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The WY-55 Hellcat is a multi-purpose light utility helicopter used by the AAF in ArmA 3.

An alternate variant is also used by the Livonian Defense Force and is designated as the WY-55 Czapla. It was added with the release of the Contact DLC.

Overview[]

  • Roles:
    • Observation
    • Utility helicopter
    • Troop transport
    • Light gunship
« The WY-55 Hellcat is a multi-purpose military helicopter, most suited for a role of anti-surface battlefield utility, which also has a limited transport capacity. It replaces its predecessor the Super Lynx, improving the maneuverability, durability and protection. The armed version is fitted with twin miniguns and unguided rockets.
Field Manual
»

Design[]

The Hellcat is a four-bladed, twin-engined rotary-wing helicopter that is capable of serving in many roles.

These range from providing air-to-ground fire support as a light gunship, ferrying troops and cargo into battle as a utility transport, and even as an anti-tank/ship helicopter when outfitted with guided missiles.

Features
It has two variants; an unarmed version that has no weapons (and therefore lacks stub wings), and an armed version that has two stub wings located on either side of the passenger compartment. Each of these wings have a single pylon on them that support dynamic loadouts.

Arma3-Hellcat-Loadout

WY-55 pylon configuration

Armament
By default, the armed version has twin M134 miniguns and DAR rocket pods mounted on its stub wings. The miniguns are fed from a linked belt stored in a crate that has 5,000 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, while the DAR pods are loaded with 24 unguided rockets (combined).

Both pylons (1-2) can have their default loadouts changed at the pilot's discretion, and support being fitted with any of the following types of munitions and weapons:

  • ASRAAM (1×)
  • Scalpel (1×)
  • Scalpel (3×)
  • Scalpel (4×)
  • Shrieker HE (7×)
  • Shrieker AP (7×)
  • DAGR (12×)
  • DAR (12×)
  • Twin Cannon 20 mm

Mobility
Manoeuvrability-wise, the Hellcat lacks the agility of the MH-9, while transportation-wise it cannot load as many passengers as the PO-30 due to having a much smaller cabin space. Its rotors are also louder in-flight compared to the PO-30, and can be heard flying in from a greater distance.

Arma3-screenshot-04-hellcat

AAF Hellcat in mid-flight.

Notable Traits
The Hellcat does retain the most powerful engines out of the three which enables it to achieve and maintain the highest flight speed. Increased engine power and having the largest airframe also allows it to carry a much more diverse array of heavier munitions as well.

Unlike its armed NATO counterpart, the Hellcat does not need to sacrifice any passenger seating for armament as both armed and unarmed variants retain the same amount of space. Another unique aspect of the Hellcat is that it has a FLIR pod fitted to the nose of the helicopter. The pod enables the co-pilot to observe nearby surroundings, and can track ground targets via infrared as needed.

Drawbacks
Although the Hellcat possesses the ability to mount Skalpel ATGMs, it is only armed with unguided anti-personnel/anti-unarmoured vehicle rockets by default. Even when fitted with ATGMs, its lack of a proper IR sensor makes targeting difficult as the pilot can only lock-on using the missile's seeker (which have a very tight field of view).

Furthermore, no part of the airframe is particularly well-armoured, meaning that infantry small arms can still injure or outright kill both the pilot and co-pilot. As a result, the Hellcat can only serve as a light gunship at best, and cannot match the capabilities of dedicated attack helicopters like the Mi-48.

Crew Capacity
Regardless of the variant, the Hellcat always has a seating capacity of eight personnel. This includes both of the crew members which consist of the pilot and co-pilot.

Variants[]

Arma3-render-hellcatdigitalgreen
Baseline variant. Armed with twin miniguns and rocket pods mounted on stub wings fixed to both sides of the fuselage. It can transport up to six passengers (not including the the crew).

This variant has a gross weight of 10481.7 kg.

Arma3-render-hellcatunarmedolive
Unarmed variant. The two stub wings are removed on this version, but is otherwise completely identical function-wise to the baseline variant.

This variant has a gross weight of 10445.3 kg.

Premium content logo
This is a premium asset that requires ownership of the Contact expansion pack.

Arma3-render-hellcatgeometric
Identical to armed AAF Hellcats, but exclusively operated by the LDF only.

The sole difference with Czapla is the usage of red-coloured tracers for the twin Miniguns. It remains unchanged in all other aspects.

This variant has a gross weight of 10481.7 kg.

Premium content logo
This is a premium asset that requires ownership of the Contact expansion pack.

Arma3-render-hellcatunarmedgeometric
Identical to unarmed variants of the AAF Hellcat aside from the using the LDF's camouflage scheme.

This variant has a gross weight of 10445.3 kg.

Camouflage[]

AAF Hellcats have access to the following camouflage options:

  • Green: Pattern-less olive paint scheme.
  • Digital Green: Digitised three-tone green/olive semi-fractal camouflage pattern. Used on AAF-operated Hellcats.

LDF Czaplas are restricted to the following schemes only:

  • Geometric: Fractal woodland camouflage scheme intended to mimic the LDF's Geometric pattern. Only used on LDF-operated Czaplas.

