AH-1F

AH-1F

AH-1F

USA

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
9.7	9.7	9.7

Class:

Attack helicopter

Research:370 000

Purchase:990 000

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This page is about the American attack helicopter AH-1F. For other versions, see AH-1 (Family).

Description

The AH-1F is a rank VI American attack helicopter with a battle rating of 9.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.81 "The Valkyries".

General info

Flight performance

The AH-1F has a single turboshaft T53-L-703 power plant, which provides up to 1300 bhp & 210 kgf with a mass of 350 kg. This turboshaft engine is able to push the AH-1F to speeds in excess of 277 km/h whilst carrying wing mounted armaments.

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 1,000 m)		Max altitude (metres)
AB	RB
258	247	3,475
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 1,000 m)		Max altitude (metres)
AB	RB
288	277	3,475

Survivability and armour

The AH-1F is an armoured attack helicopter offering protection to the crew and engine:

• Composite boron carbide seat enclosures, for both of the crew, with a thickness of 20 mm.
• A steel seat, which offers a thickness of 12 mm for the pilot only.
• Steel plate covers, offering 12 mm of thickness over the turboshaft engine.

The AH-1F compensates with its small and nimble size compared to the Mi-24 Hind's which are incredibly well armoured but are huge and slow in comparison. However, the AH-1F does not protect all of its critical components, such as: fuel tanks, transmission, propeller shaft & control surfaces with armour plating. Nor does it have armoured glass installed around the cockpit.

Armaments

Offensive armament

The AH-1F is armed with:

• 1 x 20 mm M197 cannon, chin turret (750 rpg)

Suspended armament

The AH-1F engaged in combat, firing a TOW missile

The AH-1F can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

• Without load
• 28 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets
• 76 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets
• 2 x 7.62 mm M134 Minigun machine guns
• 14 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets + 2 x 7.62 mm M134 Minigun machine guns
• 38 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets + 2 x 7.62 mm M134 Minigun machine guns
• 4 x BGM-71 TOW missiles
• 8 x BGM-71 TOW missiles
• 38 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets + 4 x BGM-71 TOW missiles
• 38 x FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets + 8 x BGM-71 TOW missiles
• 4 x BGM-71 TOW missiles + 2 x 7.62 mm M134 Minigun machine guns
• 8 x BGM-71 TOW missiles + 2 x 7.62 mm M134 Minigun machine guns

Usage in battles

When playing the AH-1F, select the helipad which is in the ideal tactical location for your playstyle. Climb to around 1500 meters, find a target, then descend on to them. It is critically important that you engage them from the rear of side. This way, it reduces their awareness of you, since they will be looking forward, this will help you by making the adversary become disoriented when attacked. This will give you a stealthy advantage, like a ninja. Advancing onto the target, come in as fast as possible, then slow down quickly, by raising the noise of the helicopter up. When slowed down, Engage the sight stabilizer and fire the tow missile and guide it onto the target.

If the target starts moving, rolling or starts trying to evade, keep the missile on the target and adjust to what your adversary is doing. Until you see an explosion, the target going down in flames whilst the reward and notification are showing up.

If out of the range, the missile will self-detonate and could give your position away, if your adversary looks around.

Remember you only have around one and a half miles before the missiles will detonate by themselves, so you can only carry either 4 or 8 BG-71 Tow missiles at a time.

To overcome this, with enough time spent playing with the BG-71 missiles, you will be able to determine when you are within range based on your experience. This also applies to any other type of missile in the game too.

When engaging in Close quarters combat with other helicopters, the biggest threats are air-to-air missiles. Since the AH-1F only offers limited protection against them with countermeasures with its IRCM module. This means you need to stay alert, active & on the lookout for fast moving dots. If you see a small fast dot heading towards you, make very sharp abrupt turns, change height at the same time while turning and rolling.

These are the biggest threats to you in battle, since they can carry air-to-air missiles

• AH-1Z Viper
• Mi-24P Hind
• Mi-24V Hind
• Mi-35M
• Ka-50
• SA.341F Gazelle
• SA.342M Gazelle
• EC-665 Tiger HAD
• EC-665 Tiger HAP
• EC-665 Tiger UHT

You may even be able to shoot down missiles with the installed 20 mm triple rotary M197 cannon.

When engaging other helicopters, the triple barrel rotary cannon makes short work of any adversary. Make sure to load it with the air target belt, aim for critical elements of the rival helicopters such as cockpit, engine and fuel tanks. Now if you have equipped your helicopter with the additional 2 x M134 miniguns 7.62 mm machine guns, Bring your target in front of you and open fire. They will obliterate the target and send it smoking to the ground, they have up to 3000 rounds in total. That’s 1,500 Rounds per mini gun, in addition to the 750 cannon rounds for the M197, that is potentially up to 3,750 rounds!

