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NOTE: This article is about the baseline MSE-3 Marid APC in ArmA 3. For its alternate counterpart in the semi-official Western Sahara Creator DLC, see MSE-3 Marid (Western Sahara).


The MSE-3 Marid is a wheeled Armoured Personnel Carrier used exclusively by CSAT forces in ArmA 3.

Overview[]

  • Roles:
    • Troop transport
    • Fire support
« The MSE-3 Marid is an amphibious 6-wheeled APC used by the OPFOR army. It's an agile and maneuverable vehicle with a low silhouette and compact size. Its reliability and maintenance costs match the western APCs. It's fitted as standard with an RCWS turret with 40 mm GMG and 6.5 mm LMG and is able to carry up to 8 soldiers in the cargo space.
Field Manual
»

Design[]

The MSE-3 is a 6x6 Armoured Personnel Carrier that can be adapted to suit many roles including but not limited to, reconnaissance, troop transport, and light fire support.

Armament
It is fitted with an RCWS turret that is armed with a dual-mount 12.7 mm heavy machine gun and 40 mm automatic grenade launcher.

The turret's HMG feeds from a single 200-round belt of 12.7 mm ammunition and has a further three belts in reserve. The GMG on the other hand, is pre-loaded with one 96-round linked belt that has 40 mm grenades fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads. Unlike the HMG, the GMG only has a single belt to reload with.

Arma3-marid-00

Mediterranean CSAT MSE-3 providing escort for a convoy of Zamak trucks. Note the turned-out driver position.

Features
A relatively compact-sized APC, the MSE-3 serves as the primary battlefield taxi for both Mediterranean and Pacific CSAT forces. Where it lacks in firepower it makes up for in mobility; it is amphibious-capable and can ford across water channels while providing suppression for dismounted troops.

Mobility
It has smooth handling both on- and off-road, and has a decent turn rate even on sharp corners. It is also quite fast, and is only just slightly slower than NATO's Marshall Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

Drawbacks
A consequence of its enhanced mobility is its reduced (or rather, minimal) protection for its riders. Unlike NATO's Marshall and the AAF's Gorgon IFVs, the MSE-3 has the least amount of armour plating. Even with slat cages fitted to its hull, the MSE-3 stands little chance against anything remotely resembling medium or heavy anti-tank weaponry.

Although a few hits from small anti-vehicle launchers like the RPG-7 can be shrugged off, the same cannot be said for the MAAWS Mk4 and CSAT's own RPG-42, both of which will shred the MSE-3 if it is left exposed in the open.

Arma3-marid-02

With a pitiful combination of only a machine gun and grenade launcher, MSE-3s are helpless against better armed transports.

At the same time, its RCWS turret suffers from the same issues as the (tracked) Panther APC; it lacks the firepower of the 40 mm autocannon used on the Marshall and the Gorgon's 30 mm CTWS. As a result, the MSE-3 is unable to tackle threats beyond infantry and light armour.

The only upside is that whilst the MSE-3 provides as much protection as a paper hat against anti-vehicle weapons, it still retains sufficient armour plating to protect its crew and passengers from non-large explosives. Small arms fire from calibres of up 12.7 mm can also be resisted, though some sections of the hull remain vulnerable (an example being the rear hatch windows).

Crew Capacity
The MSE-3 has a seating capacity of ten personnel including the crew. The crew consists of the driver and a commander, who also doubles as the gunner.

Camouflage[]

  • Hex: Arid Hexacam camouflage pattern. Useful for forested, grass plains, and desert environments. Changes any applied camo nets to use a two-tone desert camouflage pattern.
  • Green Hex: Tropical Hexacam pattern camouflage. This is used in heavily forested and tropic environments. Attached camo netting will use a two-tone woodland camouflage pattern

Protection[]

The MSE-3 has a base armour value of 270. It uses Composite Armour plating. It cannot be fitted with Explosive Reactive Armour blocks/panels but can be mounted with addon Slat cages.

Including the passenger hatch, a total of eight individual cages can be attached onto all sides of the hull. However, the turret will not be protected by these cages.

The following highlighted positions serve as weak points on the MSE-3:

Arma3-marid-hitpoints

LEGEND
Green = Hull
Orange = Engine
Violet = Fuel tanks

Note that in order to inflict actual damage, a munition must first penetrate through the surrounding armour plates and directly hit the component's weak point. Any strikes on non-highlighted parts will cause little (if any) noticeable damage.


