AH-1Z Viper

The AH-1Z Viper is a medium attack helicopter featured in both ArmA: Armed Assault and ArmA 2.

ArmA: Armed Assault

Viper
Faction	U.S. Army
Type	Medium Attack Helicopter
Seats	2 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Gunner
Item capacity	Max: 3× Weapons 20× Magazines
Top speed	~ 260 km/h
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 1× M197 20 mm 8× AGM-114 Hellfire ATGM
Secondary armament	Secondary: 2× FFAR 70 mm Rocket Pods
Variants	None
Games

The AH-1Z Viper is used exclusively by U.S. Army forces in ArmA: Armed Assault.

Overview

• Role:
  • Medium gunship

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The AH-1Z Super Cobra is the Marine Corps’ primary attack helicopter, providing close air support, reconnaisance, point target attacks and anti armor capabilities. Library Description

»

Design

The latest generation model in the AH-1 family of attack helicopters, the Viper is a twin-engined, rotary-wing attack helicopter.

Unlike its predecessor, the Viper uses a composite main rotor system with four blades instead. It also has an improved transmission and a new target sighting system.

Armament
It is armed with a 20 mm Gatling cannon turret fixed beneath the cockpit. Other armament consists of twin 70 mm rocket pods and air-to-ground anti-tank guided missiles fitted onto stub wings attached to both sides of the fuselage.

The Viper's M197 cannon is pre-loaded with a single 750 round belt of armour-piercing (AP) shells and carries 8 Hellfire ATGMs.

Both rocket pods are loaded with 19 rockets apiece that are fitted with high-explosive dual purpose (HEDP) warheads, forming a combined total of 38 rockets.

Features
The primary attack helicopter flown by U.S. forces operating on Sahrani, the Viper is a flexible aircraft that is designed to tackle both light and heavily armoured ground threats.

Its main advantage stems from the fact that unlike its SLA counterpart, the Viper has a dedicated crewman controlling its weapon systems. This allows the pilot to focus solely on manoeuvring the aircraft while the gunner concentrates on attacking hostiles and at the same time, serve as a second pair of eyes looking out for threats.

Mobility
The Viper is quite nimble for a helicopter for its size, and possesses a greater deal of agility compared to the SLA's KA-50.

It can make fairly sharp turns without losing too much power, but cannot reach as high a top speed as the KA-50 is able to on level flight.

Drawbacks
The Viper sacrifices protection for mobility however, and is less well-armoured compared to the KA-50. Not only does the KA-50 have better resistance against small arms fire, but it is also better equipped to handle large numbers of armoured threats as it carries 12 ATGMs at once compared to the Viper's maximum of 8.

Crew Capacity
The Viper has only a seating capacity of two personnel for a crew that consists of the pilot and gunner.

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Protection

The Viper has a base armour value of 60.

Hull

The hull can withstand up to 60 points of damage.

Engine

The engine can only survive 15 points of damage before failing.

Instruments

The Viper's onboard systems can only incur a meagre 9 points of damage.

Main rotor

The main rotors can take 12 points of damage before breaking.

Tail rotor

The tail rotor can only withstand 18 points of damage.

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Armament

The gunner controls all three weapon systems:

M197

Base damage value	Initial velocity (m/s)
40	1,036

20 mm Gatling cannon. Powerful against clumped-up infantry, structures and unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles, as well as low-flying helicopters.

Shells are always fired in bursts of 5. It can attain a fire rate of up to 1,000 rounds per minute and has a muzzle velocity of 1,036 m/s.

AGM-114 Hellfire

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive Anti-Tank	850	425

Anti-tank guided missiles. Can lock-on either with infrared or laser guidance.

There is a fixed delay of 1 second in-between launches. Missiles are soft launched and take up to 3.25 seconds to reach a top speed of 425 m/s in mid-flight. The warheads have a blast radius of 2 metres.

FFAR

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive	150	1,000

Unguided air-to-ground 70 mm rocket pods. Forward-facing only, but is strong against groups of infantry and unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles.

The pods are capable of firing off one rocket every 0.2 seconds. The rockets have initial launch velocities of 44 m/s and can reach a top speed of 1,000 m/s in mid-flight. The warheads are HE-based and have a blast radius of 12 metres.