Protection[]

Both variants of the Hellcat have base armour values of 40.

Hull[]

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

Engines[]

Each of the Hellcat's engines can survive 40 points of damage (total of two). 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 Hellcat instantly if overall status of helicopter is at critical.

Fuel tank[]

The Hellcat's fuel tank can only take a mere 28 points of damage before rupturing. It takes 200% increased damage from HE-type weapons.

A damaged fuel tank will not cause a total loss unless 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 52 points of damage before failure.

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

Main rotor[]

The main rotor can resist up to 104 points of damage before destruction. It takes 250% increased damage from HE-type weapons.

A disabled main rotor makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the Hellcat's lift. Unless the tail rotor has also been disabled however, the Hellcat can still be (reasonably) controlled at low airspeeds.

Tail rotor[]

The tail rotor can resist up to 60 points of damage before failure. It will take 600% increased damage from HE-type weapons.

A disabled tail rotor will drastically increase torque from the main rotor. At low airspeeds, the Hellcat will become extremely difficult to control due to constant yaw shifting to one side.

Sensors[]

Designed exclusively for transporting troops, the Hellcat has only one passive-type sensor available:

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)
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

Passive Radar[]

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

Armament[]

NOTE: Only weapons fitted by default on the Hellcat are displayed here. Ordnance and weapons equipped via the dynamic loadouts mechanic are not listed here.

The pilot controls both the 2x M134 Minigun 7.62 mm and DAR rocket pod weapons:

2x M134 Minigun 7.62 mm[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-wy55hellcat-2xm134minigun762mm

NOTE: Only available on the baseline Hellcat variant.

Base damage value Aerodynamic friction Initial velocity (m/s) Penetration depth (mm)
11.6 -0.001 860 20.64

The Hellcat's primary weapon. They can attain fire rates of up to 1,800 rounds per minute, and have a fixed dispersion of 0.0092 rad. 15 seconds will be required to reload a fresh belt (assuming all 5,000 rounds have been already depleted).

Neither minigun can be removed from the Hellcat's pylons and are permanently fixed to its stub wings.

DAR[]

Arma3-vehicleweapons-wy55hellcat-dar

NOTE: Only available on the baseline Hellcat variant.

Main article: Dynamic loadouts#DAR

The Hellcat's alternate weapon.

DAR pods only fire unguided rockets fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads, making it exclusively an anti-personnel/unarmoured vehicle weapon.

FFV[]

Main article: Firing from vehicles (mechanic)#WY-55 Hellcat

Slingloading[]

Main article: Slingloading#WY-55 Czapla/Hellcat

The Hellcat has a maximum weight capacity of 2,000 kg and is only capable of slingloading and transporting a small variety of vehicles and equipment.

The Hellcat's lifting capabilities are quite mediocre due to its very small weight limit which prevents it from lifting any useful military vehicles. In comparison to the AAF's own medium-lift Mohawk helicopter, the Hellcat is largely restricted to modified civilian transport vehicles, which makes it a poor choice of transport for airlifting cargo around.

Trivia[]

  • As stated in its Field Manual entry, the Hellcat is an upgraded model of the AgustaWestland "AW159 Wildcat" currently operated by both the British Army and Royal Navy, which itself is an upgraded version of the older Westland "Lynx" helicopter. The main difference with ArmA 3's Hellcat is that it uses skids as opposed to a wheeled undercarriage like on the real Wildcat helicopter.[1]
  • The Hellcat was not initially available as part of ArmA 3's launch content. It would not be added into the game until the release of Game Update 1.08 whereupon it was included as part of the AAF Reinforcements Pack.[2]
    • Its model is a direct port of the Wildcat helicopter from ArmA 2's British Armed Forces DLC. Due to its higher quality compared to most other ArmA 2-era assets, the developers opted to upgrade its model and port it over to ArmA 3.[1]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SITREP #00036, Arma 3, viewed 12 April 2023, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/sitrep-00036>.
  2. van 't Land, J.J. 2013, SPOTREP #00016, Arma 3, viewed 19 August 2017, <https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00016>.

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-aaf AAF - Vehicles (ArmA 3)
Wheeled AFV-4 GorgonQuadbikeStriderUGV StomperZamak (MRL)
Tracked AWC NyxED-1D Pelter (ED-1E Roller) • FV-720 MoraMBT-52 Kuma
Rotor-wing AR-2 DarterAL-6 PelicanCH-49 MohawkWY-55 Hellcat
Fixed-wing A-143 BuzzardA-149 GryphonK40 Abalil-3
Aquatic Assault Boat (Rescue) • Speedboat MinigunSDV
Parenthesis denote variants.
Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
Arma3-factionicon-livoniandefenseforce LDF - Vehicles (ArmA 3)
Wheeled OffroadQuadbikeUGV StomperVanZamak (MRL)
Tracked ED-1D Pelter (ED-1E Roller) • FV-720 Odyniec
Rotor-wing AL-6 PelicanAR-2 DarterWY-55 Czapla
Fixed-wing A-149 Gryphon
(Parenthesis) denote variants.
Jets DLC | Laws of War DLC | Tanks DLC | Contact DLC
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