AH-64A Peten (USA)
Contents
Description
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The ▃AH-64A Peten is a gift rank VI American attack helicopter
with a battle rating of 10.3 (AB/SB) and 11.3 (RB). It was introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury".
General info
Flight performance
The AH-64A Peten is one of the fastest helicopters in the game as it has a very powerful engine, which also gives the Peten a good climb rate. Maneuverability at high speed is excellent.
| Characteristics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stock | ||
| Max Speed (km/h at 1,000 m) |
Max altitude (metres) | |
| AB | RB | |
| 460 km/h | 420 km/h | 5400 |
| Upgraded | ||
| Max Speed (km/h at 1,000 m) |
Max altitude (metres) | |
| AB | RB | |
| ___ | ___ | 5400 |
Survivability and Armour
The Peten is a very tough helicopter, and can usually take a couple of hits from Air-to-Air missiles and small-calibre cannon rounds and still fly. The crew is very well protected, so getting pilot-sniped is a rare occurrence. The engines can also usually take a hit or two without exploding like other engines.
Armaments
Offensive armament
The Peten has the same 30mm cannon as the other Apaches in the game currently, and only has one belt choice. The belt carries only AP rounds, and can penetrate very thick armor. The gun is fast firing, but relatively inaccurate, so shooting in close range is the best way to hit your target. If you don't mind the inaccuracy of the gun, it is a very good weapon all around. It can be locked in gunner and 3rd person view and will automatically track the target.
Suspended armament
The Peten can carry up to 16 Hellfire ATGM's with over 1,000 millimetres of pen, 76 Hydra rockets with over 200 millimetres of pen, and 4 Stinger AAM's. The weapons are carried on the stub wings and can be carried in several different variations. The Hellfires are excellent missiles, although since the player must keep "painting" a laser beam on the target, misses can occur if the target lock slips. The Hydra rockets are generally very effective, especially when used with the ballistic computer. 76 rockets is enough for 3-5 tanks if they are used by an experienced player. However, the Stinger AAM's are not the best in the game by any stretch, with relatively little explosive mass and only a 10g overload. They may take 2-3 hits to damage aircraft, and heavily armored helicopters such as the Mi-28 may survive multiple hits.
Usage in battles
In ground realistic battles, they are three main strategies for using this helicopter. First, one can go ground pounding with either the 76 Hydra rocket and 4 Stinger combination, provided that enemy AA's are not present, or with 38 Hydra rockets and 8 Hellfires, so that one can neutralize AA from a safe distance before moving in with rockets. Second, one can take the 16 Hellfires and simply snipe from long range. Third, and least effective, is to only take the 4 Stinger AAM's and hunt enemy helicopters. Some notable enemies come from the tech trees of Germany, Russia, and Sweden. From the German tech tree, the Gepard and the FlaRakPz 1 can be dangerous, latter more so than the former, as the Gepard can be dealt with with Hellfires if one stays out of the range of the guns. In the Russian tree, the Tunguska can give you serious trouble if you are uptiered to 10.3. If you are fighting Sweden, the Lvkv 9040C is a powerful AA platform, but since it has no SAM's, it can be dealt with from a safe range. Of course, no mention of how dangerous the OTOMATIC can be is needed by any experienced heli pilot. As with any top tier helicopter, AA's must be dealt with before one can move on to other ground targets.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Activation of 3rd person lock by changing MFD on the pilot's view
- Very high top speed, if you stay low or high you are always the one most maneuverable
- Amazing 30 mm cannon, can easily take out most tanks, and when locked can take out jets and helicopters too
- Excellent secondary armament
- Can carry up to 16 Hellfires and still carry AAM's
- Can use ballistic computer to dramatically increase the effectiveness of Hydra rockets
- Can lock targets for 30mm cannon to automatically track
- Excellent thermals
Cons:
- Stinger air to air missiles don't have a reliable lock, and not enough explosive mass to do any real damage
- Hellfires rarely hit other helicopters, and are difficult to guide to air targets anyway
- Does not have as many armament options as non-premium AH-64's
- 30mm cannon only can access default belt
- 30mm cannon is relatively inaccurate
- AAM's cannot reliably take down armored helicopters
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
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the helicopter;
- other literature.
| 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 |
