AH-1 Cobra

The Bell AH-1 Cobra is an American single-engine attack helicopter built by Bell Helicopter and developed specifically to provide close air support and escort for troop-carrying helicopters, entering service in June 1967 with the first six aircraft arriving in Vietnam that August. Over more than a million operational hours flown during the Vietnam War, Cobras were typically paired with lighter scout helicopters in so-called hunter-killer teams to locate and destroy ground targets, though roughly 300 of the type were lost in combat over the course of the war. A total of 1,116 single-engine Cobras were built between 1967 and 2019, and while the United States Army retired its own Cobra fleet by 2001 in favor of the AH-64 Apache, twin-engine derivatives of the design continued in Marine Corps and export service well beyond that date.