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AH-1 Cobra

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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.


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
« 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[1]
 »

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.[CfgVh 4]

The 30 mm chain gun feeds from a single 500-round linked belt of high-explosive dual purpose (HEDP) shells[CfgWp 1], while the rocket pods each carry 19 rockets fitted with high-explosive (HE) warheads for a combined total of 38 rockets.[CfgWp 2] The stub wings have four TOW ATGMs fitted onto their pylons, totalling up to 8 missiles.[CfgWp 3]

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

The main difference with the Cobra is that it is less well-armoured against anti-aircraft fire in comparison.[CfgVh 5] 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.[CfgVh 5]

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:[CfgVh 4]

Cannon 30 mm[]

OFP-vehicleweapons-ah1-cannon30mm
Ammo parameter Value
Base damage value 100[CfgAm 1]
Splash damage value 20[CfgAm 2]
Muzzle velocity (m/s) 1,000[CfgWp 4]

General-purpose 30 mm chain gun.

It can attain a fire rate of up to ~ 333 rounds per minute[CfgWp 5][Formula 1] and has a muzzle velocity of 1,000 m/s.[CfgWp 4] Accuracy-wise, the Cannon 30 mm has a dispersion spread of 0.0007 rad.[CfgWp 6] The shells have a blast radius of 2 metres.[CfgAm 3]

The turret can be rotated up to a maximum of 45 degrees in either direction horizontally.[CfgVh 6][CfgVh 7] Vertical rotation limits are restricted to an elevation and depression limit of 20 degrees.[CfgVh 8][CfgVh 9]

TOW[]

OFP-vehicleweapons-ah1-hellfire
Parameter Value
Base damage value 900[CfgAm 4]
Splash damage value 600[CfgAm 5]
Blast radius (metres) 2.5[CfgAm 6]
Launch velocity (m/s) 0[CfgWp 7]
Maximum speed (m/s) 350[CfgAm 7]

Infrared-guided air-to-ground anti-tank missile.[CfgAm 8] Can be optionally guided by laser lock-on.[CfgAm 9]

TOW missiles are soft launched[CfgWp 7] and there is always a delay of 0.5 seconds between launches.[CfgWp 8] The missiles take up to 5.5 seconds[CfgAm 10] to reach their top speed of 350 m/s.[CfgAm 7] The warheads have a blast radius of 2.5 metres.[CfgAm 6]

FFAR[]

OFP-vehicleweapons-ah1-ffar
Parameter Value
Base damage value 700[CfgAm 11]
Splash damage value 300[CfgAm 12]
Blast radius (metres) 3[CfgAm 13]
Launch velocity (m/s) 44[CfgWp 9]
Maximum speed (m/s) 1,000[CfgAm 14]

Unguided air-to-ground rockets.

Rockets can be fired once every 0.1 seconds.[CfgWp 10] They are always launched with an initial velocity of 44 m/s[CfgWp 9] and take a further 3.5 seconds[CfgAm 15] to reach a top speed of 1,000 m/s in-flight.[CfgAm 14] The warheads have a blast radius of 3 metres.[CfgAm 13]

Optics[]

Gunner[]

OFP-cobra-optics-gunner

The gunner is the only crewman that can switch to magnified optics. The turret gunsight has variable zoom capability, allowing for a minimum magnification of 0.33x[CfgVh 10][Formula 2] up to a maximum of 1.33x.[CfgVh 11][Formula 3]

It is possible for the gunner to wear their own night vision goggles while looking through it.

AI[]

NOTE: The following information only applies to the AI.

Camouflage rating[]

Main article: AI Basics: Detection

The Cobra has a camouflage[2] rating of 2.[CfgVh 12]

Cost[]

Main article: AI Basics: Targeting priority

The Cobra has a cost[3] value of 10000000.[CfgVh 13]

Threat values[]

Main article: AI Basics: Targeting priority

The Cobra is considered to be a low-risk threat[4] to AI-controlled infantry units (0.3). However, ground vehicles and aircraft consider the Cobra to be an extremely dangerous/highly dangerous threat and will prioritise attacking it if possible (1/0.8).[CfgVh 14]

Noise factor[]

Main article: AI Basics: Detection

The Cobra has an audible[5] factor of 10.[CfgVh 15]

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.[6] 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).[7]
    • 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 on Apache helicopters.[8]
  • At release, a bug prevented human players seated in the Cobra's gunner seat from having access to a radar when playing in online multiplayer sessions (the pilot was not affected by this). This was eventually fixed after Patch 1.30 for Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (the initial release name of Cold War Assault).[9]
  • Prior to Patch 1.78, the Cobra's Cannon 30 mm would remain static and did not actually follow wherever the gunner was pointing their crosshairs towards.[10]

Gallery[]

Config/script references[]

