The Hunter is an MRAP used exclusively by NATO forces in ArmA 3.
Overview[]
- Roles:
- Troop transport
- Reconnaissance
- Fire support
« | The Hunter is a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle manufactured by US arms factories to provide troops with enhanced protection. The armored hull can withstand light weapons and protects the crew against landmines and improvised explosive devices. Even though the heavy armor and powerful engine cause increased fuel consumption, it has been favored by frontline troops over the lighter vehicles for its easy maintenance and good protection level. Armed version of the sturdy Hunter MRAP vehicle is fitted with a Remotely Controlled Weapons System turret. The turret is fitted with the universal 12.7 mm heavy machinegun or the multi-role 40 mm Grenade Machine Gun. The armed Hunters are used for troop transport in combat zones, as light reconnaissance vehicles or even in fire support role in COIN operations. Field Manual
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Design[]
The Hunter is a four-wheel drive, all-terrain, MRAP-type vehicle. Primarily intended for use in counter-insurgency operations, it is multi-role and can act as both a troop carrier and supply vehicle if needed.
Features
It is available in three variants: a baseline unarmed version that has no weapons mounted on it, and two separately armed versions that have a mounted RCWS turret. The RCWS turrets on the armed variants can either utilise a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun or 40 mm automatic grenade launcher.
The driver sits in the front left seat, with two small armoured front windows providing a narrow view of the area in front of the vehicle at the cost of reduced visibility. The front-right and rear seats can hold anywhere from one to three passengers, of which none have any control over any of the vehicle except in the case of the armed variants.
Notable Traits
Protection-wise, the Hunter is equal to, if not better, than its CSAT counterpart due to the driver not being exposed by a large windscreen. It is designed to be resistant against small arms fire ranging from 7.62 mm and up to 12.7 mm. Unlike its softer-skinned AAF counterpart, it is well armoured enough to be able protect its passengers from medium to large explosives like 40 mm grenades or demolition charges and land mines/Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).
Mobility
In terms of mobility, the Hunter has decent acceleration and handling on both paved roads and while off-road. However it cannot match the Ifrit when it comes to speed due to being much heavier, nor the manoeuvrability or amphibious capability of the Strider.
Drawbacks
The Hunter's use of a V-hull is somewhat of a disadvantage in that while it makes the vehicle resistant to IEDs, it also raises the Hunter's centre-of-mass significantly as well. This means that it is entirely possible for the driver to accidentally cause a rollover when turning around corners at high speeds, or when just driving down sloped terrain.
Additionally, the Hunter is the only MRAP-type vehicle that lacks smoke launchers. As a result, the driver (and gunner on the armed variants) can only rely on their speed and agility to hide from foes. Shoulder-fired launchers and other guided anti-vehicle weapons can lock onto the Hunter without needing to worry about getting their lock-ons broken by smoke since the Hunter has access to none.
Crew Capacity
Regardless of the variant, the Hunter always has a seating capacity of four personnel. The crew includes the driver, and in the case of the armed variants, a gunner as well, leaving enough space for up to two dismounts.
Variants[]
Baseline variant. It is unarmed and can only serve as a troop carrier. It supports a driver and up to three passengers.
This variant has a gross weight of 8306.63 kg.
Armed variant.
This variant has an RCWS turret mounted onto the roof. The RCWS turret is equipped with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun. This HMG is pre-loaded with a single 200-round belt and has a single spare belt in reserve. The gunner sits in the rear left seat and controls the RCWS turret via the control station fixed behind the driver's seat.
This variant has a gross weight of 8389.04 kg.
Armed variant.
This variant is functionally identical to the Hunter HMG, with the sole difference being its choice of armament as this variant uses a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher instead. The GMG feeds from a single 96-round belt loaded with 40 mm high-explosive (HE) grenades.
This variant has a gross weight of 8389.04 kg.
Camouflage[]
- Sand: Coyote brown paint scheme. Used by Mediterranean NATO forces.
- Olive: Tropical green paint scheme. Used by both Eastern European and Pacific NATO forces.
Protection[]
All variants of the Hunter have base armour values of 200 and use Composite Armour plating. They cannot be fitted with Slat cages or Explosive Reactive Armour blocks/panels.
The following highlighted positions serve as weak points on the Hunter:
Note that although only the armed Hunter variant is depicted here, hit zones are identical for all models regardless of configuration with the exception of the turret.
Body[]
The Hunter's body can survive 1,200 points of damage. It takes 150% increased damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions.
Depletion of the body's integrity will result in a catastrophic kill.
Hull[]
The hull can resist up to 200 points of damage. 50% of damage is always shared with the Hunter's main "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 hull has been compromised, no reductions will be applied to the velocity/raw damage of incoming projectiles.
Engine[]
The engine can survive 100 points of damage. It takes 20% less damage from HE-type munitions. At least 30% of damage inflicted onto the engine will be shared with the Hunter's main "health" pool. Destroying the engine will not result in a catastrophic kill unless the Hunter is critically damaged.
If damaged: Reduces power output, acceleration is decreased and it may become impossible to climb uphill.
If destroyed: Instantly immobilises the Hunter.
Fuel tank[]
The fuel tank can resist up to 100 points of damage before it ruptures. It takes 20% reduced damage from HE-type munitions.
