I admit that I usually don't look or install Beta patches but I've been reading that the latest Beta patches (the latest version until the date of this post is 88207 if I'm not mistaken) includes considerable improvements to aircraft (specially helicopters) weapon guidance and being myself a "helicopter flyboy" in the ArmA series these improvements definitly got my attention! The improvements that I noticed so far was:

-> If the mission designer adds a Laser designator to the Apache helicopter (or AH-1Z) it's possible to activate the laser designator (laser ON) then change to the Hellfire missiles and then lock the laser target. Until here nothing new, but in previous versions the laser target was always pointed to a fixed location (normally the front of the aircraft) but now if the player is playing as the gunner he/she will be able to move the locked laser target by moving the crosshair, so and resuming now the laser target in the Apache follows the gunner crosshair instead of pointing towards a fixed frontal location. This allows the human gunner to engage any kind of target (incluing buildings or infantry) by pointing the crosshair into the target like happens in real life!

-> In the Mi-24D, Mi-24V and even in the Ka-52 if NO target is locked the missile will follow the gunner's crosshair (like happens for example with the TOW missile) like happens in real life as well and thus allowing the human gunner from these helicopters to engage any kind of target (incluing buildings or infantry)!


Well at least for me this is great news so I decided to share this info.

That's nice. Now they need to fix joystick throttles.

Glad they added non-ACE support for air-mounted laser designators and guided missiles at last.

You can work around the joystick throttle issue in a pretty effective way with GlovePIE & PPJOY. This has made flying in ArmA a delight rather than a chore for me at last.

This is the GlovePIE script:
""""

PPJoy1.analog2 = (MapRange(-Joystick.Z, -1, 1, 0, 1))

"""

Running that command in GlovePIE will create an artificial axis that maps 0 to 1 on the throttle on your joystick to 0.5 to 1 on the virtual stick. Then, tell ArmA to use that virtual stick axis (by moving your throttle with GlovePIE running), and it will behave in a sane way -- like a throttle in fighters and like the collective in helicopters. You can then map the decelerate axis in ArmA to something like a slider, and it will work as airbrakes on the A-10/F-35 and do nothing useful on helicopters.

I can try to explain more if this isn't clear.

just whats needed, makeing the apache more leathel

This is great news that BIS is implementing these changes, and bodes very well for ARMA 3.

If you would like to do this now however, without moving to the beta I highly recommend the GDT mod for helicopters here -

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7373

It creates a "laser marker" option in your weapons selection. Click the mouse button to turn it on and then press a user configurable key (I use R ALT) to launch whatever guided missle is on the airframe (hellfires, Vikhrs and what have you) at whatever you are pointing at. In the Apache you can pound infantry, buildings, and especially other attack helicopters with hellfires. I find it easier to engage enemy helos this way than with sidewinders.

The mod also fixes the limited gun traverse on Russian attack helos and makes the Vikhrs SOOO much more useful, especially considering how many they carry.

Humm, this doesn't necessarely makes the Apache (or any other attack helicopter) more lethal. This makes guided missile employment from attack helicopters more realistic since in real life a Hellfire missile can and is used to attack buildings and infantry soldiers (and not only moving vehicles like happened before).
But be aware that in other to use this new (and realistic) functions there must be a human gunner in the helicopter and the human gunner must manually aim the missile (and/or laser) at the desired target and of course the desired target must be visible.

What's not realistic and too simplistic and "too powerfull/lethal" is the ability to easily lock NON visible targets (moving vehicles) with a simple TAB key press, but that's an another discussion...

It will be interesting to see if they will or already did bump up the splash damage/radius for Hellfires and other helicopter guided weapons. Last time I checked (which was a few patches ago), Hellfires had almost no splash damage, and a direct hit on an infanteer was required to guarantee a kill. Mind you, there were some easy ways to code around this - at one point, I had UAVs launching Hellfires which immediately turned into Mk 82 bombs on impact through event handlers. Made a much more satisfying 'boom' that way. But it would be nice to have them effective 'out of the box.'

That is a good idea Tao, but why do I have to jump through hoops to do this? BIS should have fixed it in OFP.