CfgAmmo

  1. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Bullet30W >> hit
  2. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Bullet30W >> indirectHit
  3. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Bullet30W >> indirectHitRange
  4. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> hit
  5. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> indirectHit
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> indirectHitRange
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> maxSpeed
  8. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> irLock
  9. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> laserLock
  10. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Hellfire >> thrustTime
  11. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Zuni >> hit
  12. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Zuni >> indirectHit
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 CfgAmmo >> Zuni >> indirectHitRange
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 CfgAmmo >> Zuni >> maxSpeed
  15. ↑ CfgAmmo >> Zuni >> thrustTime

CfgWeapons

  1. ↑ CfgWeapons >> MachineGun30W >> count
  2. ↑ CfgWeapons >> ZuniLauncher38 >> count
  3. ↑ CfgWeapons >> HellfireLauncherCobra >> count
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 CfgWeapons >> MachineGun30W >> initSpeed
  5. ↑ CfgWeapons >> MachineGun30W >> reloadTime
  6. ↑ CfgWeapons >> MachineGun30W >> dispersion
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 CfgWeapons >> HellfireLauncherCobra >> initSpeed
  8. ↑ CfgWeapons >> HellfireLauncherCobra >> reloadTime
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 CfgWeapons >> ZuniLauncher38 >> initSpeed
  10. ↑ CfgWeapons >> ZuniLauncher38 >> reloadTime

CfgVehicles

  1. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> transportMaxWeapons
  2. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> transportMaxMagazines
  3. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> fuelCapacity
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> weapons[] >> {"MachineGun30W","HellfireLauncherCobra","ZuniLauncher38"}
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> armor
  6. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> Turret >> minTurn
  7. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> Turret >> maxTurn
  8. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> Turret >> maxElev
  9. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> Turret >> minElev
  10. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> ViewOptics >> maxFov >> "1.2"
  11. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> ViewOptics >> minFov >> "0.3"
  12. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> camouflage
  13. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> cost
  14. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> threat[] >> {0.3,1,0.8}
  15. ↑ CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> audible

Formulae

  1. ↑ 60 / reloadTime = 60 / 0.18
  2. ↑ 0.4 / maxFov = 0.4 / 1.2
  3. ↑ 0.4 / minFov = 0.4 / 0.3

References[]

  1. ↑ Bohemia Interactive a.s., 2011, 'ARMA COLD WAR ASSAULT MANUAL', Vehicles, ARMA: Cold War Assault, viewed 8 March 2025, <ArmaCWA_manUK.pdf>.
  2. ↑ Španěl, O, van 't Land, J.J. et al. 2006, CfgVehicles Config Reference, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 13 September 2024, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgVehicles_Config_Reference#camouflage>.
  3. ↑ Španěl, O, van 't Land, J.J. et al. 2006, CfgVehicles Config Reference, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 13 September 2024, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgVehicles_Config_Reference#cost>.
  4. ↑ Španěl, O, van 't Land, J.J. et al. 2006, CfgVehicles Config Reference, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 13 September 2024, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgVehicles_Config_Reference#threat>.
  5. ↑ Španěl, O, van 't Land, J.J. et al. 2006, CfgVehicles Config Reference, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 13 September 2024, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgVehicles_Config_Reference#audible>.
  6. ↑ ARMA: Cold War Assault 2011 [Video Game], Bohemia Interactive a.s., \BIN\CONFIG.BIN, CfgVehicles >> Cobra >> weapons[] >> "MachineGun30W"
  7. ↑ Schubert, F N & Kraus, T L et al. 2001, 'AH-1 Series Cobra Attack Helicopter', The Whirlwind War: The United States Army in Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Appendix B, p. 252, viewed 12 April 2024, <https://history.army.mil/books/www/252a.htm>.
  8. ↑ ARMA: Cold War Assault 2011 [Video Game], Bohemia Interactive a.s., \Apac\config.bin, CfgVehicles >> AH64 >> weapons[] >> "MachineGun30"
  9. ↑ Mcnicoll, J et al. 2006, Operation Flashpoint: Version History, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 24 November 2023, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Operation_Flashpoint:_Version_History#Patch_v1.30>.
  10. ↑ Mcnicoll, J et al. 2006, Operation Flashpoint: Resistance Version History, Bohemia Interactive Community Wiki, viewed 24 November 2023, <https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Operation_Flashpoint:_Resistance_Version_History#Fixes_.26_Improvements_until_v1.83>.

External links[]

See also[]

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration[]

Vehicles of ArmA: Cold War Assault
Wheeled Bike • BRDM • Bus • HMMWV • Motorcycle • PV3S • Jeep • SCUD • Skoda • Small car • Sports car • Trabant • Tractor • Truck 5T • UAZ • Ural
Tracked BMP-1 • BMP-2 • M1A1 • M113 (Vulcan) • M60A3 • M2A2 Bradley • Shilka • T-55 • T-72 • T-80
Rotor-wing AH-1 Cobra • AH-64 • CH-47D • Ka-50 • Mi-17 • Mi-24 • OH-58 • UH-60
Fixed-wing A-10 • Plane • Sopwith F.1 Camel • Su-25
Aquatic Boat • LST • Mark II PBR
(Parenthesis) denote variants.
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.
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