Up to 50% of damage onto the fuel tank will be shared with the Hunter's "health" pool. A destroyed fuel tank will not cause a catastrophic kill unless the Hunter is at critical "health" status.
If damaged: Gradually leak up to 50% of fuel over time.
If destroyed: Causes it to rapidly lose its entire fuel capacity over the course of several seconds.
Wheels[]
All four wheels are able to take up to 250 points of damage. The tyres are susceptible to small arms fire and receive 400% extra damage from HE-type munitions. No amount of damage upon them will be transferred onto the Hunter's main "health" pool, however.
Destroying all of the Hunter's wheels will be needed to immobilise it completely. Depending on which of them were disabled and how many remain functional, it is entirely possible for the Hunter to continue driving even with three out of four tyres missing (though making simple manoeuvres will be almost impossible).
RCWS[]
The RCWS turret on armed variants can resist up to 250 points worth of damage. No amount of damage incurred will be shared with the Hunter'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.
Armament[]
The gunner position exclusively controls all weapon systems remotely on the armed variants. The gunner'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[]
NOTE: Only available on the Hunter HMG variant.
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[]
NOTE: Only available on the Hunter GMG variant.
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 Hunter is directly based on the real-world "M-ATV" MRAP designed by the Oshkosh Corporation (parodied as an in-universe product of the "Rozkos" company).
- Despite being classified as an MRAP, the in-game Hunter remains quite fragile even with the release of Tanks DLC's platform update (which refactored vehicle armour simulation[1]).
- The Hunter is able to survive the initial blast of a small/medium-sized IED but will blow up after a short time. Meanwhile, the initial blast of larger IEDs will instantly destroy it. Real-life MRAPs are designed to survive an IED blast and protect the crew from within regardless of how powerful the IED is.
- Before the release of the Laws of War DLC (pre-Tanks DLC armour overhaul), the Hunter was unusually resistant to being hit by both 30 mm/40 mm HE and AP-type autocannon shells from the front. Their resistance to such projectiles was greatly reduced after Game Update 1.76.[2]
- On Apex's release, Pacific NATO Hunters used the same coyote brown paint scheme as their Mediterranean counterparts. The Olive camouflage scheme - better suited to Tanoa's tropical environment, was finally added after the release of Game Update 1.90.[3]
- The information below details unused, pre-release or removed content.
- In a similar fashion to the A-143 Buzzard, screenshots and gameplay demos released during the pre-Alpha phase of ArmA 3's development indicated that the Hunter was originally meant to be a CSAT vehicle instead.[4][5]
- By the time of the Alpha's release, the Hunter was changed to be used exclusively by NATO only. CSAT on the other hand, would be set to use the Ifrit as their MRAP-type vehicle instead.[6]
- Like several other pre-Alpha vehicles, the Hunter is also one of the few original vehicles in ArmA 3 that has animated doors. The doors can still be configured through a replacement addon or via script so that they will automatically open when entering or exiting the MRAP. However, the doors cannot be opened on the armed variants even with addons or scripts.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Kovařič, V 2018, SPOTREP #00079, Arma 3, viewed 24 March 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00079>.
- ↑ van 't Land, J.J. 2017, SPOTREP #00073, Arma 3, viewed 28 November 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00073>.
- ↑ Kužel, O 2019, SPOTREP #00085, Arma 3, viewed 24 March 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00085>.
- ↑ Senior, T 2011, Arma 3 screenshots show heavy vehicles and spectacular views, PC Gamer, viewed 24 March 2023, <https://www.pcgamer.com/arma-3-screenshots-shows-heavy-vehicles-and-spectacular-views/>.
- ↑ LAtrailers 2011, ARMA 3 - Gamescom 2011 Presentation Part 1 Trailer, 14 September, viewed 7 Feburary 2024, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V25qJMfCMjs>.
- ↑ van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SPOTREP #00001, Arma 3, viewed 24 March 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-0001>.
External links[]
See also[]
Vehicles of comparable role and configuration[]
- Ifrit (CSAT counterpart)
- Strider (AAF counterpart)
- Dingo 2 CZ (ACR counterpart, ArmA 2: ACR only)
NATO - Vehicles (ArmA 3) | |
---|---|
Wheeled | AMV-7 Marshall • HEMTT • Hunter • Prowler • Quadbike • Rhino MGS (UP) • UGV Stomper |
Tracked | CRV-6e Bobcat • ED-1D Pelter (ED-1E Roller) • IFV-6a Cheetah • IFV-6c Panther • M2A1 Slammer (A4 UP) • M4 Scorcher • M5 Sandstorm |
Rotor-wing | AH-9 Pawnee • AH-99 Blackfoot • AL-6 Pelican • AR-2 Darter • CH-67 Huron • MH-9 Hummingbird • MQ-12 Falcon • UH-80 Ghost Hawk |
Fixed-wing | A-164 Wipeout • F/A-181 Black Wasp II • MQ-4A Greyhawk • UCAV Sentinel • V-44X Blackfish |
Aquatic | Assault Boat (Rescue) • Speedboat Minigun • SDV |
(Parenthesis) denote variants. Helicopters DLC | Apex DLC | Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC |