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The Mi-48 Kajman is a helicopter gunship used by both CSAT forces and Russian Spetsnaz operatives in ArmA 3.

Overview[]

  • Roles:
    • Heavy gunship
    • Troop transport
    • Laser targeting
« A multi-purpose successor to the Mi-24, the Mi-48 Kajman (BLUFOR designation "Hornet") is a large gunship and attack helicopter with troop transport capacity for 8 passengers. The front part of the helicopter is based on the Mi-28 attack helicopter, but the hull is modified for passenger transport. The Kajman has a coaxial rotor providing increased stability. It is armed with a 30mm three-barrel Minigun, unguided Skyfire rockets and guided Skalpel AT missiles.
Field Manual
»

Design[]

The Mi-48 is a large helicopter gunship with low-capacity troop transport capability. It uses a tandem cockpit layout and has a distinctive coaxial rotor system that removes the need for a tail rotor.

Arma3-Kajman-Loadout

Mi-48 pylon configuration

Armament
By default, the Mi-48 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.

It has two pylons on each stub wing (totalling up to four) fixed on both sides of the fuselage that support dynamic loadouts.

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

  • Scalpel (1×)
  • Scalpel (3×)
  • Twin Cannon 20 mm
  • Tratnyr HE (20×)
  • Tratnyr AP (20×)
  • Skyfire (19×)
  • Sahr-3 (1×)
  • Sharur (1×)
  • LOM-250G (1×)
  • RBK-500F (1×)
Arma3-kajman-00

Unique to the Mi-48 out of all the rotary-wing helicopters, it can double both as a heavily armed gunship and flying troop transport.

Features
Unique to the Mi-48, it is capable of acting both as a heavy attack helicopter and troop transport. Although it lacks an internal weapons bay and has no electronic stealth capabilities (as opposed to its NATO counterpart), the Mi-48 compensates with stub wings that are capable of carrying heavier ordnance.

Additionally, the gunner's turret also has access to a laser designator. This grants the Mi-48's crew the ability to serve as a flying Forward Air Control platform, allowing the helicopter's gunner to lase targets for fixed-wing jets or laser-guided artillery.

Notable Traits
Since it isn't constrained by the limitations of an internal weapons bay or the need to be stealthy, the Mi-48 is able to fit multiple Skalpel ATGMs that are more than capable of destroying most NATO tanks in one or two hits. The wings can even be armed with laser-guided cluster bombs, allowing the Mi-48 to serve as an (albeit improvised) flying anti-infantry/anti-structure bomb truck.

In addition, the Mi-48 is better armoured and can withstand significantly more punishment before suffering from any critical component failures. The softer-skinned Blackfoot on the other hand, will be outright destroyed if it takes more than just one or two direct hits from anti-air weaponry.

Arma3-kajman-01

With both rotors knocked out by a single missile, this Mi-48 is unable to auto-rotate and plummets straight to the ground.

Drawbacks
Its only real downside stems from its coaxial-rotor configuration. While this layout removes a major vulnerability that other conventional helicopters share (their tail rotor), it also means that the Mi-48 stands no chance at auto-rotating safely to the ground should both of its main rotors get disabled at the same time by a single hit.

Likewise, the airframe's weight means that it will usually lose altitude rapidly once its rotors are knocked out. Both the crew and passengers are almost certainly guaranteed to perish unless the helicopter was already hovering close to the ground at the time of the rotor's failure.

Electronically, the Mi-48 is easy to detect both on active radars and infrared sensors. The NATO Blackfoot can simply switch its radar off to remain hidden from passive sensors. The Mi-48 on the other hand, will always be spotted at distances of 20% more than the opposing sensor's usual maximum range, regardless of whether the pilot has activated the Mi-48's radar.

Lastly, the Mi-48 is not able to relay targeting information to friendly forces even when its radar is activated. It cannot receive nor transmit data and as a result, is unable to serve as an airborne radar platform (as opposed to the likes of the Y-32 VTOL).

Crew Capacity
The Mi-48 has a seating capacity of ten personnel. This consists of the crew (a pilot and the gunner), as well as up to eight passengers in the troop compartment.

Camouflage[]

  • Black: Pattern-less chrome black paint scheme. Used on Pacific CSAT and Russian Spetsnaz Mi-48s.
  • Hex: Light tan/dark tan/dark green cell pattern camouflage. Only used by Mediterranean CSAT forces.

Protection[]

The Mi-48 has a base armour value of 60.

Hull[]

Hull damage is calculated based on the integrity of other components on the Mi-48. Until all other parts of the helicopter have been critically damaged, the hull itself can never be "destroyed".

