the release of the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack.

Overview

• Role:
  • Close air support

«

The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer aircraft. It was developed in Czechoslovakia and was widely used for pilot training all over the world. This L-39ZA version is armed with a GS-23L 23mm twin barrel automated cannon and S-5 unguided missiles. Armoury Description

»

Design

This is a premium asset that requires ownership of the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack.

The L-39ZA is a single engine, low-wing jet-powered light attack aircraft with trapezoidal wings. It is mainly designed for training purposes, but is capable of ground attack duties as well.

Armament
By default, the L-39ZA is armed with a 23 mm cannon that is loaded with 150 rounds of high-explosive (HE) ammunition. It is also fitted with a 57 mm rocket pod under each wing which have 64 rockets loaded in total (32 per pod).

Features
Intended for use as a jet trainer, the L-39ZA was adopted by the Takistani Army for use as a light attack jet instead, complementing the heavier but slower Su-25 in the close air support role. It is designed with simplicity in mind and lacks the need for extended maintenance like other advanced aircraft.

Mobility
Aerodynamically, the L-39ZA is quite agile and is able to perform sharp mid-air turns without much loss in power. While accelerating at full speed, it can attain its upper airspeed limit of 750 km/h (under ideal circumstances) in roughly twenty seconds, and does not need to be flying in a straight line to maintain this speed like the more cumbersome Su-25.

Drawbacks
This performance does come at a cost however, as the L-39ZA has very low armour compared to the Su-25. It also cannot carry any air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles or iron bombs, which restricts it to performing strafing runs with its cannon and rockets only.

With no defensive avionics whatsoever, the L-39ZA is also completely vulnerable to anti-air missiles. Needless to say, the L-39ZA works best alongside the Su-25; with the latter taking out heavier ground threats with its ATGMs while the former cleans up any remaining threats with rocket fire.

Crew Capacity
The L-39ZA has a maximum seating capacity of one. It cannot transport any passengers or additional crew.

Variants

L-39C

Main article: L-39C

Protection

The L-39ZA has a base armour value of 60.

Hull

The L-39ZA's hull can only withstand 60 points of damage. Depletion of the hull's integrity will instantly result in a total loss.

Armament

The pilot solely controls all weapon systems on the jet:

GSh-23L

Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)
45	-0.000824	830

23 mm autocannon. Fires hybrid HE/AP-type shells that are useful for unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles and low-flying helicopters.

Shells are always fired in bursts of 2. It can attain a fire rate of up to ~ 1,500 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s. At distances of approximately 1,250 metres, the GSh-23L has a dispersion spread of 0.0006 rad.

S-5

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive	150	580

Unguided air-to-ground rockets. Strong against groups of infantry and unarmoured ground vehicles.

Rockets are always fired in pairs. The pods have a firing delay of 0.08 seconds in-between volleys (750 RPM) and are launched with an initial velocity of 44 m/s. They take a further 1.1 seconds to reach a top speed of 580 m/s in mid-flight.

The warheads are high-explosive (HE) based and have a blast radius of 12 metres.

Avionics

MAWS

The L-39ZA does not have a Missile Approach Warning System and will not warn the pilot of incoming missiles already in mid-flight.

RWR

The L-39ZA does not possess a Radar Warning Receiver and cannot alert the pilot of being locked-onto by radar-based targeting systems.

IWR

The L-39ZA lacks an Infrared Warning Receiver, and will not warn the pilot of being targeted by infrared-based weapon systems.

Trivia

• Oddly enough, the L-39ZA's cockpit uses a tandem seating arrangement like its real-world counterpart but cannot actually carry a co-pilot in-game.
  • Given that the canopy for both positions will open and close whenever the aircraft is entered/exited, it's not known whether this was intended by design or is simply an oversight.

Gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: Aero L-39 Albatros

See also

Variants

• L-39C (ArmA 2: ACR only)

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• L-159 ALCA (ACR counterpart, ArmA 2: ACR only)
• A-143 Buzzard (AAF counterpart, ArmA 3 only)