AH-1 Cobra

NOTE: This article is about the AH-1 Cobra used by U.S. forces in ArmA: CWA. For Apache AH-1 attack helicopters utilised by the British Army in ArmA 2: BAF, see Apache AH-1.

Cobra
Faction	United States
Type	Medium Attack Helicopter
Seats	2 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Gunner
Item capacity	Max: 3× Weapons 20× Magazines
Top speed	~ 261 km/h
Service ceiling	5,800 m
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 1× Cannon 30 mm 8× TOW ATGM 2× FFAR Rocket Pods
Secondary armament	None
Variants	None
Games

The AH-1 Cobra is a medium attack helicopter used exclusively by U.S. military forces in ArmA: Cold War Assault.

Overview

• Role:
  • Medium gunship

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AH-1 is all-purpose gunship, with all-weather fighting capability. Having flown over one million air hours through the Vietnam conflict, AH-1 has proved to be a workhorse of the US Marine Corps. Though upgraded and improved many times over during its years in service, the Cobra still meets its original design function: direct air support, anti-tank capability, armed escort and air-to-air combat. Vehicle Description

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Design

First developed in the 1960s as an armed compliment to the UH-1 'Huey' transport, the AH-1 Cobra is a single engine, twin-bladed rotary-wing helicopter that served as the main attack helicopter for the U.S. military during the Cold War.

Armament
It is armed with a single 30 mm chain gun mounted to a nose turret beneath the cockpit. The stub wings (attached to both sides of the fuselage) contain pylons that store both air-to-ground anti-tank missiles and 70 mm rocket pods.

The 30 mm chain gun feeds from a single 500-round linked belt of high-explosive dual purpose (HEDP) shells, while the rocket pods each carry 19 rockets fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads with a combined total of 38 rockets. The stub wings have four TOW ATGMs fitted onto their pylons, totalling up to 8 missiles.

AH-1 firing off a salvo of rockets.

Features
A lightweight counterpart to the bulkier AH-64, the Cobra is armed with the same weaponry and has a similar configuration and role.

The main difference with the Cobra is that it is less well-armoured against anti-aircraft fire in comparison, though it does makes up for it by having a smaller airframe which is harder to visually identify from afar.

Mobility
The Cobra has a lower top airspeed compared to the Apache. In spite of being the smaller helicopter the Cobra is also slightly less agile, though this difference is barely noticeable in mid-flight.

Crew Capacity
The Cobra has enough seats for a crew of two that consists of both the pilot and the gunner. It is unable to transport any passengers or additional crewmen.

Protection

The Cobra has 50 points of armour plating.

Armament

The gunner position controls both the turret-mounted Cannon 30 mm and TOW missiles/FFAR rocket pods carried onto stub wings located on both sides of the airframe:

Cannon 30 mm

Base damage value	Initial velocity (m/s)
100	1,000

30 mm autocannon. Can only load HE-type shells which have a blast radius of 2 metres.

It can attain a fire rate of ~ 333 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 1,000 m/s. It has an effective firing range of up to 1,500 metres.

TOW

Damage type	Base damage value
High-Explosive Anti-Tank	900

Air-to-ground anti-tank missiles. Utilises infrared-guidance and has a maximum lock-on range of 1,500 metres.

TOW missiles are launched with an initial velocity of 30 m/s and take a further 5.5 seconds to reach a top in-flight speed of 200 m/s. The warhead itself has a blast radius of 2.5 metres.

FFAR

Damage type	Base damage value
High-Explosive	700

Unguided air-to-ground 70 mm rockets. Useful against small groups of infantry and unarmoured vehicles.

It can fire rockets at a rate of one every 0.15 seconds (400 rounds per minute), and has an effective firing range of between 250-500 metres up to a maximum range of 1,000 metres.

The rockets have initial launch velocities of 44 m/s and take 3.5 seconds for their motors to reach a top in-flight speed of 200 m/s. The warheads themselves have a blast radius of 3 metres.

Trivia

• The in-game AH-1 appears to be based on the "AH-1S" (also known as the "AH-1P") variant of the Cobra attack helicopter family. The AH-1S/AH-1P was a production model of the Cobra that was specifically outfitted for anti-tank duties. It also uses a flat-paned canopy as opposed to the bubble shape of the older models
• Oddly enough, the in-game Cobra shares the same 30 mm cannon used by the Apache. All real-world variants of the AH-1 were armed with either multi-barrel 7.62 mm miniguns or a 20 mm Gatling cannon (in the case of the modernised "AH-1F" model).
  • To further compound the issue, the Cobra is clearly modelled with an "M197" 20 mm cannon but is treated as if it were the 30 mm-chambered "M230 Chain Gun" used by Apache helicopters.

Gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: Bell AH-1 Cobra

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• AH-64 (Heavy U.S. counterpart)
• Mi-24 (Alternate Soviet counterpart)
• AH-1Z (Medium U.S. Army/USMC successor, ArmA: Armed Assault/ArmA 2 only)

United States - Vehicles (ArmA: Cold War Assault)
Wheeled	HMMWV • Jeep • Truck 5T
Tracked	M1A1 • M113 (Vulcan) • M60A3 • M2A2 Bradley
Rotor-wing	AH-1 Cobra • AH-64 • CH-47D • OH-58 • UH-60
Fixed-wing	A-10 • Sopwith F.1 Camel
Aquatic	LST • Mark II PBR
(Parenthesis) denote variants.