Bell AH-1F Cobra
The Army's definitive single-engine Cobra — TOW missiles, a three-barrel 20 mm gun and an 1,800 shp engine · US Army service 1980s · Retired 2001
By the early 1970s the Army wanted a Cobra that could kill tanks. Trials with TOW missiles in 1973 led to 101 AH-1Gs being rebuilt as AH-1Qs, and in March 1978 the Army ordered new-build Cobras with the more powerful T53-L-703 engine, designated AH-1S. Upgrades then came in three steps: composite rotor blades and a flat-plate canopy for nap-of-the-earth flying (Step 1), the three-barrel M197 20 mm cannon (Step 2), and finally a head-up display, laser rangefinder, air data system, infrared jammer and exhaust suppressor (Step 3). The fully upgraded machine was called the 'Modernized AH-1S' until 1988, when it became the AH-1F.
143 AH-1Fs were built new and 387 converted from AH-1Gs. They formed the backbone of the Army's attack fleet until the AH-64 Apache took over; around 140 Army Cobras of various models deployed for the 1991 Gulf War, and the type left active service in March 1999 and the reserves in September 2001. In 2003 the US Forest Service took 25 retired AH-1Fs and turned them into 'Firewatch Cobras' with infrared sensors; the last two retired in October 2021.
Surplus and new AH-1Fs went abroad: Pakistan received its first ten on 9 January 1985, Jordan bought 24 in the late 1980s, Israel added 14 ex-US Army machines in 1996, Turkey brought its ex-Army Cobras up to AH-1F standard, and Turkish Aerospace modernised Bahrain's as the AH-1FB. Japan's 89 licence-built AH-1S Cobras, made by Fuji between 1984 and 2000, are roughly equivalent to the AH-1F.
