The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Look at the weaponry of the AH-1S (Tzefa or Hebrew’s for Viper) modernized two attack helicopters donated to us by the Kingdom of Jordan.

The Cobra is armed with 20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon ,  Hydra 70 rockets, AIM-9 Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, and BGM-71 TOW tube launched, optically tracked, wire guided U.S made anti-tank missiles. 

Since our third hand AH-1S will not be pitted with tanks, just like in the warfare she participated in the 1972 Battle of An Lộc, the capital of Bình Phước Province, Vietnam where many of them were shot down by Soviet and Chinese made anti-aircraft artillery batteries and missiles, but with communist and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) backed up guerrillas armed with light automatic weapons, her M-197 20mm Gatling gun, unguided air-to-ground Hydra 70 rocket will see action complemented with her agility and maximum speed of 149 knots (172 mph, 277 km/h), range of 315 miles or 510 kilometers, and rate of climb of 1,620 ft/min (8.2 m/s). 
Indeed, she will be the scourged of those bad guys I mentioned.

The  tube (extreme left) where the  Hydra 70 Rockets are located and the 20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon at the swiveling ventral gun turret at the front belly of the Cobra Attack Helicopter.

When will the mettle of these Cobras be tested? Will it be in Samar where many cops and soldiers have been ambushed and killed by the commies there? Will it be in Negros Occidental where my police Lt. Colonel friend Ryan Manongdo, a PNPyer and a Pangasinense, has been passionate to “indoctrinate” the Reds through his brainchild’s ELCAC or Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict? or in Basilan or Jolo Sulu where the Tausogs have been fighting the soldiers since time immemorial where the Bell Hueys (the sister utility chopper of Bell Cobra) timely saved hundreds of Marines’ lives for the meat grinder in the November 1972 Battle of Sibalu Hill there (READ HERE)?

Since our guerrillas are not as advanced as those Talibans in the late 1970s and early 1980s who turned into smithereens those Russian Mig jets and helicopters through the U.S made and supplied Stinger handy heat seeking missiles and Iranians and Iraqi soldiers who destroyed many Cobras and twin engine Super Cobras with their  man-portable air-defense systems (MPADS) and surface to air missiles in those countries war of attrition, the Philippine coffer save a lot by arming the old, expensive to maintain, and night deficient Cobra (reasons why Israel and Jordan gave them away) with  20 mm M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon , and Hydra 70 rockets.

Gatling cannon, located at the swiveling ventral gun turret, is a lightweight, three-barrel version of the M61A1 Gatling gun intended for applications that require a lightweight, highly reliable weapon capable of firing up to 1,500 shots per minute (that’s P1, 899,675.00, son of a gun, per minute!)?

So one combat mission in the New People’s Army, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters , or Abu Sayaff lair means tens of millions of pesos spent on the ammos of the Gatling Guns.

The Hydra 70 Rocket, located at the wing store pylons, is a 2.75- inch (70 mm) diameter fin-stabilized unguided rocket used primarily in the air-to-ground role. It can be equipped with a variety of warheads, and in more recent versions, guidance systems for point attacks.  Each of the rockets cost $2,799 or P142,077. If the Cobra unleashed 10 of them in Samar or Jolo Sulu they are a staggering mind blowing sum of P1, 420, 770.00 of taxpayers’ money!

Si vis pacem, para bellum (If you want peace, prepare for war), eh?

READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN

U.SMilitary Rescue Operation: Things Filipinos Could Learn

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