Y-32 Xi'an

Xi'an
Faction	CSAT Viper
Type	VTOL Gunship
Seats	Infantry transport: 18 seats 1× Pilot 1× Gunner 16× Passengers Vehicle transport: 2 seats 1× Pilot 1× Gunner
Item capacity	3000 mass
Top speed	~ 720 km/h
Service ceiling	~ 8,900 m
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Weight	23150 kg (all variants)
Slingloadable	No (all variants)
Primary armament	Main: 1× Cannon Caseless 30 mm 8× Skalpel ATGM [Default] 2× Skyfire Rocket Pods [Default]
Secondary armament	Targeting: 1× Laser Designator Defensive: 168× Countermeasures (Flare/Chaff)
Variants	Infantry Transport, Vehicle Transport
Games

The Y-32 Xi'an is a VTOL aircraft used by both Pacific CSAT forces and Viper operatives in ArmA 3. It was added with the release of the Apex DLC.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Heavy gunship
  • Vehicle transport
  • Troop transport

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By far the largest CSAT joint development project to date was long troubled by the conflicting requirements of the participating armies who demanded an aircraft with VTOL capabilities. The planned budget was vastly exceeded several times and development was years behind schedule. The program eventually became one of the most expensive in military procurement history and despite a great deal of information remains classified and is often compared to the older F-35 program. The final solution was based upon the most promising prototype designed in Xi'an which was able to meet most of the requirements with satisfactory results. High running and maintenance costs remains a huge issue that plagues the reputation of the otherwise extremely progressive aircraft with many unique features and top-notch bleeding-edge technologies. Field Manual

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Design

This is a premium asset that requires ownership of the Apex expansion pack.

The Y-32 is an unconventionally-designed VTOL aircraft that combines twin tail-mounted, rotating jet engine nozzles with a ducted fan wing setup.

Armament
By default, the Y-32 is armed with a 30 mm autocannon that is pre-loaded with interchangeable belts of either 250 rounds of high-explosive (HE-T) shells, or 250 rounds of armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS-T) shells.

The gunner can instantaneously swap between ammunition types at any time without having to wait for the cannon to reload.

Extended stub wings that run along the majority of the fuselage centreline have two pylons on each wing (totaling up to four) that support dynamic loadouts.

Y-32 pylon configuration

The following weapons and munitions can be fitted onto any of the pylons (1-4):

• Scalpel (1×)
• Scalpel (3×)
• Tratnyr HE (20×)
• Tratnyr AP (20×)
• Skyfire (19×)
• Sahr-3 (1×)
• Sharur (1×)
• LOM-250G (1×)
• RBK-500F (1×)

It also has a turret-mounted laser designator that can be used to mark targets for its own weapons or for friendly aircraft.

Unloading Pacific CSAT troops into battle. The Y-32's smaller size allows it to land in tighter LZs compared to its cumbersome NATO counterpart.

Features
In contrast to its NATO counterpart, the Y-32 is not only more manoeuvrable and faster due to using jet-powered engines, but is also better equipped to handle both ground and air threats at the same time.

This is because unlike V-44X Blackfish, it is always armed with a 30 mm turret-mounted autocannon regardless of whether it is transporting either vehicles or infantry (only the dedicated gunship variant of the Blackfish retains armament).

In addition, the pylons on its stub wings can be customised with a mixture of unguided rockets, anti-tank missiles or even laser-guided cluster bombs; further enhancing its air-to-ground fire support capabilities.

One other advantage of the Y-32 is that it retains a slightly smaller (though not much better) RCS signature compared to the NATO Blackfish. While it will still be easily picked up on radar, the Y-32 stands a better chance of surviving once it's detected by the enemy.

Drawbacks
Unfortunately, the Y-32 cannot carry as many passengers or vehicles due to being a smaller-sized aircraft overall. What little room it has by default is reserved for storing weapons and munitions, which further restricts it to using a smaller cargo compartment.

Nonetheless, its smaller airframe allows it to land more easily in confined spaces, whereas the larger Blackfish requires landing zones with considerably more clearance.