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Trivia

• The Viper is actually referred to internally as the "AH-1W".
• Initially, the AH-1Z's canopy glass was mostly opaque and prevented the crew from being able to see through it in first person due to light being reflected too strongly. This was later addressed with the release of Patch 1.04, which made the canopy properly transparent and reduced its sensitivity to light.
• It is erroneously shown being used by in-game U.S. Army forces.
  • While appropriate for the USMC reinforcements that arrive to back up the U.S. Army troops during the campaign, the last active duty AH-1s (non-SuperCobra/Viper models) were retired from Army service in March 1999. Since then, it has been replaced in this role by the newer "AH-64 Apache" family of heavy attack helicopters (notably absent in Armed Assault but later added in ArmA 2).
  • Its appearance in Armed Assault is also highly anachronistic, as the real-world AH-1Z did not enter Initial Operational Capability (IOC) with the USMC until February 2011 - five years after the events of the Sahrani Conflict.

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Gallery

ArmA 2

Viper
Faction	USMC
Type	Medium Attack Helicopter
Seats	2 seats: 1× Pilot 1× Gunner
Item capacity	Max: 3× Weapons 20× Magazines 1× Backpack
Top speed	~ 260 km/h
Fuel capacity	1000 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 1× M197 20 mm 8× AGM-114 Hellfire ATGM 2× Hydra 70 Rocket Pods 2× AIM-9L Sidewinder AA
Secondary armament	Defensive: 120× Countermeasures (Chaff/Flare)
Variants	None
Games

The AH-1Z Viper is used exclusively by the U.S. Marines in ArmA 2.

Overview

• Role:
  • Medium gunship

«

The AH-1Z Super Cobra is the Marine Corps’ primary attack helicopter, providing close air support, reconnaissance, point target attacks and anti armor capabilities. It is armed with 8 air-to-ground Hellfire missile platforms, a dual Hydra rocket system, dual AIM-9 air-to-air guided missile platforms and a 20mm gatling gun. Armoury Description

»

Design

The Viper retains the same roles and capabilities of its predecessor in Armed Assault, though its defensive avionics, optics, and armament have all been greatly enhanced in ArmA 2.

Armament
By default, the Viper is armed with a 20 mm gatling cannon mounted onto a turret fitted beneath the cockpit.

Its other armament consists of twin 70 mm rocket pods, air-to-ground anti-tank guided missiles, and short-range, infrared-guided air-to-air missiles; all of which are mounted onto stub wings on either side of the fuselage.

The Viper's M197 20 mm cannon is pre-loaded with a 750 round belt of high-explosive (HE) shells, and can be zeroed up to a maximum distance of 1,200 metres.

It also has 8 Hellfire ATGMs and two Sidewinder AAMs, while each rocket pod is loaded with 19 rockets fitted with HEDP warheads (for a total of 38 rockets).

Features
The Viper provides the U.S. Marine Corps with the ability to provide close air support, armed escort and anti-tank support in all day/night and adverse weather conditions.

With its twin AA missiles (a new addition from Armed Assault) the Viper can even interdict enemy attack helicopters and low-flying fixed-wing jets.

Banking right after a successful rocket run.

Mobility
Its manoeuvrability is noticeably better than the USMC's own heavier and bulkier counterpart due to using a nimbler airframe, and can make sharper turns in mid-air while maintaining its speed (mostly) during a climb or dive.

Contrast this to the AH-64D, which struggles to maintain a consistent speed while making even the slightest of turns due to its heavier armour plating and armament.

Drawbacks
Unlike the AH-64D however, the Viper is lightly armoured and cannot withstand as much ground fire. In addition to compromising on its armour, the 20 mm cannon that the Viper packs is only effective at destroying light vehicles and infantry, whereas the AH-64D's 30 mm cannon can punch through medium armoured vehicles and even damage exposed components on Main Battle Tanks.

Crew Capacity
The Viper has only a seating capacity of two personnel for a crew that consists of the pilot and gunner.

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Protection

The Viper has a base armour value of 60.

Hull

The hull can withstand 60 points of damage.

Engine

The engine can only survive 15 points of damage before failing. A damaged engine will cause Vipers to have difficulty gaining lift due to a reduced power output.

