MH-9 Hummingbird

Hummingbird
Faction	NATO
Type	Light Helicopter
Seats	8 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 6× Passengers
Item capacity	1000 mass
Top speed	~ 240 km/h
Service ceiling	~ 4,000 m
Fuel capacity	242 fuel units
Weight	1820.81 kg
Slingloadable	No
Primary armament	None
Secondary armament	None
Variants	AH-9 Pawnee, M900
Games

The MH-9 Hummingbird is a light observation and transport helicopter used exclusively by NATO forces in ArmA 3.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Troop transport
  • Observation

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A light single-engine helicopter used in special operations by the US Army since the Vietnam War. It now exists in several variants used by both military and civilian transport. The AH-9 Pawnee variant is a light helicopter with the ability to carry anti-ground fixed forward-firing weapons such as unguided rockets and machine guns to provide direct air-support for the special operations forces. The MH-9 Hummingbird is mostly used as a special forces troop transport with two outboard benches. Field Manual

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Design

The Hummingbird is a five-bladed, single engine, rotary-wing light helicopter designed for both observation and light transport roles.

Features
Although it isn't designed to be a stealthed helicopter, its small size renders it difficult to spot with the naked eye and on radar, particularly when flying low with plenty of ground clutter to obscure its signature.

Its rotors also operate silently, further compounding the difficulty of hearing a Hummingbird fly in (except at close distances).

Hovering just above the treetops, the Hummingbird is the transport of choice when it comes to inserting into LZs with minimal clearance.

Mobility
The Hummingbird features the best aerial manoeuvrability out of all the helicopters in ArmA 3. In contrast to its larger CSAT and AAF/LDF counterparts, the Hummingbird's compact size renders it ideal for quick insertions or extractions.

No matter the type of landing zone - whether it be a small building rooftop, a forest clearing, or in a narrow urban street, the Hummingbird will face little difficulty getting in and out of such places.

Drawbacks
All of this excellent mobility comes at the cost of protection and safety, however, as the Hummingbird (along with its attack and civil sub-variants) relies exclusively on speed and agility to avoid incurring damage.

Hummingbirds are easy prey for handheld SAMs.

This is due to the airframe lacking any sort of armour plating or doors. Many components, such as the flight instruments or cockpit itself, are left completely exposed to enemy fire. Even the pilots themselves are only covered from the front by a thin plexiglass bubble canopy, which can easily be penetrated from a few rounds of small arms fire.

It also lacks defensive avionics like a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), and is therefore helpless against any anti-aircraft weapon systems that manage to lock-on to it via radar.

In addition, the Hummingbird doesn't possess any armament due to the side benches taking up the space, preventing it from being able to mount stub wings. Though passengers riding on the side benches can still fire their own weapons in self-defence, they too are vulnerable and can easily be shot out of the sky if the helicopter is left exposed to enemy fire for too long.

Crew Capacity
The Hummingbird has a seating capacity of eight personnel including the crew that consists of the pilot and co-pilot.

Protection

The Hummingbird has a base armour value of 30.

Hull

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

Engine

The Hummingbird's engine can survive just a meagre 7.5 points of damage before failing. It receives 200% additional damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions.

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

Fuel tank

The Hummingbird's fuel tank can resist only 12 points of damage before rupturing. It takes 200% additional damage from HE-type munitions.

Rupturing the Hummingbird'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's/co-pilot's flight instruments and Multi-Functional Displays (MFD). They can incur 30 points of damage before failing.

If damaged: Occasional flickering of MFDs. Other instruments unaffected.
If destroyed: Causes MFDs/instruments to malfunction completely. Some gauges may not display consistent readings.

Main rotor

The main rotor can take up to 90 points of damage. It incurs a 250% increased damage penalty from HE-type weapons.

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

Tail rotor

The tail rotor can take 60 points of damage before failing. It suffers an additional 600% damage penalty from HE-type munitions.

A disabled tail rotor will drastically increase torque from the main rotor. At low airspeeds, the Hummingbird will become extremely unstable and almost impossible to control due to constant yaw shifting.

Stealth

Due to its small size, the Hummingbird is semi-stealthed in all aspects against both active radars and infrared sensors as well as visual sensors. Against fighter radars, it can remain completely undetected by flying over ground clutter instead of remaining above open terrain:

RCS

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

IR

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

Visual

The Hummingbird is much more difficult to spot visually and cannot be identified by visual-based sensors until it flies within 80% of the sensor's maximum range (factor of 0.8; a 20% reduction).

FFV

Main article: Firing from vehicles (mechanic)#MH-9 Hummingbird

Slingloading

Main article: Slingloading#MH-9 Hummingbird

The Hummingbird is able to slingload some small vehicles, though because it has a maximum weight capacity of only 500 kg this largely limits it to ferrying smaller supply crates and ATVs. This makes it quite useless as an airlift vehicle since it can't transport any useful ground vehicles or larger crates.

Trivia

• The airframe is based on the real-world McDonnell Douglas "MD-500D" light helicopter and uses the same seamless cockpit windscreen and tail structure.
  • The main difference is its appearance, most notably the Hummingbird's addition of vents at the base of the tailboom, but is largely identical to the real MD-500D.
  • The Hummingbird's role and capabilities on the other hand, closely resemble that of the real-world "MH-6 Little Bird" which is also designed by McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems.

Gallery

Promotional screenshot released during the pre-Alpha. The NATO infantryman in the foreground is armed with a Bulldog shotgun, and is seen dismounting from an MH-9 at the Altis International Airport.

External links

• Wikipedia: MD Helicopters MD 500
• Wikipedia: MD Helicopters MH-6 Little Bird

See also

Variants

• AH-9 Pawnee
• M900 (Unarmed civilian/Syndikat variant, ArmA 3: Helicopters/ArmA 3: Apex only)

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• PO-30 Orca (CSAT counterpart)
• WY-55 Hellcat (AAF counterpart)
• MH-6J Little Bird (U.S. Army predecessor, ArmA 2: OA only)