UAV Terminal

UAV Terminal
Faction	A3 WS EF NATO CTRG (AP) CSAT AAF LDF Civilians IDAP ION (Extr.) FIA Tura MJTF
Mass	20
Slots	Terminal
Variants	AAF, Civilians, CSAT, LDF, NATO
Games

The UAV Terminal is a handheld drone control device in ArmA 3.

Overview

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Access to a UAV Terminal is available only if you have item UAV Terminal in your inventory. To open a UAV Terminal select Open UAV Terminal in the action menu. The UAV Terminal is a powerful tool where you can: ■ See all friendly UAVs nearby. ■ Create a connection between your terminal and non-controlled UAVs: use [Sec. Mouse Btn.] on UAV. ■ See basic information about the connected UAV. ■ See camera output from the connected UAV. ■ Set tasks/waypoints for the connected UAV: [Left Ctrl+Prim. Mouse Btn.] in map. ■ Set waypoint parameters for the UAV: [Sec. Mouse Btn.] on waypoint. ■ UAV terminal can be also used as a GPS module. Field Manual

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UAV Terminals are handheld tablets which can be used to take command of unmanned vehicles and static turrets. They have a weight of 20 "mass" units and occupy the Terminal slot of the user's inventory.

They can be used to connect either directly or remotely to both ground and air drones via the Terminal's interface, which will display the location of all drones on their faction's side in real-time (and alternately listed in a dropdown menu).

Live camera feed from a Remote Designator (left), allowing the CTRG fireteam leader to see around the corner without needing to swap to the interface.

Once connected, the user(s) will be able to issue commands to the drone's AI to carry out a range of tasks, ranging from patrolling along a set of waypoints, following a target, ally or the terminal user, or hunting down any valid targets in an area. A live feed of the connected drone's camera view can also be toggled on the controller's Heads Up Display (Default hotkeys: [ or ]). This allows the user to keep watch of a specific target or location without needing to open up the UAV Terminal's interface.

However, UAV Terminals are not restricted to just vehicular/flying drones. They can also be used to connect to automated guns and semi-autonomous turrets. The Mk30A sentry gun for instance, normally engages hostile threats on its own accord but can be remotely connected to via the UAV Terminal to manually force the sentry's AI to hold fire or attack specific targets.

On the other hand, some turrets which lack a fully autonomous AI of their own will require the user to relay coordinates or targets for the turret to lock onto. A prime example of this would be Remote Designators, which need the operator to rotate/elevate the camera and activate or deactivate its laser marker manually.

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Caveats

UAV Terminals are side-specific and cannot be used to connect to drones on opposite sides. For instance, a NATO terminal is affiliated to BLUFOR and therefore cannot be used to connect to CSAT drones as it is aligned to REDFOR. Even if those drones were physically placed in front the operator, they will not be given the option to directly nor remotely connect to the drone.

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Hijacking terminals

Main article: Hacking (electronics)

Stealing UAV Terminals carried by a drone operator from an opposing faction will not allow the thief to take control drones on that faction's side - not even if they were directly linked to one at the time of the original owner losing or abandoning the terminal.

For example, a NATO operator can steal a CSAT terminal but they will not be able to make use of the device's interface as it belongs to an opposing faction. They can still use their own terminal to hack into enemy drones and reprogram their AI's allegiance however, thereby turning the formerly hostile drone into a friendly one which can then be connected to via their own UAV Terminal.

Variants

Terminal name	Classname	Icon	Can be used by?
UAV Terminal [NATO]	B_UavTerminal		BLUFOR
UAV Terminal [Civilians]	C_UavTerminal		Civilians
UAV Terminal [LDF]	I_E_UavTerminal		INDFOR
UAV Terminal [AAF]	I_UavTerminal		INDFOR
UAV Terminal [CSAT]	O_UavTerminal		REDFOR

Trivia

• ArmA 3 is the first title in the series to feature handheld UAV Terminals.
  • While UAV Terminals (both in backpack and structure form) were previously featured in ArmA 2 and the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack, they were not treated as handheld electronics and required the mission maker to synchronise the operator and drone with the UAV module.
• Upon ArmA 3's release, only NATO, CSAT and the AAF had their own dedicated UAV Terminals. The LDF and civilian variants were added after the release of the Contact expansion and Laws of War DLC (respectively).
• After the release of Game Update 2.18, it is now possible for two (human) players from the same squad to simultaneously connect to a drone, allowing for one player to control the drone's "pilot"/"driver" AI and a second controlling its "gunner"/"turret" AI if the latter is present. Before the patch's release, only one player at a time could be connected to a drone until they (the original controller) disconnected their terminal from it.
  • However, a bug from the patch also made it impossible to adjust the AUTONOMOUS and ALLOW LIGHTS options in the terminal's interface. A hotfix for Game Update 2.18 would later fix this issue, allowing player(s) to enable/disable either option once again.

See also

• Hacking