Good morning! I wanted to make a small topic regarding the premium A-129 International on the Italian helicopter premium line (not for sale at the moment), and how I stumbled upon an interesting article about the vehicle.
DO NOT WORRY, THIS POST WILL NOT LEAK CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS!!
Anyways, the article I stumbled upon was the official Wikipedia page of the Mangusta family, and I saw that among variants, and to no one’s surprise, the International was among those, but the main description intrigued me, saying how the A-129 International, had a 20mm gatling gun, the M197 to be precise, as seen on the A-129CBT with it’s TM197B gun.
The main article also included this paragraph
** Upgraded version developed for export with more powerful LHTEC T800 turboshafts; in its final configuration, it had a five-bladed main rotor, an improved transmission, a M197 gatling cannon in a customized OTO Melara TM-197B nose turret, improved avionics and support for Hellfire anti-tank missiles and Stinger air-to-air missiles. Maximum takeoff weight of 5,000 kg.**
-Source, Agusta A129 Mangusta article, Wikipedia
This leads to wonder, why was the International limited of its capabilities on release with it’s very weak 12.7 turret and no Air-to-air abilities? Is there a chance the International can receive these upgrades in the future along side some countermeasure? Obviously the BR of the helicopter would increase, but that shouldn’t be a matter since not many players really care of this vehicle (or either not know about it’s existence due to it not being on sale anymore).
I know the T129 and the CBT are better picks for this, but some people simply don’t have time to go through the Italian tech tree, and besides, it wouldn’t be odd for a helicopter with premium status to have such insane armaments, since we already have Apaches and Kamovs with such power! It would be a nice little change specially for owners of the International such as myself!
Hope these changes are taken into consideration!