The Zamak MRL is a wheeled self-propelled multiple rocket launcher vehicle used by both the Livonian Defense Force and the AAF in ArmA 3. It was added with the release of the Tanks DLC.
Overview[]
- Role:
- Indirect fire support
« | The Zamak heavy truck is a 6x6 vehicle used for transport, repair, and utility roles. In addition, it can also carry a multiple rocket launcher. Fitted with a powerful V8 engine, these trucks are reliable even in harsh conditions. Field Manual
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Design[]
The Zamak MRL is simply a modified variant of the baseline Zamak truck that has had its rear flatbed configured to house a rocket pod and a (non-functional) winch crane.
Armament
It is armed with a 230 mm rocket pod which is always pre-loaded with 12 long-range artillery rockets and are fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads. It also has the option of being loaded with cluster rockets instead[note 1], which can shower entire areas with a hail of anti-personnel explosive fragments.
Features
Though the Zamak MRL is slightly slower than its parent vehicle due to the added weight of its weapon systems, it mostly retains the same handling attributes and overall layout.
For example, the cab is practically identical save for the the gunner's seat, which has had a terminal fitted to the dashboard in front of it. This terminal is connected to a camera pod that's mounted to a mast on the right side of the cab, which is what allows the gunner to "aim" the rocket pod.
Mobility
Unlike NATO's M5 Sandstorm, the Zamak MRL has the advantage of being a wheeled vehicle which gives it better mobility on flat terrain and paved roads. Not to mention retaining a faster acceleration speed and turn rate, both of which combined make it a far more mobile artillery vehicle in such conditions.
Drawbacks
Its main downside is its lack of armour plating and exposed crew cabin (unlike the Sandstorm), both of which leave its crew members vulnerable to being injured or outright killed by small arms fire since the glass and the cab itself is not bullet-resistant. The lack of armour also makes it far easier to cause damage to the crew and the vehicle when it is involved in any collision with objects or vehicles. This means that while it may have a technically superior acceleration and top speed compared to armored artillery like the Sandstorm, you may often find yourself artificially limiting yourself to a low speed to avoid injury or disabling the vehicle (unlike the Sandstorm). It is also highly vulnerable to any amount of counter battery fire (with the vehicle itself even taking extra damage from HE shells) and has no resistance whatsoever to anti-tank weapons or landmines.
Crew Capacity
The Zamak MRL can transport a crew of three; the driver, gunner and passenger who sits directly in-between the driver and the gunner.
Camouflage[]
- Digital Green: Standard semi-fractal, digitised camouflage pattern used by all AAF vehicles and aircraft. Suited to forested and grassy environments, but otherwise useless in arid and desert terrain.
- Hex: Arid Hexacam camouflage pattern. Useful for forested, grass plains, and desert environments.
- Green Hex: Tropical Hexacam pattern camouflage. This is used in heavily forested and tropic environments.
- Geometric: Fractal woodland camouflage pattern. Used on LDF-operated Zamak MRLs.
Protection[]
The Zamak MRL has a base armour value of 100. It cannot be fitted with Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) blocks/panels nor slat cages.
The following highlighted positions serve as weak points on the Zamak MRL:
Body[]
The Zamak's body can withstand up to 100 points of damage. It will take 150% increased damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions.
Wrecking the vehicle's body will always result in a catastrophic kill.
Hull[]
Zamak hulls can take up to 44 points of damage. 100% of incoming damage on the hull will be shared with the vehicle's main "health" pool. It takes 50% increased damage from HE-type munitions. It will not cause a catastrophic kill by itself unless the Zamak has been critically damaged.
Engine[]
The engine can only survive 50 points of damage.
100% of incoming damage on the engine will be transferred onto the Zamak's "health" pool. It takes 50% increased damage from HE-type munitions. It will not cause a catastrophic kill by itself unless the Van has been critically damaged.
If damaged: Greatly reduces the engine's power output, the Zamak can no longer attain its top speed and will have difficulty making simple manoeuvres.
If destroyed: Instantly immobilises the Zamak.
Fuel tanks[]
The fuel tanks can only take 50 points of damage before they rupture.