Engines[]

Each of the Mi-48's engines can survive 180 points of damage (there are two in total). They take 300% increased damage from high-explosive (HE) type weapons.

If damaged: Reduced power output and makes it difficult to gain both speed and altitude.
If destroyed: Can potentially blow up the Mi-48 instantly if overall status of helicopter is at critical.

Fuel tank[]

The Mi-48's fuel tank can resist up to 120 points of damage before failure. It takes 200% damage from HE-type weapons.

Rupturing the Mi-48's fuel tank will not result in a total loss unless the helicopter's damage levels are already at critical.

Instruments[]

Consists of the pilot/gunner flight instruments, Multi-Functional Displays (MFD) and Helmet Mounted Displays (HMD). They can incur 90 points of damage before failure.

If damaged: Occasional flickering of MFDs and crew HMDs. Other instruments unaffected.
If destroyed: MFDs and HMDs disabled. Instruments may not display proper readings.

Main rotors[]

The coaxial rotors can take up to 156 points of damage before failure. They receive 200% increased damage from HE-type weapons.

Disabling either one of the rotors will significantly increase the difficulty of controlling the Mi-48's yaw/pitch. If both are disabled, the Mi-48 will lose the ability to maintain its altitude completely.

Sensors[]

The Mi-48 utilises several sensors meant to augment its role as an air-to-ground fire support platform:

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: 5,000 m
G: 4,000 m
A: 5,000 m
G: 4,000 m
None 450 km/h 120° 90° 3,000 m
Infrared A: 4,000 m
G: 3,000 m
A: 500 m
G: 500 m
Fog (0.005%) 252 km/h 26° 26° 2,000 m
Laser A: 6,000 m
G: 6,000 m
A: 6,000 m
G: 6,000 m
Nothing 1e+10 km/h 180° 180° 0 m
NV A: 6,000 m
G: 6,000 m
A: 6,000 m
G: 6,000 m
Nothing 1e+10 km/h 180° 180° 0 m
Passive A: 16,000 m
G: 16,000 m
A: 16,000 m
G: 16,000 m
Nothing 1e+10 km/h 360° 360° 12,000 m
Visual A: 3,000 m
G: 2,000 m
A: 500 m
G: 500 m
Fog/Light (6%) 252 km/h 26° 26° 2,000 m

Active Radar[]

The Mi-48's Active Radar can only detect targets once they get within bounds of the sensor's range (represented by the teal semi-circle on the SENSORS panel). It has an elevation offset of 30 degrees.

Infrared Sensor[]

The Mi-48's IR Sensor is located in the gun turret camera (represented by the red cone on the SENSORS panel). Although it is technically affected by heavy fog, the range reduction effect is so miniscule (-0.125 metre reduction) that it will be barely noticeable.

Laser Sensor[]

The Mi-48's Laser Sensor is forward-facing only. Any designated targets will become visible on the Mi-48's SENSORS panel only when the helicopter is (mostly) facing in the direction of the laser spot.

NV Sensor[]

The Mi-48's NV Sensor is forward-facing only. Any IR grenades on the ground will only become visible on the SENSORS panel when the Mi-48 is (mostly) facing in the direction of the grenade.

Passive Radar[]

The Mi-48's Passive Radar can detect Active Radar threats in any direction (regardless of the helicopter's facing direction).

Visual Sensor[]

The Mi-48's Visual Sensor is located in the gun turret camera (represented by the orange cone on the SENSORS panel). The Visual Sensor can be affected by heavy fog and can lose up to 6% of its range depending on its thickness. The Visual Sensor becomes completely blind at nighttime and very low-light conditions.

Armament[]

NOTE: Only the weapons used on the default loadout for the Mi-48 are listed here. For full details on ordnance that can be mounted on the Mi-48's pylons, refer to the dynamic loadouts article.

The gunner position controls all weapon systems on the Mi-48. The turret camera's optics provides three fields of view and can toggle either a day, night or black-/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[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-mi48kajman-cannoncaseless30mm
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 Mi-48's nose turret.

It can attain a fire rate of up to 750 rounds per minute. The cannon can be loaded to fire either HE or AP-type 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

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 2500 m.

Skalpel[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-mi48kajman-skalpel
Main article: Dynamic loadouts#Skalpel

Infrared-guided air-to-ground anti-tank missiles. Relies on the Mi-48's IR Sensor to function.

Skyfire[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-mi48kajman-skyfire
Main article: Dynamic loadouts#Skyfire

Unguided air-to-ground rockets. Strong against groups of infantry and unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles.