Ground forces

Playing the AH-1F in ground forces, it is recommended to load up the 8x BG-71 Tow missiles & 38x FFAR Might mouse missiles. The BG-71 will give you the penetration at range in order to terminate tankers and with safety from the Anti-Aircraft Missile equipped anti-air vehicles. It is a wise tactic that Anti-Aircraft Missile equipped anti-air vehicles to be terminated first. Then once terminated, move into the battlefield and dominate the tanks with the 38 x FFAR Might mouse missiles, which can cause a lot of damage and could potentially terminate up to 38 tanks with well-placed shots.

The ideal tactic is to utilise the helicopter and the terrain. Such as maps which have forests and lots of tree lines, stay low over the trees and select your targets based on the threat to yourself first, then the impact to the team.

For example, if you have seen no enemy SPAA vehicles or other helicopters, climb in height, hover, then fire one or two missiles. Then quickly break off the hover and move to another part of the map, this way it allows you to stay undetected, remain stealthy and become a major threat to the enemy team.

Handling radar and Surface to Air missiles, when an enemy missile equipped SPAA is achieving a lock on, you will be notified with red arrows on the screen saying radar. To break the lock start rolling, gaining speed and the arrows will go away. If you are not successful, keep a close watch around the helicopter. At this, you will see white smoke coming from the ground, make very sharp abrupt turns. Change height at the same time while turning and rolling to avoid the missile.

Keep a close watch out for airplanes and other attack helicopters!

Modules

Tier	Flight performance		Survivability	Weaponry
I	Compressor		Flak jacket	Offensive 20 mm
II			Helicopter frame	New 20 mm cannons	M200A1	IRCM
III	Engine	Replacing helicopter blades	NVD	Gun pod M18A1	TOW
IV			Cover	New 7 mm MGs	TOW 4

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 20 mm gun performs better against heavy armour than the 7.62 mm minigun.
• Great manoeuvrability
• Very agile, with secondary load outs installed
• Great acceleration, very quick
• Good secondary weapon loadout

Cons:

• No flares
• Cannot equip air-to-air missiles
• 3 km range on its air-to-ground missiles

History

The AH-1F was born as the last iteration of the single engine variant of the Cobra helicopters. The development of this model can be traced back to the AH-1Q HueyCobra, which was basically an AH-1G with several systems attached to it, such as the XM65 TOW missile subsystem (which allowed it to operate the BGM-71 TOW), M73 reflex sight and a Telescopic Sight Unit (TSU). After this model was tested, a few upgrades such as a new T53-L-703 engine with a 1800 hp output, and several electronic changes were made to it. By this moment, it was known as AH-1S.

The AH-1S had also several modernizations, known as "Step" modernizations. The AH-1S Step I (Also known as AH-1P) modernization program was basically what's known as the AH-1S MOD, with the upgrades listed above, and a new cockpit that included composite materials to enhance protection. The AH-1S Step 2 (Also known as AH-1E) introduced the Enhanced Cobra Armament System (ECAS), which included the 20 mm M197 rotary cannon, fitted into a M97A1 turret system.

The AH-1F Included both the Step I and II upgrades, alongside upgrades on its armament system, a laser rangefinder, an IR suppressor mounted on the engine exhaust, and a IR dazzler, mounted on top of the engine.

Media

Images

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Skins

• 

  Standard camouflage initially available for the AH-1F in-game.
• 

  Sand Shark Camouflage - purchasable for 200 Golden Eagles
• 

  Tzefa of the Israeli Air Force - Semi-historical camouflage: Marketplace

Videos

The Shooting Range #110 - Pages of History section at 05:44 discusses the AH-1 Cobra.

See also

Related development

• Bell AH-1 SuperCobra
• Bell AH-1Z Viper
• Bell UH-1 Iroquois

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Agusta A129 Mangusta

External links

• [Devblog] Mi-24 and AH-1F: Rotorcraft Icons

USA helicopters
Attack
Black Hawk	MH-60L DAP
Choctaw	H-34
Cobra	AH-1F · AH-1G · AH-1Z
SuperCobra	AH-1W
Kiowa	OH-58D
Little Bird	AH-6M
Apache	YAH-64 · AH-64A · ▃AH-64A Peten · AH-64A (GR) · AH-64D
Utility
Huey	UH-1B · UH-1C · UH-1C XM-30