Crew Capacity
The Y-32 always has enough seats for a crew of two that consists of the pilot and a gunner. Passenger capacity is limited to a maximum of sixteen passengers, and only on the Infantry Transport variant.

Variants

Infantry-only transport variant.

Its cargo space contains seats fixed on both sides of the compartment. It is optimised to carry up to sixteen passengers but cannot airlift any vehicles.

Ground vehicle-only transport variant.

It is visually identical to the infantry-only variant, but this variant's cargo space lacks seating and is instead optimised to airlift ground vehicles.

(*) Regardless of the variant, the Y-32 always has a seating capacity of at least two that consists of the crew; both the pilot and the gunner.

Camouflage

• Hex
• Green Hex
• Grey

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All three variants have access to the same camouflage options:

• Hex: Light tan/dark tan/dark green cell pattern camouflage.
• Green Hex: Dark tan/light green/dark green cell pattern camouflage.
• Grey: Light/dark grey cell pattern camouflage.

Protection

Both variants of the Y-32 have base armour values of 100.

Hull

The hull can survive 300 points of damage. 50% of damage is always transferred onto the Y-32's main "health" pool.

Depletion of the hull's integrity will not result in a total loss unless the Y-32's "health" is at critical and all other primary components are destroyed.

Engines

Each of the Y-32's engines can incur 325 points of damage before failing. They take 50% less damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions. Only 10% of damage is transferred onto the Y-32's main "health" pool.

Losing one engine will not prevent the Y-32 from flying but will make it increasingly difficult for the aircraft to maintain altitude.

If damaged: Power output is halved. Performing simple manoeuvres will take twice as long to complete.
If destroyed: Y-32 will lose all power and cannot maintain its altitude/vectoring capability.

Fuel tank

The Y-32's fuel tank can resist 275 points of damage before rupturing. It takes 50% less damage from HE-type munitions. At least 50% of damage is transferred onto the Y-32's "health" pool (destroying the tank will not result in a total loss unless the Y-32 is critically damaged).

If damaged: 50% of remaining fuel will lost over time.
If destroyed: All remaining fuel will depleted over the course of several seconds.

Instruments

The cockpit's electronic systems can resist 200 points of damage before failing. At least 20% of damage will be transferred onto the Y-32's main "health" pool.

If damaged: Periodic flickering of pilot Head Mounted Displays (HMD) and cabin Multi-Functional Displays (MFD). Other instruments remain unaffected.
If destroyed: HMDs disabled. MFDs and all other instruments will malfunction and may not display proper readings.

Control surfaces

The Y-32's control surfaces consist of six components:

• Ailerons (left/right)
• Elevators (left/right)
• Rudders (left/right)

All six components can take up to 250 points of damage before failing (individually). They incur a 300% damage penalty from HE-type munitions.

Depending on which control surface has been damaged, the Y-32 will suffer from a gradual loss of in-flight stability. Manoeuvring in regular flight and VTOL modes may become increasingly difficult or even outright impossible to control under some circumstances (i.e. adverse weather conditions).

Sensors

The Y-32 utilises several sensors meant to augment its role as an air-to-ground fire support platform:

Teal = Active Radar
Orange = IRST
Green = Visual

Active Radar

It has an active radar range of 5 km against aerial targets and 4 km against ground targets. Azimuth coverage is limited to 120 degrees while for elevation it is 80 degrees.

Identity recognition registers at a distance of 3 km out from a target. The radar also has an elevation offset of 30 degrees.

Infrared Search and Track/Visual Sensor

The IRST/visual sensors each have a maximum detection range of 4 km against aerial targets and 3 km against ground targets. The azimuth and elevation coverage for both sensors is restricted to an angle of just 26 degrees, and have a minimum operating range of 500 m.

Both sensors are located in the nose turret's gun camera and will detect independently of the Y-32's heading. Targets can be clearly identified once they are within 2 km range, and can only track targets that are moving at speeds of 270 km/h or less.

