Thanks Jordan, But Those Cobras Are Not The Deadliest

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Several reporters of national dailies, bloggers, and social media members mistakenly dubbed the two AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters donated by Jordan to the Philippines, as “One of the world’s most lethal combat helicopters”.

Those Messengers of Death for the commies' New People’s Army and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) backed guerrillas arrived last November 26 at the former U.S Clark Air Base in Pampanga. 

Since these late variant of attack helicopters, armed with 20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon , Mk 40 rockets, AIM-9 Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, and others, were mass produced in 1967 they are not considered deadly compared to the armaments, radar, and armor of the Top 9 Powerful Attack Helicopters in the world today.

Here are their rankings according to military.com.today:

1.       Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian (USA); 2. Bell AH-1Z Viper (USA); 3. Kamov Ka-52 Hokum-B (Russia); 4. Mil Mi-28 Havoc (Russia); 5.Eurocopter Tiger (France/Germany); 6.  Z-10 (China); 7.  Denel AH-2 Rooivalk (South Africa); 8. Augusta A129 Mangusta (Italy); 9.  Mil Mi-24 Hind (Russia).

AH-1F Cobra. Photo Credit: aircav.com

In the hardbound book’s Apache Dawn by Damien Lewis that I gave to my classmate, farmers’ leader, and my avid listener about military science since elementary days in Mindanao Farmer Joe Ontoy Fabila despite me reading only several pages there, the author crowed that aside from being piloted by British Warrant Officers (geez man, they are not officers like lieutenants or captains), Lewis wrote that the AH-64 Apache could still fly back to the base despite its one of the two turbo shaft T700 –GE70IC engines (the Brits used the powerful Rolls Royce Engines) being hit by anti –aircraft gun, its heavily armored plated side and underbelly, night vision capability, Longbow Hell Fire Modular Missiles System, Long Bow Fire Control Radar – Mast Mounted System and a powerful camera that could enhance with high resolution the I.D of a person thousands of miles above, and infrared jammer where a Taliban guerilla could not ring his cellular phone to trigger the explosion of a bomb where the British military convoy pass over it.

Enough said for the Apache!

Although the older expensive to maintain Cobra is not at the Top 9 or probably Top 15 attack gunships (there is T129 ATAK (a consortium of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and AgustaWestland Leonardo), being offered by Turkey to us Flips, er Filipinos), the AH-1S choppers are the first dedicated attacked helicopters in the Philippine military inventory.

When I was growing up with my air force father during the Muslim Wars in the early 1980s in the rough and tumbled Mindanao, he sometimes brought me to the combat ready Awang Air Base in Dinaig, Maguindanao. In one of my visits, I saw there up close and personal those smaller slick but limited capacity McDonnel Douglas or MD-520 Light Attack Helicopter our air force pilots flown and used to machine gun and rocket those bad guys in Liguasan Marsh, Lebak, Maguindano, and even the commies lairs in the Makilala, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur's mountain areas.

 The two Cobras given to our air force originally came from the marquee Israeli Air Force ((IAF) it called as the "Tzefa" (Hebrew’s for Viper). The Tzefas had been used by the IAF against the Palestinian guerrillas and other enemies in Lebanon in the middle of the 1970s. That country, composed of Christians, Muslims, and other tribes, had been Israel's most active front where IAF’s Cobras showed their mettle for more than 20 years.

They, according to Wikipidea, were also used widely by the Israeli Air Force in the 1982 Lebanon War to destroy Syrian armor and fortification. These AH-1S ruined dozens of Syrian ground vehicles. They were also used in major operations against Hezbollah in Operations "Accountability" and  "Grapes of Wrath" in southern Lebanon.

IAF retired its fleet of 33 AH-1S Cobras in late 2013 due to budget cuts. The older one engine’s Cobras’ role was taken up entirely by the squadrons of Israeli’s U.S made AH-64 Apache helicopters, and the fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. 
Aside from some of those pilot errors and mechanical failures’ fatal crashes, the AH-1S were more expensive to maintain than UAVs. Moreover, they were exposed to attacks from man-portable air-defense systems (MPADS) operated by guerrilla groups

Thanks God, the NPA and the ISIS linked guerrillas are not yet operating those deadly MPADS just like those backward garb Taliban guerillas shooting down with gusto their heat seeking Yankee made Stingers Soviet’s jets and helicopters in the late 1980s.

In early 2010, I interviewed former Philippines Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane on the plan of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to buy a squadron (12 choppers) of Cobras from the Israelis who want to replace them with the advanced Apaches.