@punisher: Yeah I agree. For what it's worth, it is fixed in Take on Helicopters, so it'll certainly be resolved in ArmA 3.

@fatty: As of 1.60 Hellfire splash damage is still virtually nil. Not sure about this beta though. Need the thermobaric and blast-frag Hellfires to be added, eh! For my UAV in COIN I spawn a Hydra wherever the Hellfire hits. So you get some anti-infantry + precision anti-armor.

Personally I'm waiting for gyro camera stabilization, but that won't be til A3 I'm sure. I've seen something like in TKOH, so I'd expect it to be possible, though perhaps it'll need modded in. Who knows! At that point they're gonna need to make the thermal/cameras more realistically imperfect or it's going to be a long-range helicopter murder fest with the Comanche :3

@ric: I wonder how unrealistic the lock-on without vision ability really is. The Apache modeled in ArmA is, after all, the Longbow. Unless Jane's Longbow lied to me, it is more than capable of locking onto targets using the radar and sending an AGM-114K after them, without ever making eye contact. Obviously it's a bit trickier to use radar, but conceptually, it's not that wrong.

Well, regarding the Apache modeled in ArmA itself which is an AH-64D equiped with Longbow radar the "simplistic" lock key isn't very far off but other attack helicopters modeled in ArmA such as the AH-1Z or Mi-24 don't have a radar and the locking system works the exact same way (and with the same detecting range) between aircraft with or without radar.

Besides in situations when playing as a pilot and having an AI gunner I'm not against the "TAB" key since it would emulate something like "gunner lock another target" vocal command that happens in real life (BTW, this sort of emulation is also present in LB2 and EECH) but what I'm against to or criticize in ArmA is that you see the targets displayed in a radar scope even in aircraft that don't have radar and worse even you couldn't use hellfires (or other guided missiles) against infantry or buildings (until now that is - and BTW you can NOT still do this if you're a pilot and your gunner is AI but at least this is a step on the right direction).

Eh, I wouldn't get too wrapped up on that. Even with a non-radar capable helo (on the US side, anyway), if your gunner is lasing a target (any target, not just an enemy), the software could generate a track/target on your display which would give you the same situational awareness that the "radar bar" does.

Once the laser energy goes out, the aircraft system knows exactly where that point in space is within its INS world.

Not remotedly the same thing gatordev!
What you're saying is that you could ONLY have one "real time" target in a "Situational Awareness" page while if any other target(s) are to be present they must have been previously locked up by any helicopter crewmember but these targets aren't updated in a real time - for example if one or more of these targets moved (like any ground vehicle do) their positions wouldn't be accurate within the "Situational Awareness" page.
BUT, the "radar" in ArmA can show dozens (all targets withing range to be more precise) targets in "real time" - just like any radar.

I've always imagined that in non-radar-equipped aircraft, what I am seeing is simply target information fed by data channel from some JSTARS plane in the theater to one of my MFDs. That justification works for me, even if not every aircraft can do exactly that. Alternately, that radar is the map in my head from JSTARS target reports that one simply doesn't hear in game... lol

It's a "very positive" way of seing things but it's VERY hard to justify a "JSTARS" or any other kind of data-linked targets in older attack helicopters such as the Mi-24...

I'd go with this. If some sort of C2 asset is up above, he's probably beaming to everyone via Link 16, and thus, you have real time updates of targets in the area.

You're right, continuous updates of targets from your gunner of EVERYONE isn't realistic, but it makes up for the fact that you can see a bag guy and can't lock him up because your gunner is busy updating everything (ie, Link 16 is giving you everything but your gunner is task-saturated).

Can anyone confirm any change in this respect for the reaper drone?

I did some tests with the Predator-B UAV and the conclusion were:

No, unfortunally this new feature doesn't seem to affect the UAV -> The UAV already comes with a Laser Designator and Hellfire missiles but when you turn ON the UAV laser designator and point it, NO laser target seems to appear on the radar screen and thus the UAV laser target cannot be locked (confirmed by after pressing "TAB" several times). It seems that the laser designator generated by the UAV can only be seen and locked by other units and the UAV hellfire missiles can only lock on laser targets that are designated by other units

Guess it's a good idea to report this to BIS.

@ricnunes
Thanks for testing this!