Trivia[]

  • As stated in the Field Manual and in a livestream event held by the studio on March 8th, 2023, the Kajman's design and capabilities draw inspiration from three real-world Russian attack helicopters designed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and Kamov Design Bureau.[1] Both companies are subsidiaries of Rostec, their state-owned parent company.
    • Specifically, it uses the cockpit layout of the Mil "Mi-28", tail boom and coaxial rotor design of the Kamov "Ka-50"/"Ka-52" and fuselage/passenger cabin of the Mil "Mi-24".[2]
  • The Kajman was not originally available in the Alpha. It would only become available after the release of Game Update 0.70 (specifically for the Beta's release).[3]
  • Kaймaн or Kajman, is Russian for Caiman, a crocodile-like reptile. This follows the nicknames of the Mi-24 being Krokodil (Крокодил) which translates into "Crocodile", and the Ka-52 "Alligator" (Аллигатор).
  • Arma3-kajman-02

    Kajman cockpit (top) compared to the AH-64D's (bottom)

    Strangely, the Kajman's cockpit reuses the same MFD and flight panels as the AH-64D from ArmA 2.
    • The layout is completely identical with the only difference being that the original English labels have been translated into Russian. Given the Kajman's Russian origins, it is not known as to why the developers opted to reuse the AH-64D's cockpit.
  • Mi-48s were originally limited to just Mediterranean CSAT forces and the Russian Spetsnaz[note 1], though the Old Man mini-campaign/scenario would eventually depict it in limited use with Pacific CSAT forces as well.[4]
  • Before the release of Game Update 1.40, the first person view of human players occupying the pilot's seat would vibrate excessively once the Kajman went past certain airspeeds (the gunner was not affected).[5]
  • Prior to Game Update 1.42, a visual glitch caused Skyfire rockets to not disappear from their tubes even after both pods were fully depleted.[6]
  • Originally, the Kajman's 30 mm cannon fired shells in ten round bursts. This was later reduced to five round bursts after Game Update 1.62.[7]

Gallery[]

Notes[]

  1. Not available outside of the First Contact campaign.

References[]

  1. Bohemia Interactive a.s., 2023, Background, History, and Setting | Discussions with Ivan Buchta and Scott Alsworth, Twitch [Online Video], viewed 28 May 2023, <https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1759425550>.
  2. Twitch 2023 [Online Video], Buchta, I, Background, History, and Setting | Discussions with Ivan Buchta and Scott Alsworth, 00:17:45, "Ivan Buchta: One of those contraptions we've invented ourselves, of course based on some existing things, is this Mi-48 Kajman, this beast of a helicopter used by the CSAT in Arma 3. It would never fly, which became apparent when we tried to use flight model from Take On Helicopters on it. I said "What is this? It would barely stand! It wouldn't fly at all!". But it's a combination of Mi-28 Havoc and Mi-24 Hind."
  3. van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SPOTREP #00006, Arma 3, viewed 23 April 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00006>.
  4. ARMA 3: Apex 2020 [Video Game], Bohemia Interactive a.s., Old Man
  5. Kolar, P 2015, SPOTREP #00039, Arma 3, viewed 22 September 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00039>.
  6. van 't Land, J.J. 2015, SPOTREP #00040, Arma 3, viewed 22 September 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00040>.
  7. Kovařič, V 2016, SPOTREP #00058, Arma 3, viewed 22 September 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00058>.

External links[]

See also[]

Aircraft 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-csat CSAT - Vehicles (ArmA 3)
Wheeled IfritMSE-3 MaridQilinQuadbikeTempestUGV SaifZamak
Tracked 2S9 SochorAkinaka ED-1D (Sayyah ED-1E) • BTR-K KamyshT-100 Varsuk (X Futura) • T-140 Angara (T-140K) • ZSU-39 Tigris
Rotor-wing Jinaah AL-6Mi-48 KajmanMi-290 TaruPO-30 OrcaTayran AR-2
Fixed-wing K40 Abalil-3KH-3A FenghuangTo-199 NeophronTo-201 ShikraY-32 Xi'an
Aquatic Assault Boat (Rescue) • Speedboat HMGSDV
Parenthesis denote variants.
Helicopters DLC | Apex DLC | Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
Arma2-factionicon-russianspetsnaz Russian Spetsnaz - Vehicles (ArmA 3)
Rotor-wing Mi-48 KajmanMi-290 TaruPO-30 Orca
Fixed-wing To-201 Shikra
Helicopters DLC | Jets DLC
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