Arbenz Mobile AA

The Arbenz Mobile AA is an anti-air APC used by the People's Liberation Army of Venezuela featured in Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.

Overview
The Arbenz Mobile AA is very likely a stolen Armadillo AA because they are essentially the same vehicle with different designs. It has an identical paint job to the Martinez APC and retains the barbed wire on its rear.

This APC is more powerful than the Martinez APC. With the replacement of the .50cal with a minigun to facilitate the shooting down of helicopters and the destruction of just about everything else that is not bulletproof. This means this APC boasts a much higher rate of fire than the original version. This makes it generally more effective (except for the damage per shot which is lower on a minigun) against infantry, light vehicles and especially helicopters.

During early game, this AA will be very effective against all types of light helicopters such as the Rogues, Castros, Kestrels and Gunneys due to the fact that that they have low armor and a large window through which the pilot and crew can be shot through.

In later game, heavier armored helicopters become more common such as the Anaconda, Ambassador Gunship and Warsong Attack Helicopter. These helicopters have much more armor and the cockpits are partially bulletproof to protect the pilots, reducing the effectiveness of this anti-aircraft APC. The use of this AA vehicle becomes very reduced since most attack helicopters are able to take it out before it does any serious damage to them.

Only 4 can be seen 'naturally', they are around the PLAV HQ. They can also be purchased from the PLAV shop at $35k.

Tactics
As mentioned in the section above, it is much more time and ammo efficient to try to shoot the pilot out of his cockpit. As driver, it is a good idea to reduce exposure of the rear of the APC to incoming fire of 20-25mm (armor penetrating) or greater because it is a weak point. When engaging this vehicle from the ground, the AI driver will try to face incoming fire so that their rear remains out of reach. This vehicle will not pose a big threat when the player is a helicopter, it is quite harmless because of the lack of SAMs. On the other hand, if the player is on foot, this vehicle will take their health down very fast.

It is a bad idea to face any attack gunship type helicopter with this APC, attacking an attack helicopter will most likely get the APC destroyed within a few seconds. It is affected by grenades and is very vulnerable to rockets and anti-tank weapons of all sorts.

Real Life
The Arbenz Mobile AA and Armadillo AA are both based on the M163, the minigun actually fires 20mm shells.

Trivia

 * The Arbenz Mobile AA is named after Guatemalan military officer and politician Jacobo Árbenz

Related Pages

 * Armadillo
 * Armadillo AA
 * Martinez APC