He told me the downside: The Americans would not allow all stock, lock and barrel of the Cobra for us to enjoy.
“The U.S government would not allow giving us the Cobra’s missile system. Besides, it’s very expensive, we could buy lots of helicopters for one brand new Cobra,” he stressed.
I should have protested that what the Jews sell us is their second-hand stuff – just like the ukay-ukay at the kanto. But somebody called the former four-star general thus my supposed interjection turns to pffft,” I wrote then at my blog.

 In late 2014, IAF transferred 16 Cobras, of course with the nod of Uncles Sam, to the Royal Jordanian Air Force to add to their existing fleet for border security in response to threats posed by Islamic State militants or other insurgent groups.

Originally, the Amman Government offered to provide four surplus of these former Tzefas to the Philippines but it was reduced to two units, which the Philippine government accepted after its pilots and personnel trained to fly them in Jordan.

The AH-1S series undergone a three-step program, according to globalsecurity.org, to upgrade all existing AH-1G/AH-1Q/AH-1R Cobras to an advanced Modernized version.

For brevity purposes, after the Steps 1 and 2 modifications of the AH-1S that started in 1977 and 1978, the Step 3 of the program, totaled 530 aircraft, and were completed between November 1979 and June 1981. Of 530 Modernized Cobras, 387 were converted from old AH-1G Cobras and 143 were new production aircraft. The Modernized Cobra featured a new fire control system with a pilot's M76 Head-Up Display (HUD), M136 Helmet Sight Subsystem (HSS), laser rangefinder and tracker, and M26 Fire Control Computer (FCC). The modernization program also added an M143 Air Data Subsystem (ADS). The installation of the M147 Rocket Management Subsystem (RMS) permitted the use of the standard 2.75-inch rocket system, in addition to the M65 TOW anti-tank missiles and the M197 20mm gun on the new M97A2 universal turret. The Modernized AH-1S could mount M158 seven-tube, M200 19-tube, M260 seven-tube, or M261 19-tube rocket launchers. The advanced Cobra had an infrared jammer mounted on the top of the engine fairing and a hot metal plus plume infrared suppressor extending from the back of the engine. The Modernized AH-1S could be identified by the air data sensor mounted above the right side of the canopy. The AH-1S Modernized Cobra was ultimately re-designated as the AH-1F Cobra.

The wisdom on the creation of an attack helicopter that resulted to the inception of the Cobras ensued during the Vietnam War.  The Yanks, who were fighting the Russian and Chinese wielding AK-47 assault rifles Vietcongs and North Vietnamese soldiers, needed an attack - chopper to escort their helicopters bearing troops like as they came down in a landing zone. By 1962 a small number of AH-1As, armed with machine guns and rockets, closely escort the transport helicopters and loiter over the landing zone as the battle progressed.

By June 1967, the first AH-1G Huey Cobras from the war churning Bell factory in the U.S had been delivered to the U.S military.

AH-1 Cobras were in use by the Army during the Tet offensive in 1968 and through to the end of the Vietnam War. They also formed "hunter killer" teams by pairing with that miniscule bee liked, son of a gun, Hughes OH-6 Cayuse light observation choppers (the precursor of the MD-520 although from different company) that my father regaled me when I was a kid. Example: An OH-6 flying slow and low to find enemy forces but drew fire from the enemies, the Cobra could strike at the then exposed bad guys' location. Ginawang pa-in anak ng baka iyong OH-6, kawawa naman iyong mga pilots nila ha ha ha!

 Out of the nearly 1,110 AH-1S delivered from 1967 to 1973 in the Vietnam War approximately 300 were lost to combat and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps used AH-1G Cobras in Vietnam for a short time before acquiring twin-engine AH-1J Cobras.

Other wars Cobras participated:

    1)      AH-1T Cobras were deployed for Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Flying close-support and helicopter escort missions, two of the four available were lost to anti-aircraft fire while attacking Fort Frederick.

  2) Army Cobras participated in Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

              3)      During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the Gulf War (1990–91), the Cobras and Super Cobras deployed in a support role. Three AH-1s were lost in accidents during fighting and afterward. Cobras destroyed many Iraqi armored vehicles and various targets in the fighting.

     4)      Army Cobras provided support for the US humanitarian intervention during Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1993.

 5) They were also employed during the US invasion of Haiti in 1994.

The U.S. Army, according to Wikipedia, phased out the AH-1 during the 1990s and retired them from active service in March 1999, offering them to NATO allies. The Army retired the AH-1 from reserves in September 2001. The retired gunships have been passed to other nations and to the USDA Forest Service. The AH-1 continues to be in service with the US Marine Corps, which operate the twin-engine AH-1W Super Cobra and AH-1Z Viper.

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(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)