Radar Warning Receiver/Passive Radar

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

Laser Spot Tracker

Laser markers and infrared strobes can be tracked within a range of 6 km. It has an acquisition cone of 180 degrees.

Armament

NOTE: Only the weapons used on the default loadout for the Y-32 are listed here. For full details on ordnance that can be mounted on the Y-32's pylons, refer to the dynamic loadouts article.

On the Infantry Transport variant, the two rearmost passengers are FFV-enabled and can fire their own weapons out of the Y-32 provided that the ramp door is lowered.

For both variants, the gunner position controls all weapon systems. The turret camera's optics provides three fields of view and can toggle either a day, night or black-hot/white-hot thermal vision mode.

The turret itself has a horizontal rotation limit of 120 degrees in both directions. Vertically however, it is restricted to an elevation of 20 degrees and a depression of 30 degrees:

Cannon Caseless 30 mm

Shell type	Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)	Penetration depth (mm)
HE	30	-0.00036	960	20.16
APDS	80	-0.00042	1,120	70.56

Primary weapon affixed onto the Y-32's nose turret. Can be loaded to fire either regular high-explosive (HE) or armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) shells:

• High-Explosive (HE): Muzzle velocity of 960 m/s, blast radius of 3 metres
• Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS): Muzzle velocity of 1,120 m/s, splash radius of 0.2 metres

It can attain a fire rate of 750 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 960 m/s. Switching between munition types is instantaneous; there is no delay for "reloading" a different belt.

However, accuracy will differ depending on the selected munition type. For APDS shells, dispersion is 0.0044 rad at distances of 1,800 metres but for HE, dispersion is set to be higher at 0.0066 rad instead.

Its fire control system features automatic lead/zeroing on targets moving at speeds of up to ~ 110 km/h but takes 0.5 seconds to finish adjusting. Manual zeroing is possible, though it is only available in 100 m increments up to 800 m, which then jumps to 1000 m, 1200 m, 1500 m, 1800 m, 2100 m and finally 2400 m.

Skalpel

Main article: Dynamic loadouts#Skalpel

Infrared-guided air-to-ground anti-tank missiles.

Relies on the Y-32's Infrared Search and Track sensor to function.

Skyfire

Main article: Dynamic loadouts#Skyfire

Unguided air-to-ground rockets.

Strong against groups of infantry and unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles.

FFV

Main article: Firing from vehicles (mechanic)#Y-32 Xi'an

Vehicle-in-Vehicle Transport

Qilin LSV inside the Y-32's cargo bay.

The Vehicle Transport variant is capable of loading any of the following ground vehicles, boats and drones:

• One Assault Boat (either variant)
• One AWC Nyx (any variant)
• Nineteen ED-1 Mini UGVs (either variant)
• One Hatchback (either variant)
• Three Karts
• One MB 4WD (unarmed and LMG variants but not AT)
• One Prowler (any variant)
• One Qilin (any variant)
• Two Quadbikes
• One SUV
• Four Utility Drones (either variant)
• One Water Scooter

The Y-32 has a smaller range of vehicles it can transport than the Vehicle Transport variant of the Blackfish. For instance, it cannot lift any of the MRAPs (not even CSAT's own Ifrit) and is unable to carry any of the logistics trucks. Additionally, the Infantry Transport variant can only load up to 16 infantry passengers at a time instead of 32 like the Blackfish.

Lastly, it should be noted that that Utility Drones airdropped from a Y-32 are lowered down via parachutes as opposed to being dropped with their rotors spinning.

Trivia

• The Xi'an is not based on any existing real-world aircraft design. However, both the layout of the cockpit along with its roles of being a gunship and troop transport make it similar to the real-life "Mi-24" designed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant.
• The Xi'an is the first OPFOR-exclusive VTOL jet in the entire series. Prior to the Apex expansion's release, only BLUFOR factions had access to VTOL-capable aircraft.

Gallery

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External links

• Wikipedia: Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation
• Wikipedia: Mil Mi-24

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• V-44X Blackfish (NATO counterpart, ArmA 3: Apex only)