Hello,
By default the AH-1G has grenade dispensers (M129). I can chose as secondary weapon the Mighty Mouse FFAR rockets or a 20mm cannon or 7.62 machine guns on the pods.
But why can’t I have a 20mm cannon on the front instead of the M129 grenade dispenser on the front + the rockets on the pods?Is it because this AH-1 version wasn’t equipped with like the later versions?
The result is that I am forced to use the M129 + other weapon.
Thanks for the answers.
The AH-1G only came with either 2x40mm grenade launcher or 2x 7.62mm Miniguns or (if memory serves me right) one of each mounted in the turret.
Only later Cobra variants had a “slimmed down” 20mm Gatling (with 3 instead of the 6 barrels of the Vulcan) in the turret.
Ok; Got it. I guess these 2 x 7.62 mm Miniguns aren’t enough to destroy enemy tanks and only for non armoured targets.
Too bad, I wanted to go tank busting with 20mm cannon…It will take me ages to grind the next variant of the AH-1 but I’ll get there!
Na, only tank busting you may do with the rockets, and the underwing Gatling to a certain extent (recoil makes aiming hard though).
Remember that the AH-1G was originally designed to escort troop-carrying UH-1’s and provide fire support for them. The tank busting role only came later.
because the turret is to small to mount it and there wasn’t enough room to store the 20mm rounds in a reasonable way to feed it to the gun the fixed that on the AH-1f
it mounted 2 of each
No, not 2 of each, 2 Miniguns OR 2 40mm, OR one of each, like here:
(“2 of each” would be 2x Miniguns and 2x 40mm at the same time, which was certainly not the case.)
irl maybe but in game it doesnt let you do that it only gives you one or the other
I wonder: what is the maximum range of the Mighty Mouse FFAR rockets? It doesn’t say on Wikipedia.
I need to be damn close to be able to aim with precision.
If you want to see live action of AH-1G in Vietnam war here is a great Youtube video:
about 2-3 miles before they self destruct in game
It was at least supposed to come to the game with the ability to mix the minigun and the GL as was shown in the devblog from many years ago now.
Probably didn’t get introduced because of unintuitive controls, though I guess the keybinds do exist for it now so it could work (idk about back then, like 6 years ago). Would be interesting to see reintroduced.
Yes, I start to remember that was something that was discussed back then.
Frankly, I see little usefulness of neither the Miniguns nor the 40mm in WT. Situations and targets where they may be of use are few…
It’s more useful for the heli PVE mode I guess, the minigun can be used against the recoilless rifle enemies with less munition and range constraint compared to only using the GL. But yes, for like GRB, not as useful.
grenades go brrrrrrr though XD (the firerate)
I’ve gotta say: I love the Cobra. Great mobility and firepower. Though quite vulnerable to enemy ground fire due to its relatively thin armour. Its great to fly!
I know I’ll never get the chance to fly in one of those in my life (I’m not in the US military) but I already flew in civilian helicopters and 35 years ago in a French Army helicopter and it feels good!
For me i had a lot of time where i wish i’d had both. because in Ground RB sometime you face a lot of aircrafts. So 7.62mm are very useful in that case. But when there are no enemy aircraft around 40mm are also very useful to preping the targets with grenades when you are out of rocket.
To OP you can use 1 of the inner pylon (it’s on the left side i think [ looking from pilot perspective])
to install 20mm M61 gun. Thus you have a makeshift air cannon. It is a fixed gun like gun pod though and you can’t turn it like the gun on turret. It still useful to have around.
Another things i remember is that FFAR rocket also has varies smoke color warhead and WP (willy pete). Which would be very useful for marking enemy position for your team or temporary cover certain area with smoke. Thus would make AH-1G and a lot of others helicopters has more utility for the team rather than trying to hit enemy and risk getting shot down.
Sadly no, the AH-1G’s chin turret is limited to either two Miniguns or two 40mm grenade launchers. The chin-mounted M197 was introduced well after the AH-1G. If you want a 20mm on the Cobra, you have to mount it on the left inner pylon, which means sacrificing a rocket pod. For both Heli PVE and Ground RB, I’ve found the M197 to be pretty good at both strafing lightly-armored targets and defending against enemy aircraft. It’s definitely worth sacrificing a rocket pod for it, at least in my personal opinion.
I’m happy to see that my topic has been featured in the forum!
I love this helicopter, even if it doesn’t have ATGM’s in its early variant.
She is fun and has more than enough 20mm cannons. But so you know the AH-1G with 3 rocket pods and the 20mm put work in. That 20mm it has is the 6 barreled one and it can kill armor from above better than the one found on the Vipers. But this is for you friend to look forward to
The Mighty Mouse was a rocket designed for air to air use in ~1950 fired by jet aircraft. Some were used in the early “advisory war” of Vietnam as a makeshift rocket system for helicopters. These were strait launched rockets.
The main helicopter rocket used in Nam from ~1964, and on the AH-1G Cobra was the MK40 LS FFAR (Low Speed/Limiting Spin Folding Fin Aerial Rocket) that developed in the early 1960’s. As the Mighty mouse had strait engine nozzles the Mk40 LS FFAR had angled that rotated it for further stabilization. These are not USAF Mighty Mouse rockets per definition (unless one would like to call all 2.75”/70mm rockets mighty mouse) but US ARMY rockets specifically made for helicopters and slow moving aircraft.
Maximum range of rocket depends on the warhead the rocket motor is is carrying. The Mk40 LS FFAR had roughly three classes of warheads: 6lb, 10lb, and 17lb.
I cant say range specifications as these would vary but using the analogue instruments coming with the AH-1G Cobra to hit a tank you probably needed to be about 300-600m (safe distance) from target. Effective range on soft targets was about 1500m. A rocket engine 45 deg (lobbing) @1000ft alt. could probably push it several km’s (~8km?) but you would not hit a football field (though firing 4 pods of 76 rockets some might).
EDIT: Oh. The AH-1G (and Hueys) did use 1950s’ stock left overs of the tiny USAF Mk 5 HEAT warheads but the real anti-tank rocket for the AH-1G was the (Mk40+) M247 HEDP. It was basically a modified shoulder fired 66mm M72 LAW warhead mounted on a cut back 17lb HE warhead. It was used first in the battle of An Loc in 1972. Though I don’t think they have implemented that one in the game yet. LoL.
