Locust Assault Helicopter

The Locust Assault Helicopter is a People's Liberation Army transport and close support helicopter featured in Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Overview


"This versatile Chinese helicopter can transport troops and provide fire support with its heavy MGs and rockets."

- Stockpile caption

The Locust Assault Helicopter is the PLA transport and support helicopter and the cheapest armed helicopter in the game with the shop price of $40k. It uses a coaxial rotor system, negating the need for a tail rotor.

The Locust is the PLA workhorse, doing tasks such as close air support, troop transport, crate transport and HVT pickups. This helicopter does not have an Allied Nations counterpart, the closest example being the Liberator due to the fact that they are the transport helicopter. However, the two helicopters are in no way similar beyond the point that they fly.

The Liberator has no pilot controlled weaponry and is not meant to be a combat helicopter, while the Locust is highly versatile with its high lift capacity and medium/heavy armament.

Tactics
The quadruple .50 caliber guns on the helicopter make it very effective against armor is armor types 2 or less but still less effective than miniguns, the thirty-eight rockets will be easily able to deal with everything else. The dual .50cal gun pods contain a total incredible amount of 1200 rounds in each (a total of 2400 rounds in reserves), making it very unlikely to run out of ammunition on the guns.

The Locust is best used against infantry and light armor. It can destroy heavier armor, but the risks of getting hit increase and the rocket ammunition will be used up quickly.

Its lack of speed and maneuverability makes it vulnerable since ground targets (such as tanks and SAMs) often shoot back. If the area the player is entering is guarded by SAMs it is advised the player changes course. However, if attacking infantry backed by light to medium armor vehicles the Locust is an adequate and extremely inexpensive killing machine.

The helicopter's survivability is quite good against SAMs and AA fire but it has a poor ability to dodge effectively. The cockpit will protect the pilot from small arms, .50cal rounds and minigun bullets, so the crew is safe from harm as long as they are inside.

This helicopter has very good lift capacity, being able to lift heavy armor and even a Bladesong Missile Boat, but it loses maneuverability and speed by doing so.

Since this vehicle delivers the support and capture troops for an outpost capture mission, you could easily get free helicopter deliveries as well as free backup by accepting a PLA outpost capture contract, calling in support and hijacking the helicopter.

It is often used to destroy stationary targets such as buildings in "destruction target" bounty and HVTs due to its cost-effectiveness:


 * 1) At the price of $50,000, it gives 38 rockets. That is one-seventh the price of a Warsong helicopter ($350,000), and offers more than half of the Warsong's rockets (68 rockets).
 * 2) The Locust has 2400 rounds for its machine guns, and the Warsong has 750 rounds (to be fair, the Warsong has a much stronger gun than the Locust, but the Locust holds more rounds to make up for it)

Real life
The Locust is based on the Russian Kamov Ka-29 Marine Assault helicopter, an attack variant of the Kamov Ka-27. Only around 50 Ka-29's were ever manufactured. Its main operator is the Russian Navy and is used aboard the Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carriers and Sovremenny class destroyers.

Trivia

 * When the Locust delivers troops, it will deliver four troops, while it should only be able to carry three non-pilot passengers.
 * The co-pilot/gunner controlled machine gun cannot be seen but it fires from somewhere under the co-pilot seat.
 * (Tested on Xbox 360.) There is a glitch where, upon attempting to lift an Iron Mountain Heavy Tank, the Locust's health will be burned away in about 3 seconds. This has not been tested with other tanks.
 * This glitch does not work on PS3.



Related page

 * Chinese Vehicles