Hull[]

The hull can resist up to 378 points of damage. Will result in a catastrophic kill if its integrity is compromised.

Munition type Damage reduction (%) Velocity reduction (%)
Armour Piercing None 10
High-Explosive 80* 50
High-Explosive Anti-Tank 80* 80
Tandem High-Explosive Anti-Tank 80* 10

(*) Reductions only apply to the explosive component of the munition i.e. Tandem HEAT explosive charge

If the hull has been compromised, no reductions will be applied to the velocity/raw damage of incoming projectiles.

Hull Slat[]

Arma3-vehiclearmour-marid-slathull

Slat cages protect all sides of the hull. They can resist up to 200 points of damage before failing. No damage upon the cages will be shared with the MSE-3's main "health" pool.

It should be noted that all of the cages take 200% additional damage from HE-type munitions. Upon destruction, the cages will no longer protect the hull and must be manually reinstalled by hand or with the aid of logistical trucks.

Engine[]

The engine can only withstand up to 162 points of damage before it fails. At least 20% of incoming damage will be transferred onto the MSE-3's main "health" pool. It takes 80% less damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions.

Destroying the engine will not cause a catastrophic kill on its own unless the MSE-3 is at critical "health" status.

If damaged: Reduces power output, acceleration both on land and in the water is decreased and it may become impossible to climb uphill.
If destroyed: Instantly immobilises the MSE-3. Will become stuck if floating over water at the time of the engine's failure.

Fuel tanks[]

The fuel tanks can resist up to 135 points of damage before failing. Only 10% of incoming damage will be shared with the MSE-3's main "health" pool. The fuel tanks take 40% less damage from HE-type munitions.

Destroying the fuel tanks will not cause a catastrophic kill unless the MSE-3 is critically damaged.

If damaged: Gradually leak fuel over time (up to 50% of remaining supply).
If destroyed: All fuel will be drained over the course of several seconds.

Wheels[]

Each of the MSE-3's wheels are able to take up to 250 points of damage. They are susceptible to small arms fire and incur a 400% increased damage penalty to HE-type damage. No amount of damage inflicted will be shared with the MSE-3's main "health" pool, however.

Destroying all of the MSE-3's wheels will be needed to immobilise it. Depending on how many wheels remain, it is still possible for the MSE-3's driver to continue moving the vehicle even if more than half of the tyres missing.

However, it should be noted that this only applies if the remaining ones balance the missing tyres on the other side of the vehicle. If there is an imbalance on one side (e.g. zero left on the right and only two on the left), then the MSE-3 will still be unable to turn properly or drive in a straight line.

RCWS[]

The RCWS turret can resist up to 250 points worth of damage. No amount of damage incurred is transferred onto the MSE-3's "health" pool.

Munition type Damage reduction (%) Velocity reduction (%)
Armour Piercing None 10
High-Explosive 60* 50
High-Explosive Anti-Tank 60* 80
Tandem High-Explosive Anti-Tank 60* 10

(*) Reductions only apply to the explosive component of the munition i.e. Tandem HEAT explosive charge

If the RCWS turret's armour plating has been compromised, no reductions will be applied to the velocity/raw damage of incoming projectiles.

Components[]

NOTE: Cosmetic-only component modules with no gameplay effects are deliberately excluded from this section.

  • Slat Cage (Hull): Attaches slat cages around the entire hull except for the turret. Slat cages will protect the MSE-3 from non-AP munitions but can be destroyed after multiple hits.
  • Camo Net (Hull): Drapes most of the hull in camouflage netting (the turret itself is not covered). Partially conceals covered sections from thermal sensors.

Armament[]

The MSE-3's commander controls both of the vehicle's weapons, the RCWS HMG 12.7 mm and the RCWS GMG 40 mm. The commander's optics have variable zoom capability and can toggle either a day, night or black-/white-hot thermal vision mode:

RCWS HMG 12.7 mm[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-mse3marid-rcwshmg127mm
Base damage value Aerodynamic friction Initial velocity (m/s) Penetration depth (mm)
30 -0.00086 910 35.49

General-purpose 12.7 mm heavy machine gun.

