MH-9 Hummingbird

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^[1]

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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.^{[CfgVh 10]}^{[CfgVh 11]}^{[CfgVh 12]} Its rotors also operate silently, further compounding the difficulty of hearing a Hummingbird fly in (except at close distances).

Mobility
The Hummingbird features the best aerial manoeuvrability out of all 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.

Arma3-hummingbird-03 — Hummingbirds are easy prey for handheld SAMs.

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 since it has a base armour value of only 30.^{[CfgVh 13]}

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 by 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.^{[CfgVh 14]} 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 maximum seating capacity of eight personnel. This consists of the driver, a co-pilot, and up to six passengers. Two passengers are seated inside the helicopter^{[CfgVh 1]} whilst the remaining four are seated on benches on both sides of the helicopter.^{[CfgVh 2]}^{[CfgVh 3]}^{[CfgVh 4]}^{[CfgVh 5]}

Camouflage[]

Green

Green: Pattern-less olive drab green paint scheme.

Western Sahara Creator DLC only
NOTE: The following camouflage schemes will only be available if the third party-developed Western Sahara Creator DLC is activated. This is a premium asset that requires ownership of the Western Sahara Creator DLC. Sand 1/1 Sand: Desert sand colour scheme.

Protection: Hitpoints[]

The Hummingbird has a base armour value of 30.^{[CfgVh 13]}

Arma3-hummingbird-hitpoints — **LEGEND**^{[SCR 2]}
**Green** = Hull
**Orange** = Engine
**Violet** = Fuel tank
**Light blue** = Transmission
**Maroon** = Instruments
**Yellow** = Main rotor
**Dark blue** = Tail rotor

Hull[]

The hull takes full damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions.^{[CfgVh 15]} 100% of incoming damage will always be shared with the Hummingbird's main "health" pool.^{[CfgVh 16]}

Damage to the helicopter's hull is dependent on the total amount of damage inflicted to other components.^{[CfgVh 17]}^{[CfgVh 18]} On its own, depletion of the hull's integrity cannot cause the helicopter to explode unless all other components have been destroyed as well.^{[CfgVh 19]}

Engine[]

The Hummingbird's engine can only take a maximum of 7.5 points of damage before it fails.^{[CfgVh 20]}^{[Formula 1]} The engine takes 200% additional damage from HE-type munitions.^{[CfgVh 21]}

100% of damage inflicted upon the engine will be shared with the helicopter's main "health" pool. If the Hummingbird is at critical "health" status, the engine's destruction has the potential to cause an explosion.^{[CfgVh 22]}

Fuel tank[]

The Hummingbird's fuel tank can withstand up to 30 points of damage before it ruptures.^{[CfgVh 23]}^{[Formula 2]} It takes 200% additional damage from HE-type munitions.^{[CfgVh 24]} 100% of incoming damage will always be shared with the Hummingbird's main "health" pool. Depending on the helicopter's overall status, destruction of the fuel tank has the potential to cause an explosion if the Hummingbird is at critical "health" status.^{[CfgVh 25]}

Instruments[]

The Hummingbird's flight instruments and its Multi-Functional Displays (MFD) can take a maximum of 30 points of damage before they begin to fail.^{[CfgVh 26]}^{[Formula 3]} They take 200% additional damage from HE-type munitions.^{[CfgVh 27]} 100% of incoming damage to any of these components will be shared with the Hummingbird's main "health" pool. At critical "health" status, destruction of its flight instruments/MFDs can cause the Hummingbird to potentially explode.^{[CfgVh 28]}

Main rotor[]

The Hummingbird's main rotors can take a maximum of 90 points of damage before it fails.^{[CfgVh 29]}^{[Formula 4]} They take 250% additional damage from HE-type munitions.^{[CfgVh 30]} Only 10% of incoming damage will be shared with the Hummingbird's main "health" pool.^{[CfgVh 31]}

Tail rotor[]