100% of incoming damage onto the tanks are shared with the Zamak's main "health" pool. It takes 150% additional damage from HE-type munitions. Destroying the fuel tanks will not cause a catastrophic kill unless the truck is in critical status.
If damaged: Gradually leak fuel over time.
If destroyed: Rapidly depletes entire fuel capacity over several seconds.
Wheels[]
All six of the Zamak's wheels can withstand 200 points of damage before bursting.
They are susceptible to small arms fire and take 400% damage from explosive-type damage, meaning any HE-type munitions or landmines can instantly pop the tyres. No damage is shared with the Zamak's "health" pool.
Armament[]
The gunner remotely operates the 230 mm Rocket launcher pod. They have access to three fields of view and can toggle a day, night or black-hot/white-hot thermal vision mode:
230 mm Rocket[]
Payload | Base damage value | Damage type | Initial velocity (m/s) |
---|---|---|---|
HE | 1,200 | High-Explosive | 850 |
Cluster (Primary) | 300 | High-Explosive | 850 |
Cluster (Secondary) | 35 | High-Explosive | N/A |
Multiple rocket launcher. Can fire unguided 230 mm rockets with either a high-explosive (HE) or cluster payload.
Rockets are always fired with an initial launch velocity of 850 m/s. Without a firing solution selected, the gunner can launch one rocket every 0.8 seconds. It takes a total of 90 seconds to rearm all rockets (assuming the Zamak MRL has been fully depleted).
The destructive potential of each rocket type varies depending on the payload:
- High-Explosive (HE): The rocket's actual warhead will separate once it is 500 metres above the impact point. It has a blast radius of 30 metres and an armour penetration depth of 433.5 millimetres (direct impact only).
- Cluster:[note 1] The cluster fragments will separate once the rocket reaches a height of 250 metres above the impact point, spreading across a radius of 50 metres.
- Each fragment has a blast radius of 8 metres and has a 7% chance of failing to detonate properly. Undetonated fragments will be left behind as Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) pieces.
Capabilities[]
It can fire all twelve of its rockets in under 10 seconds, giving it one of the fastest firing rates of any artillery piece in ArmA 3 alongside the NATO Sandstorm.
The Zamak MRL has eleven usable range modes available for firing:
- 997 to 1,342 metres (ETA 21-17 seconds)
- 1,281 to 1,724 metres (ETA 24-19 seconds)
- 1,676 to 2,256 metres (ETA 27-22 seconds)
- 2,190 to 2,946 metres (ETA 31-25 seconds)
- 2,846 to 3,829 metres (ETA 36-38 seconds)
- 3,729 to 5,018 metres (ETA 41-35 seconds)
- 4,927 to 6,630 metres (ETA 47-38 seconds)
- 6,366 to 8,566 metres (ETA 53-44 seconds)
- 8,242 to 11,091 metres (ETA 61-51 seconds)
- 10,599 to 14,263 metres (ETA 69-59 seconds)
- 13,415 to 18,052 metres (ETA 78-65 seconds)
It also has two more selectable (but barely targetable) range modes:
- 17,169 to 23,104 metres (ETA 88-73 seconds)
- 22,356 to 30,083 metres (ETA 101-82 seconds)
Selectable but completely untargetable range modes:[note 2]
- 29,981 to 40,344 metres (ETA N/A)
- 38,816 to 52,232 metres (ETA N/A)
- 50,458 to 67,898 metres (ETA N/A)
The last three range modes cannot actually be used because the artillery computer's map is not large enough to allow the user to target a position from within the minimum/maximum range arcs.[note 2] Therefore, the Zamak MRL's rocket pod has a real effective range of between just 1,000 and up to 18,000 metres.
