  Detection of gamma-rays emitted by radioactive isotopes synthesized in
stellar outbursts or explosions can give important insights into the processes
that power transients such as supernovae, as well as providing a detailed
census of the abundance of different isotope species relevant to the chemical
evolution of the Universe. Observations of nearby supernovae have yielded
observational proof that $^{57}$Co drove the late-time evolution of SN1987A's
lightcurve, and conclusive evidence that $^{56}$Ni and its daughter nuclei
power the light curves of Type Ia supernovae. In this paper we describe the
prospects for detecting nuclear decay lines associated with the decay of
$^{48}$V, the daughter nucleus of $^{48}$Cr, which is expected to be
synthesised in large quantities in transients initiated by explosive helium
burning ($\alpha$-capture) of a thick helium shell. We investigate these
prospects using results for the emergent gamma-ray line fluxes from a radiative
transfer simulation performed for a simulated explosion model of a
thermonuclear explosion of carbon-oxygen white dwarf core of mass
$0.45\,M_{\odot}$ surrounded by a thick helium layer of mass $0.21\,M_{\odot}$.
We find that the future gamma-ray mission AMEGO will have an approximately 5
per cent chance of observing $^{48}$V gamma-rays from such events during the
currently-planned operational lifetime, based on our birthrate predictions of
faint thermonuclear transients. We describe the conditions for a $3\sigma$
detection by the gamma-ray instruments \textit{INTEGRAL}/SPI, COSI and AMEGO.
