EC-665 Tiger HAP
Contents
Description
The EC-665 Tiger HAP is a premium rank VI French attack helicopter with a battle rating of 10.0 (AB/RB) and 10.3 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision". It was removed from the store after the 8th Anniversary Sale, and was reintroduced in Update "Hot Tracks" as a Golden Eagle purchasable vehicle.
General info
Flight performance
As an Eurocopter, it has the best agility and flight performance compared to other helicopters as the rest of the EC-665 seen in game. It is able to do barrel rolls meters from the ground. Despite not having the best top speed (Russian helicopters excell at that part) it is able to perform "unique" tricks mid-air for helicopters. It is not the best strike helicopter when you want to do lighting strikes (fast attacks with the minimum exposure time) but it is able to "peek-a-boo" with enemies, specially since the collective power on the EC-665 can be increased and decreased really fast.
Characteristics | Max Speed (km/h at 1,000 m) |
Max altitude (metres) | |
---|---|---|---|
AB | RB | ||
Stock | 278 | 263 | 4000 |
Upgraded | 319 | 300 |
Survivability and armour
As most helicopters in the game, they are killed easily by even 7.62mm machine gun fire. However, the EC-665 crew is inside what looks like an "armored bathtub". The crew is protected by AMAP-AIR (Advanced Modular Armor Plating Air) which is able to protect the crew from fragmentation only. It is not able to withstand machine gun fire without being damaged badly. However, the EC-665 best armor is to not be seen at all. This is something the Tigre excells at. Thanks to the GPS displacement (Gunner Primary Sight), if the real life combat usage is followed (staying behind trees and mountains and poke just the rotor), the survivability of the EC-665 can be tremendously improved, thanks to this, it is not detected by anti aircraft at all and will be hard to spot unless thermals are being used.
Modifications and economy
Armaments
Offensive armament
The EC-665 Tiger HAP is armed with:
- 1 x 30 mm GIAT M781 cannon (750 rpg)
Suspended armament
The EC-665 Tiger HAP can be outfitted with the following ordnance:
- Without load
- 44 x TDA rockets + 24 x SNEB type 23 rockets
- 8 x HOT-3 missiles
- 8 x HOT-3 missiles + 24 x SNEB type 23 rockets
- 4 x Mistral missiles
- 4 x Mistral missiles + 44 x TDA rockets
- 4 x Mistral missiles + 8 x HOT-3 missiles
- 2 x Mistral missiles + 8 x HOT-3 missiles + 12 x SNEB type 23 rockets
Usage in battles
In helicopter enduring confrontation :
The Tiger HAP is a decent helicopter for close range air to air engagement with other helicopters. The main canonn is really effective against enemy aircraft and the 4 Mistral AAM it can carry are useful against enemy helicopters. However some helicopters you might face such as Ka-50 and 52 with the Vikhr AGM, AH Mk.1 with the Starstreak AGM, EC-665 Tiger UHT with the PARS AGM can be hard to fight because of their better long range habilities because the Tiger HAP doesn't have decent long range weapons.
The best way to face them is to use the terrain and the agility of the Tiger HAP to sneak down until you reach the enemy helicopter to engage it in close range. The Ka-50 and 52 as well as the AH Mk.1 are less effective at close range because they are less agile than the Tiger. The Tiger UHT is as agile as the Tiger HAP, but the UHT don't have access to a cannon.
The Tiger HAP can also be useful for ground striking. Indeed the main gun is pretty decent to deal with lighlty armoured targets, the TDA rockets and the HOT-3 AGM are good enough to deal with stronger targets.
The Tiger HAP can be used for ambushing enemy helicopters, using its agility to sneak down behind a mountain range or a canyon. Or it can be used for ground attack.
In Simulator and ground realistic battles :
The Tiger HAP can be used for surprise rocket attacks by flying low to avoid enemy SPAAGs radars. It can also help the team dealing with heavy armoured targets with its powerful HOT-3 AGM.
The Tiger HAP can also be used for hunting the enemy helicopters by sneaking down until you come close to the enemy helipad.
However the Tiger HAP is vulnerable to enemy fighters attack because its Mistral air to air missiles can only pull 12G which is not enough to deal with fast jet fighters. If there is an enemy jet fighter you might use the terrain at your advantage to fly low and hide.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Decent agility compared to its counterparts.
- Pretty fast helicopter.
- Decent crew protection.
- The main gun has a good rate of fire and is effective against air targets
- Can carry up to 8 HOT-3 AGM wich can penetrate up to 1,250 mm of armour.
- Can carry up to 68 TDA Rockets.
- Have access to Mistral AAM fitted with ECCM.
- Have access to missile approach warning system, thermal vision and flares (60 of them).
Cons:
- The fuselage is rather fragile.
- Mistral AAM are not effective against jet fighters anf fast flying aircraft.
- The main cannon lacks penetration to deal with armoured targets.
- HOT-3 AGM are very slow (only 240 m/s) and have a short range (4.30 km).
- Lacks a radar.
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the helicopter in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main
template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>
, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />
. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===
, also if applicable).
Media
- Images
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the helicopter;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Eurocopter Group | |
---|---|
Attack | EC-665 Tiger HAD · Tiger HAD Block 2 · EC-665 Tiger HAP · EC-665 Tiger UHT |
France helicopters | |
---|---|
Attack | ▄H-34 · EC-665 Tiger HAD · Tiger HAD Block 2 · EC-665 Tiger HAP |
Utility | IAR 316B · SA 313B Alouette II · SA 316B Alouette III · SA.341F Gazelle · SA.342M Gazelle |