UH-80 Ghost Hawk

Ghost Hawk
Faction	- NATO - CTRG
Type	Utility Helicopter
Seats	12 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Co-Pilot 2× Side Gunners 8× Passengers
Item capacity	Max: 3000 mass 12× Weapons 48× Magazines 24× Backpacks
Top speed	~ 270 km/h
Service ceiling	~ 3,000 m
Fuel capacity	1360 L
Primary armament	Main: 2× Minigun 6.5 mm
Secondary armament	Defensive: 168× Countermeasures (Chaff/Flare)
Variants	None
Games

The UH-80 Ghost Hawk is the primary utility helicopter used by both NATO forces and CTRG operators in ArmA 3.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Utility helicopter
  • Troop transport

Design

The Ghost Hawk is a five-bladed, twin engine, rotary-wing stealth helicopter designed for slingloading cargo and to transport troops into battle.

Armament
It is armed by default with twin miniguns fitted to side doors located just behind the cockpit. Both miniguns are individually fed with a single linked belt with 2,000 rounds of 6.5 mm ammunition (with a combined total of 4,000 rounds).

The Ghost Hawk does not support dynamic loadouts as the door guns are unable to mount any other types of weapons, nor does it have the ability to fit any stub wings onto the fuselage.

Features
Like the AH-99 Blackfoot, the Ghost Hawk's rotors are modified so that they operate much more silently. It is more difficult to hear a Ghost Hawk flying in from afar compared to the Mohawk or the PO-30, both of which can be easily heard from many kilometres away.

The stealthy design of the airframe also makes it difficult to detect by fighter radars, and can easily blend into ground clutter provided that the pilot flies nap-of-the-earth.

And unlike its AAF counterpart, the Ghost Hawk is always armed by default. This means that it is far less risky to drop or pick up troops/cargo in a hot landing zone since the Ghost Hawk's door gunners can suppress the enemy, whereas the Mohawk cannot do the same without an escort providing cover for it.

Mobility
The Ghost Hawk is fairly agile and is second only to the Blackfoot in terms of manoeuvrability. While not nearly as fast as the Mohawk, it is simpler to fly and has overall better stability.

Drawbacks
Though the Ghost Hawk is durable enough to sustain a small amount of ground fire, in terms of protection it remains just as lightly armoured as the Mohawk. As such, it should not be flown into areas with significant anti-air threats.

Crew Capacity
The Ghost Hawk has a seating capacity of twelve personnel (including the crew). This consists of both the pilot and co-pilot, and up to ten passengers who sit on back-facing seats in the centre compartment.

Camouflage

• Olive: Pattern-less olive drab green paint scheme.

• Black: Pattern-less matte black paint scheme.
• Sand: Two-tone dazzle pattern camouflage scheme used by CTRG forces in arid/desert environments.
• Tropic: Two-tone dazzle pattern camouflage scheme used by CTRG forces in jungle/tropic environments.

Stealth

The Ghost Hawk provides limited stealth against active radars and infrared sensors. Against fighter radars, it stands a better chance of remaining undetected by remaining above ground clutter:

RCS

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

IR

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

Visual

The Ghost Hawk does not apply any reductions to visual-based sensors, and can be tracked at full ranges.

Sensors

Designed exclusively for transporting troops, the Ghost Hawk has only one type of sensor available:

Active Radar

The Ghost Hawk does not use an active radar as it does not have any weapon systems that would require one.

Infrared Search and Track/Visual Sensor

The Ghost Hawk does not have the ability to detect targets visually or through IRST.

Radar Warning Receiver/Passive Radar

The RWR has a 360 degree detection radius and a target recognition range of 12 km.

Laser Spot Tracker

The Ghost Hawk does not have the ability to lock onto laser marks or infrared strobes.

Slingloading

The Ghost Hawk has a maximum lifting capacity of 4000 kg, is able to slingload a variety of vehicles and equipment, including:

It is also capable of airlifting supplies in the form of:

• Supply boxes
• Items in cargo nets, including the Cargo Net [NATO], Cargo Net (Box), and Cargo Net (Barrels) pallets/crates, as well as Cargo Net (Sacks)

The Ghost Hawk's lifting abilities are not quite comparable to the larger CH-67 Huron or even the AAF's CH-49 Mohawk, as it cannot transport MRAPs, UGVs, any of the armed boats, or the Huron's supply containers.

Trivia

• The Ghost Hawk is ArmA 3's take on the real-world stealth variant of the Sikorsky "UH-60 Black Hawk" that was supposedly flown by U.S. special operations forces during the raid in Operation Neptune Spear.
• Although not manually operable by the player, the side doors can be seen being opened throughout some showcases and during the course of some missions throughout the campaign's Win episode. 
• While the model can no longer be found in the game files, leftover textures and icons still exist for a variant of the Ghost Hawk that would have been supposedly outfitted with external stub wings akin to the real-life External Stores Support System (ESSS). 
  • This configuration would have made it similar to that of the real-world "MH-60L Direct Action Penetrator", a variant of the standard UH-60 (which the Ghost Hawk is based on) that was designed exclusively to serve as a gunship.
  • Co-incidentally, ArmA: Cold War Assault also had a variant of the UH-60 that was designed with the same configuration; albeit with the fuel tanks being purely cosmetic and armed with just twin 70 mm rocket pods instead.
  • A re-purposed model of the Ghost Hawk fitted with stub wings does make an appearance in ArmA: Mobile Ops, but as an unmanned drone for the Drone Launchpad defensive building instead.

Gallery

The interior of the Ghost Hawk's cockpit.

Pilot-side interior view on the flight deck of the USS Liberty.

Close-up of the UH-80's right side crew chief gunner position.

Add a photo to this gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• CH-49 Mohawk (Civilian/AAF counterpart)
• MH-60S (USMC counterpart, ArmA 2 only)
• UH-60M Black Hawk (U.S. Army predecessor, ArmA 2: OA only)