The Hummingbird's tail rotor can take up to 60 points of damage before it suffers from failure.^{[CfgVh 32]}^{[Formula 5]} The tail rotors take 600% additional damage from HE-type munitions.^{[CfgVh 33]} Only 30% of incoming damage will be shared with the Hummingbird's main "health" pool.^{[CfgVh 34]}

Protection: Armour[]

Arma3-hummingbird-firegeo-penetration — **LEGEND**^{[SCR 3]}
**Gold** = cloth.bisurf
**Teal** = metal.bisurf
**Yellow** = plexiglass_plate.bisurf

.bisurf	Density ^[2]^[3]^[4]	Thickness ^[2]^[3]^[4]	bulletPenetrability ^[2]^[3]^[4]	bulletPenetrabilityWithThickness ^[2]^[3]^[4]	Friction ^[2]^[5]	Restitution ^[2]^[5]
cloth.bisurf	192	N/A; based on vehicle fire geometry thickness	9999	N/A; not used by cloth.bisurf	0.7	0.3
metal.bisurf	4000	N/A; based on vehicle fire geometry thickness	48	N/A; not used by metal.bisurf	0.7	0.3
plexiglass_plate.bisurf	1170	10	N/A; not used by plexiglass_plate.bisurf	164	0.7	0.3

The entirety of the Hummingbird's airframe is made out of plain metals.^{[rvmat 1]}^{[bisurf 1]}

The pilot and co-pilot seats are made out of cloth fabrics.^{[rvmat 2]}^{[bisurf 2]} Only the bubble canopy uses panes of plexiglass that have a thickness of 10 millimetres^{[rvmat 3]}^{[bisurf 3]}, though the canopy is not bullet-resistant and is unable to block bullet projectiles from piercing through (not even 9 mm bullets can be stopped).

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%.^{[CfgVh 10]}

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%).^{[CfgVh 11]}

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).^{[CfgVh 12]}

Sensors[]

The Hummingbird is not equipped with sensors that can be used for targeting purposes.

Dynamic loadouts[]

The Hummingbird is completely unarmed. It is not able to utilise the dynamic loadouts mechanic.

Avionics[]

MAWS[]

The Hummingbird does not have access to a Missile Approach Warning System. The pilot will not be warned if there are one or more guided munitions that have successfully locked onto the helicopter and are inbound towards it.^{[CfgVh 14]}

RWR[]

The Hummingbird is not equipped with a Radar Warning Receiver. The pilot will not be warned if a radar-based targeting system is attempting to acquire a lock-on.^{[CfgVh 35]}

IWR[]

The Hummingbird is not equipped with an Infrared Warning Receiver. The pilot will not be alerted if an infrared-based targeting system is attempting to acquire a lock-on.^{[CfgVh 35]}

LWR[]

The Hummingbird is not equipped with a Laser Warning Receiver. The pilot will not be warned if a laser-based targeting system is attempting to lock onto the helicopter.^{[CfgVh 35]}

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^{[CfgVh 36]} 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.

Slingload camera[]

The pilot has the ability to switch to the Hummingbird's slingloading camera. It has a fixed magnification of 1x zoom^{[CfgVh 37]}^{[CfgVh 38]}^{[Formula 6]} and can switch between its default day vision and a night vision mode.^{[CfgVh 39]} However, it cannot be rotated in any direction^{[CfgVh 40]}^{[CfgVh 41]}^{[CfgVh 42]} and is set to a fixed depression angle of 80 degrees.^{[CfgVh 43]}^{[CfgVh 44]}

AI[]

NOTE: The following information only applies to the AI.

Camouflage rating[]

Main article: AI Basics: Detection

The Hummingbird has a camouflage^[6] rating of 100.^{[CfgVh 45]}

Cost[]

Main article: AI Basics: Targeting priority

The Hummingbird has a cost^[7] value of 700000.^{[CfgVh 46]}

Threat values[]