The RCWS HMG can attain a fire rate of up to 600 rounds per minute and requires 20 seconds to reload a fresh box or to fully rearm from a logistics vehicle. Accuracy-wise, it has a fixed dispersion of 0.0012 rad regardless of distance.

The Fire Control System is only able to automatically zero on stationary targets and requires 1 second to finish adjusting. Manual zeroing is also possible, though only in increments/decrements of 100 m (up to a maximum of 2000 m).

RCWS GMG 40 mm[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-mse3marid-rcwsgmg40mm
Damage type Base damage value Aerodynamic friction Initial velocity (m/s)
High-Explosive Anti-Tank 100 -0.001 241

40 mm automatic grenade launcher. Fires grenades fitted with high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads. They have a blast radius of 4 metres.

It can attain a fire rate of up to approximately ~ 349 RPM. It also requires at least 20 seconds to reload a fresh belt of grenades or to fully rearm from a logistics vehicle. Accuracy-wise, the GMG has a dispersion of 0.005 rad.

The FCS can only zero onto stationary targets and requires 1 second to finish adjusting. Like the RCWS HMG, manual zeroing is also possible with adjustments being made in increments/decrements of 100 m. However, it is restricted to a hard cap of 1500 m which cannot be exceeded even by the FCS.

Trivia[]

  • The Marid is based on the real-world 6x6 variant of the "Arma", a Turkish-made APC designed by Otokar.
  • For unknown reasons, its in-game Field Manual entry states that it is armed with a "6.5 mm LMG" even though the Marid uses a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun.
  • Marid translates to "rebellious" in Arabic and is often synonymous with demons.
  • The Marid was not originally included in the Alpha and was only added with the release of Game Update 0.70 (as part of the Beta).[1]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SPOTREP #00006, Arma 3, viewed 3 July 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00006>.

External links[]

See also[]

Vehicles of comparable role and configuration[]

Vehicles of ArmA 3
Wheeled AFV-4 GorgonAMV-7 MarshallHatchbackHEMTTHunterIfritKartMB 4WDMSE-3 MaridOffroadProwlerQilinRhino MGS (UP) • StriderSUVTempestTractorTruckQuadbikeUGV StomperVanZamak (MRL)
Tracked 2S9 SochorAWC NyxBTR-K KamyshCRV-6e BobcatED-1D Mini UGV (ED-1E) • IFV-6a CheetahIFV-6c PantherFV-720 MoraM2A1 Slammer (A4 UP) • M4 ScorcherM5 SandstormMBT-52 KumaT-100 Varsuk (X Futura) • T-140 Angara (T-140K) • ZSU-39 Tigris
Rotor-wing AH-9 PawneeAH-99 BlackfootAR-2 DarterCH-49 MohawkCH-67 HuronDemining DroneMH-9 Hummingbird (M900) • Mi-48 KajmanMi-290 TaruMQ-12 FalconPO-30 OrcaUH-80 Ghost HawkUtility DroneWY-55 Hellcat
Fixed-wing A-143 BuzzardA-149 GryphonA-164 WipeoutCaesar BTTF/A-181 Black Wasp IIKH-3A FenghuangMQ-4A GreyhawkTo-199 NeophronTo-201 ShikraUCAV SentinelV-44X BlackfishY-32 Xi'an
Aquatic Assault BoatMotorboatRHIBSpeedboatSDVWater Scooter
(Parenthesis) denote variants.
Karts DLC | Helicopters DLC | Apex DLC | Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
Arma3-factionicon-csat CSAT - Vehicles (ArmA 3)
Wheeled IfritMSE-3 MaridQilinQuadbikeTempestUGV SaifZamak
Tracked 2S9 SochorAkinaka ED-1D (Sayyah ED-1E) • BTR-K KamyshT-100 Varsuk (X Futura) • T-140 Angara (T-140K) • ZSU-39 Tigris
Rotor-wing Jinaah AL-6Mi-48 KajmanMi-290 TaruPO-30 OrcaTayran AR-2
Fixed-wing K40 Abalil-3KH-3A FenghuangTo-199 NeophronTo-201 ShikraY-32 Xi'an
Aquatic Assault Boat (Rescue) • Speedboat HMGSDV
Parenthesis denote variants.
Helicopters DLC | Apex DLC | Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
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