Instruments

The cockpit's flight instruments can only take 9 points of damage. The pilot/gunner's Head Mounted Display (HMD) will flicker if damaged, but will only be disabled if the instruments are critically damaged.

Main rotor

The main rotor can only withstand 18 points of damage. Disabling the main rotor will prevent the pilot from being able to maintain lift. 30% of damage is always transferred onto the main "health" pool of the Viper.

Tail rotor

The tail rotor is limited to taking just 12 points of damage. Disabling the tail rotor will prevent the pilot from being able to control the main rotor's torque. At least 10% of damage will be shared with the main "health" pool of the Viper.

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Armament

The gunner position controls all four weapon systems. For optics, they have access to three fields of view and can toggle either day, night or black-hot/white-hot thermal vision modes:

M197

Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)
40	-0.00077	1,036

20 mm Gatling cannon. Strong against groups of infantry and unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles, as well as low-flying helicopters.

It can attain a fire rate of up to 1,000 RPM and has a muzzle velocity of 1,036 m/s. At distances of approximately 1,400 metres, the M197 has a dispersion spread of 0.00025 rad. The shells are partially armour penetrating and have a blast radius of 2 metres.

Manual zeroing is possible up to a maximum distance of 1200 m, starting at a minimum of 300 m and rising in 100 m increments.

Hydra 70

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive	150	740

Forward-facing, twin 70 mm rocket pods. Fires unguided rockets that are strong against clumped-up infantry and unarmoured/lightly-armoured ground vehicles.

Rockets are always launched in pairs. There is an imposed delay of 0.08 seconds in-between launches (750 RPM). They have initial velocities of 44 m/s and take a further 1.1 seconds for their motors to reach a top speed of 740 m/s in mid-flight. The warheads themselves have a blast radius of 12 metres.

AGM-114 Hellfire

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive Anti-Tank	800	425

Anti-tank guided missiles. Locks on via infrared only (with a maximum range of 8,000 metres).

Missiles are soft launched and take a further 3.25 seconds after launch to reach a top speed of 425 m/s in mid-flight. There is always an imposed delay of 1 second in-between launches. The warheads have a blast radius of 2 metres.

AIM-9L Sidewinder

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive	200	500

Short-ranged, infrared-guided air-to-air missile. Has a maximum lock-on range of 6,000 metres.

The AIM-9L has a firing delay of 0.1 seconds in-between launches. Assuming that the pilot is restocking from a logistical vehicle, it takes a full 30 seconds to rearm all missiles.

Launched missiles take 10 seconds for their motors to reach a top speed of 500 m/s in mid-flight. The warhead itself has a blast radius of 7 metres.

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Avionics

MAWS

The Viper has an integrated Missile Approach Warning System, and will alert the pilot of incoming missiles that are locked onto it.

RWR

The Viper has a Radar Warning Receiver, and will alert the pilot of being locked onto by radar-based targeting systems.

IWR

The Viper does not have an Infrared Warning Receiver and cannot detect lockons by infrared-based targeting systems.

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Trivia

• Unlike the UH-1Y and MV-22 Osprey, the AH-1Z was one of the few aircraft from the original ArmA 2 that was "upgraded" with the ability to use countermeasure flares with the release of the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack.
  • The gunner's turret optics were also enhanced with the ability to toggle a black/white-hot thermal vision mode.
• While not technically anachronistic like the F-35B, the AH-1Z was not actually declared to have IOC until February 2011 (just like in Armed Assault) almost a year and a half after the events of Operation Harvest Red.

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Gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: Bell AH-1Z Viper

See also

Aircraft of comparable role and configuration

• AH-64D (U.S. Army/Heavy USMC counterpart)
• AH-1 Cobra (Medium U.S. predecessor, ArmA: CWA only)
• AH-99 Blackfoot (NATO successor, ArmA 3 only)

U.S. Army - Vehicles (ArmA: Armed Assault)
Wheeled	5T Truck • HMMWV • M1030 • Stryker
Tracked	M1A1 • M113
Rotor-wing	AH-6 • AH-1Z • MH-6 • UH-60
Fixed-wing	A-10 • AV-8B • Camel
Aquatic	CRRC • RHIB