Trivia[]
- Like its parent vehicle, the Zamak MRL's chassis is based on the Russian-made "KamAZ-4310" 6x6 truck.[1] On the other hand, its rocket pod is modelled after the Taiwanese-made "Thunderbolt-2000" wheeled MLRS which uses an 8x8 chassis.[2]
- Specifically, the pod uses the "Mk45" munitions loadout but is modelled using a pure HE rocket loadout instead of the cluster/airburst munitions on actual Thunderbolt-2000s in Taiwanese service.[2]
- Like the CSAT 9M135 Vorona and NATO MAAWS Mk4 anti-tank launchers, the Zamak MRL is a part of the free platform update included with the Tanks DLC.[3] It can be freely used regardless of whether players own the DLC or not.[4]
- Upon being added initially, the Zamak MRL was known as the "Zamak MLR" ("MLR" rather than "MRL").[3]
- Prior to the release of the Contact expansion pack, the Zamak MRL was exclusively employed by the AAF. Contact would eventually expand its list of users to include the LDF as well.[5]
- The information below details unused, pre-release or removed content.
- Unused strings leftover from the main campaign's third episode indicate that the Zamak MRL was originally known as the Zamak LRS instead (String name: str_a3_cfgvehicles_i_truck_02_mlrs_f0[6]).
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Zamak MRL's cluster rockets can only be added through the use of scripting commands (see below).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 These range modes are technically usable if the Zamak MRL is being employed on a terrain that is physically large enough to allow for the map display to be zoomed out. Therefore, this range limitation only applies to official terrains from ArmA 3 itself.
this removeMagazinesTurret ["12Rnd_230mm_rockets",[0]]; this removeWeaponTurret ["rockets_230mm_GAT",[0]]; this addMagazineTurret ["12Rnd_230mm_rockets_cluster",[0]]; this addWeaponTurret ["rockets_230mm_GAT",[0]];
References[]
- ↑ Kharaluzhny, A 2020, KamAZ-4310: the legendary army all-terrain vehicle hard worker, Военное обозрение, viewed 25 March 2024, <http://web.archive.org/web/20201028085019/https://en.topwar.ru/171535-kamaz-4310-legendarnyj-armejskij-vezdehod-trudjaga.html>. (archived link)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Krishna 2012, Ray-Ting 2000 / Thunderbolt-2000 AMLRS, Army-technology.com, viewed 24 March 2023, <https://www.army-technology.com/projects/ray-ting-2000-thunderbolt-2000-amlrs/>.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kovařič, V 2018, SPOTREP #00079, Arma 3, viewed 24 March 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00079>.
- ↑ van 't Land, J.J. et al. 2019, Arma 3: DLC Restrictions, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 6 October 2023, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_DLC_Restrictions>.
- ↑ van 't Land, J.J. 2019, SPOTREP #00089, Arma 3, viewed 6 October 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00089>.
- ↑ ARMA 3 2014 [Video Game], Bohemia Interactive a.s., \a3\language_f_epc\stringtable.xml, Zamak LRS
External links[]
See also[]
Variants[]
Vehicles of comparable role and configuration[]
- M5 Sandstorm (NATO counterpart)
- RM-70 (ACR counterpart, ArmA 2: ACR only)
- BM-21 Grad (Russian Armed Forces/Takistani Army counterpart, ArmA 2 only)
LDF - Vehicles (ArmA 3) | |
---|---|
Wheeled | Offroad • Quadbike • UGV Stomper • Van • Zamak (MRL) |
Tracked | ED-1D Pelter (ED-1E Roller) • FV-720 Odyniec |
Rotor-wing | AL-6 Pelican • AR-2 Darter • WY-55 Czapla |
Fixed-wing | A-149 Gryphon |
(Parenthesis) denote variants. Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC |
AAF - Vehicles (ArmA 3) | |
---|---|
Wheeled | AFV-4 Gorgon • Quadbike • Strider • UGV Stomper • Zamak (MRL) |
Tracked | AWC Nyx • ED-1D Pelter (ED-1E Roller) • FV-720 Mora • MBT-52 Kuma |
Rotor-wing | AR-2 Darter • AL-6 Pelican • CH-49 Mohawk • WY-55 Hellcat |
Fixed-wing | A-143 Buzzard • A-149 Gryphon • K40 Abalil-3 |
Aquatic | Assault Boat (Rescue) • Speedboat Minigun • SDV |
Parenthesis denote variants. Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC |