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The IFV-6a Cheetah is a tracked anti-aircraft vehicle used exclusively by NATO forces in ArmA 3.

Overview[]

  • Role:
    • Low altitude anti-aircraft defence
« While both IFV-6c Panther and IFV-6a Cheetah are based on the Israeli armored personnel carrier chassis, they serve different roles in combat. The Panther is an APC that boasts strong armor to achieve maximal protection for the transported crew. The standard Panther is armed with an RCWS HMG, 40 mm GMG and smoke grenades and it can take up to 8 soldiers in its cargo area. The Cheetah is a dedicated AA vehicle. The cargo space is taken up by ammunition storage and vehicle is armed with two 35 mm autocannons, four long range surface-to-air missiles and smoke grenades. The CRV (Combat Recovery Vehicle) variant of the IFV-6 also exists and is used by BLUFOR, designation CRV-6e Bobcat.
Field Manual
»

Design[]

Primarily used to defend against aerial threats, the Cheetah is fitted with a turret armed with dual 35 mm cannons and four surface-to-air missiles that can be fired in a rapid succession once an aerial target is locked onto.

Armament
The standard loadout of the Cheetah gives it a total of 680 high-explosive (HE-T) rounds for the twin autocannons, while the launcher pods mounted on both sides of the turret have 4 infrared-guided Titan surface-to-air missiles stored in them. The pods can be reloaded once, which gives the Cheetah a total of 8 missiles.

Arma3-cheetah-00

Armed with twin autocannons and SAMs, the Cheetah is a fearsome sight for any aircraft pilot.

Features
Like its parent APC and recovery vehicle counterparts, the Cheetah shares the same chassis and is relatively well-armoured against small arms and even cannon fire to a certain extent. It is also noticeably better armoured compared to its CSAT counterpart, allowing it to withstand significantly more punishment before being knocked out of action.

Although its main armament is intended for use against aircraft, it can also be utilised against ground targets in a direct fire support role if necessary and is especially devastating when brought upon infantry due to both the high fire rate of the cannons and the splash radius of its high-explosive shells.

In addition, the Cheetah has access to data link capabilities, allowing it to not only receive the locations of radar contacts but also transmit targeting information to other data link-enabled platforms. As a result, the Cheetah can act as a mobile radar unit for Defender SAM batteries if the latter's AN/MPQ-105 static radars have been destroyed or are unavailable.

Drawbacks
Unlike its parent vehicle, the Cheetah cannot transport any passengers. One other disadvantage - shared by its derivatives, is that it cannot be fitted with any sort of slat cages, which renders the vehicle more vulnerable to explosive-based munitions and in return, somewhat negating the better base armour of the Cheetah.

When it comes to ground targets, the autocannons shouldn't be used against anything more durable than lightly-armoured vehicles like MRAPs. This is because the munitions fired by the Cheetah's autocannons are primarily HE-based and lack a proper kinetic penetrator for cutting through vehicle armour. At the same time, they also inflict very low damage against vehicles. The end result is that the gunner will end up depleting most of their ammunition by the time they've finished off just a single vehicle. Needless to say, this is not the most effective way of utilising the Cheetah's armament.

To get the most out of the Cheetah, the crew should focus on airborne threats and leave other surface targets to infantry and other friendly assets. At most, one should only engage ground vehicles to disable their exposed components (i.e. optics, turrets, gun barrels, tracks, etc.) as a last resort, or to provide suppression against enemy infantry targets for allies.

Crew Capacity
The Cheetah has a seating capacity of three personnel for a crew consisting of the driver, gunner, and a commander. It is incapable of transport passengers.

Camouflage[]

  • Sand: Standard pattern-less dark tan paint scheme used by all NATO ground vehicles and certain aircraft. This can be universally employed in all types of terrain, but is more suited to arid and forested environments. Any camo nets applied on the Cheetah's hull or turret will default to using a two-tone desert camouflage pattern scheme.
  • Olive: Tropical olive green paint scheme. Only useful for jungle or woodland environments. Camo nets attached to the Cheetah use a two-tone woodland camouflage pattern when this scheme is applied.

Protection[]

The Cheetah has a base armour value of 500 and uses Composite Armour plating. The Cheetah cannot have slat cages attached onto its hull, nor can it be fitted with Explosive Reactive Armour blocks/panels.

The following highlighted positions serve as weak points on the Cheetah:

Arma3-cheetah-hitpoints

LEGEND
Green = Hull
Orange = Engine
Violet = Fuel tanks
Light blue = Treads
Maroon = Turret

Note that in order to inflict actual damage, a munition must first penetrate through the surrounding armour plates and directly hit the component's weak point. Any strikes on non-highlighted parts will cause little (if any) noticeable damage.


Hull[]

The hull is able to withstand up to 800 points of damage before its integrity fails. Depletion of its integrity will result in a catastrophic kill.

Munition type Damage reduction (%) Velocity reduction (%)
Armour Piercing None 10
High-Explosive 80* 50
High-Explosive Anti-Tank 80* 80
Tandem High-Explosive Anti-Tank 80* 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 150 points of damage. It takes 20% less damage from high-explosive (HE) type munitions.

At least 50% of incoming damage will always be shared with the Cheetah's main "health" pool. Its destruction may result in a catastrophic kill if the Cheetah's overall integrity is at critical.

If damaged: Reduces power output, acceleration is decreased and it may become impossible to climb uphill.
If destroyed: Instantly immobilises the Cheetah.

Fuel tank[]

The fuel tanks are to incur up to 250 points of damage before rupturing. They take 40% less damage from HE-type munitions.

Up to 30% of incoming damage onto the fuel tank will be shared with the Cheetah's "health" pool. Destroying the fuel tank will not cause a catastrophic kill on its own unless the Cheetah is at critical "health" status.

If damaged: Gradually leak fuel over time, but it will stop at a threshold of 70% of the Cheetah's total fuel capacity.
If destroyed: Entire fuel supply will be drained over the course of several seconds.

Treads[]

Both treads can resist 650 points worth of damage. No amount of damage inflicted on them is transferred onto the Cheetah's "health" pool, and they take 20% less damage from HE-type munitions.

Destroying either one of the treads will hamper the Cheetah's handling but will not prevent it from moving. Destroying both will severely degrade the Cheetah's handling and can prevent it from moving altogether while driving over rough terrain.

Turret[]

The turret is only able to withstand 400 points worth of damage. Damage inflicted onto the turret will not be shared with Cheetah's main "health" pool.

Munition type Damage reduction (%) Velocity reduction (%)
Armour Piercing None 10
High-Explosive 80* 50
High-Explosive Anti-Tank 80* 80
Tandem High-Explosive Anti-Tank 80* 10

(*) Reductions only apply to the explosive component of the munition i.e. Tandem HEAT explosive charge

If the turret's armour has been compromised, no reductions will be applied to the velocity/raw damage of incoming projectiles.

Twin autocannons[]

The turret's dual autocannons can resist up to 300 points of damage before failing. No damage inflicted onto this component will be shared with the Cheetah's "health" pool.

Destroying this component will lock both barrels and prevent the gunner position from adjusting their elevation/depression. It should also be noted that unlike the turret, the barrels are only capable of reducing 60% of damage from HE-type munitions.

Commander viewfinder[]

The commander's optics can only resist 50 points of damage. It has no resistance to HE-type munitions and can be disabled by small arms fire. Damage inflicted onto the viewfinder is not shared with the Cheetah's main "health" pool.

Disabling this component will prevent the commander from being able to rotate their optics independently.

Components[]

NOTE: Cosmetic-only component modules with no gameplay effects are deliberately excluded from this section.

  • Camo Net (Hull): Drapes the entire hull with camouflage netting. Partially conceals covered sections from thermal sensors.
  • Camo Net (Turret): Identical to the Hull camouflage netting, but for the turret only. However most of the turret is not actually concealed by netting, with only some sections such as the sides and front of the turret being covered. The radar dish, both missile pods, and gun barrels are not covered.

Sensors[]

The Cheetah is outfitted with a dual-band radar dish mounted on the top of its turret optimised for anti-aircraft purposes:

Sensor type Max range (Air/Ground) Min range (Air/Ground) Affected by environment? Target max speed (km/h) Azimuth coverage (°) Elevation coverage (°) Friendly identification range (m)
Active A: 9,000 m
G: 6,000 m
A: 9,000 m
G: 6,000 m
Terrain clutter (200 m) 2,500 km/h 360° 100° 6,000 m
Data Link A: 16,000 m
G: 16,000 m
A: 16,000 m
G: 16,000 m
Nothing 1e+10 km/h 360° 360° 0 m

Data Link[]

The Cheetah can freely receive and transmit the locations of radar contacts from any direction.

Active Radar[]

The radar provides full horizontal coverage and is not limited by the radar's facing direction. It has an elevation offset of 45 degrees.

Armament[]

The Cheetah's gunner exclusively controls both the Autocannon 35 mm and Titan missile pods. For optics, they have access to three fields of view along with day, night and black-/white-hot thermal vision modes:

Autocannon 35 mm[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-ifv6acheetah-autocannon35mm
Base damage value Aerodynamic friction Initial velocity (m/s) Penetration depth (mm)
60 -0.0005 1,440 60.48

Twin anti-aircraft 35 mm autocannons.

It can attain a fire rate of ~ 1,099 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 1,440 m/s. Accuracy-wise, it has a dispersion of 0.0045 rad regardless of distance. It takes at least 20 seconds to fully rearm from a logistics vehicle.

Shells are always fired simultaneously in bursts of two. They are high-explosive (HE) based and have a blast radius of 2.4 metres. While not intended to be armour piercing, they do have the ability to penetrate light vehicle armour.

A laser rangefinder is available but the Autocannon 35 mm does not have a dedicated Fire Control System that supports automatic lead/zeroing. It can be manually zeroed, however. This starts from a minimum of 100 m up to a maximum of 3000 m. Adjustments are made with increments/decrements of 100 m.

Titan[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-ifv6acheetah-titan
Damage type Base damage value Proximity fuse radius (metres)
High-Explosive 80 10

Infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles.

There is a firing delay of only 1 second in-between launches, but it takes up to 50 seconds to reload a fresh batch of missiles or to fully rearm from a logistics vehicle. It takes 3 seconds to lock onto a target and is limited to a cone with an azimuth of 40 degrees and an elevation of 25 degrees.

Missiles are launched with an initial velocity of 44 m/s and take a further 3 seconds for their motors to reach a top speed of up to 850 m/s in-flight. The warhead itself has a blast radius of 6 metres.

The seekers on the missiles use infrared-guidance. It can lock onto aircraft at distances of up to 4.5 km away and are flying at speeds of less than 1,800 km/h. The seeker's lock-on cone is limited to 30 degrees, but it has a field of regard extending out to 40 degrees. It has a 40% chance to lose lock against countermeasure flares.

Trivia[]

  • As with its parent vehicle the Panther, the Cheetah's chassis is based on the real-life "Namer" APC.
    • Its gun turret is a shared design that is also used by the ZSU-39, which in turn is based on the real-world "Marksman" anti-aircraft gun system. However, because no anti-aircraft variant of the Namer actually exists, the Cheetah (at least in this configuration) has no direct real-world counterpart.
  • Its role and capabilities do bear some similarities to the real-life "Flakpanzer Gepard", a SPAAG vehicle that was previously used by the German military for low-altitude anti-aircraft defence.
    • Co-incidentally, the Gepard's name also translates into English as "Anti-aircraft Cannon Tank Cheetah" (German: Flugabwehrkanonenpanzer Gepard).
  • The Cheetah was not originally featured as an asset in the Alpha and Beta. Additionally, it was not added alongside the Panther in the Beta and would only be included after the game's full release (as part of Game Update 1.00).[1]
  • Prior to Game Update 1.12, the Cheetah's side skirts were not animated and would remain static even if it was driving on rough terrain.[2]
  • When the Jets DLC was first released, the Cheetah did not actually have data link capability. It only gained data link capabilities after the release of Game Update 1.72.[3]
  • Following an overhaul to ArmA 3's thermal imaging systems in Game Update 2.10, the commander's terminal now properly renders its display in green-/black-hot thermal vision when either mode is activated and the user isn't "looking" through it (previously the display could only render in white- and black-hot).[4]
The information below details unused, pre-release or removed content.
  • Screenshots released during the pre-Alpha phase of ArmA 3's development indicate that as with its parent APC model, the Cheetah was originally intended to be a CSAT vehicle. However, by the time of the Alpha and Beta's release, it was eventually replaced in this role with the ZSU-39 Tigris.[5]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SPOTREP #00010, Arma 3, viewed 9 April 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00010>.
  2. van 't Land, J.J. 2014, SPOTREP #00019, Arma 3, viewed 10 March 2024, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00019>.
  3. Kovařič, V 2017, SPOTREP #00069, Arma 3, viewed 4 October 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00069>.
  4. van 't Land, J.J. 2022, SPOTREP #00105, Arma 3, viewed 23 August 2022, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00105>.
  5. van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SPOTREP #00008, Arma 3, viewed 25 March 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00008>.

External links[]

See also[]

Variants[]

Vehicles of comparable role and configuration[]

Vehicles of ArmA 3
Wheeled AFV-4 GorgonAMV-7 MarshallHatchbackHEMTTHunterIfritKartMB 4WDMSE-3 MaridOffroadProwlerQilinRhino MGS (UP) • StriderSUVTempestTractorTruckQuadbikeUGV StomperVanZamak (MRL)
Tracked 2S9 SochorAWC NyxBTR-K KamyshCRV-6e BobcatED-1D Mini UGV (ED-1E) • IFV-6a CheetahIFV-6c PantherFV-720 MoraM2A1 Slammer (A4 UP) • M4 ScorcherM5 SandstormMBT-52 KumaT-100 Varsuk (X Futura) • T-140 Angara (T-140K) • ZSU-39 Tigris
Rotor-wing AH-9 PawneeAH-99 BlackfootAR-2 DarterCH-49 MohawkCH-67 HuronDemining DroneMH-9 Hummingbird (M900) • Mi-48 KajmanMi-290 TaruMQ-12 FalconPO-30 OrcaUH-80 Ghost HawkUtility DroneWY-55 Hellcat
Fixed-wing A-143 BuzzardA-149 GryphonA-164 WipeoutCaesar BTTF/A-181 Black Wasp IIKH-3A FenghuangMQ-4A GreyhawkTo-199 NeophronTo-201 ShikraUCAV SentinelV-44X BlackfishY-32 Xi'an
Aquatic Assault BoatMotorboatRHIBSpeedboatSDVWater Scooter
(Parenthesis) denote variants.
Karts DLC | Helicopters DLC | Apex DLC | Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
Arma3-factionicon-nato NATO - Vehicles (ArmA 3)
Wheeled AMV-7 MarshallHEMTTHunterProwlerQuadbikeRhino MGS (UP) • UGV Stomper
Tracked CRV-6e BobcatED-1D Pelter (ED-1E Roller) • IFV-6a CheetahIFV-6c PantherM2A1 Slammer (A4 UP) • M4 ScorcherM5 Sandstorm
Rotor-wing AH-9 PawneeAH-99 BlackfootAL-6 PelicanAR-2 DarterCH-67 HuronMH-9 HummingbirdMQ-12 FalconUH-80 Ghost Hawk
Fixed-wing A-164 WipeoutF/A-181 Black Wasp IIMQ-4A GreyhawkUCAV SentinelV-44X Blackfish
Aquatic Assault Boat (Rescue) • Speedboat MinigunSDV
(Parenthesis) denote variants.
Helicopters DLC | Apex DLC | Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
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