So. Recently, a few friends and I were digging through images and reference material of the Swedish Hkp 3C, and we ended up uncovering something genuinely exciting. While the Hkp 3C is currently known in-game for having Very slow- short—range guided missiles and no defensive armament at all… no guns, not even dumb-fire rockets.
Well- that is about to change for the better slightly!
What we found is that the Hkp 3C was tested with the FFV UNI-POD 0127 (12.7 mm) gun pods!!
(Each UNI-POD 0127 houses a 12.7 mm FN M3P machine gun with a 200-round ammunition capacity — and best of all, the FN M3P is already fully modeled and implemented on the Hkp 9A in-game. Since both systems were trialed, allowing them to be integrated on the current in-game helicopter would be completely reasonable to be added!
They could for simplicity be mounted on both sides of the helicopter, using the same external hardpoints normally reserved for the BANTAM missile launchers.
While the gun pods were tested rather than fully adopted into service, the exact same can be said for the BANTAM missile system, which is already available
Even though detailed written documentation is limited, there is A photograph showing a UNI-POD 0127 mounted on a Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) helicopter, supported by FFV documentation and overview sheets listing the pod among other Swedish weapon systems.
Photograph in question-
If implemented, this would finally give the Hkp 3C a proper defensive option against aircraft, greatly improving survivability and making it far more fun and less… well, sad to fly. All of this stays within historical limits and reuses assets already present in-game — a true quality-of-life improvement.
The bug report covering this discovery has already been submitted and is not accepted yet — but hopefully soon! o7
You can find it here:
Now. I am searching for further information of course to make this more solid but if this is enough to get it added to the game it would be a big help to the currently poor performing helicopter-