Snakes Alive

There were various suggestions for a dedicated attack helicopter and Bell engineer Mike Folse is credited with the one that stuck and became the Bell AH-1 Cobra.

The prototype Bell 209 first flew in September 1965 and in US Army trials it was judged better than contenders from Boeing, Kaman, Sikorsky and Piasecki.

Cobras, designated AH-1(the a is for attack) first operated in Vietnam in August 1967 – just in time for the 1968 Tet Offensive and the increasingly bitter fighting which continued through to the US withdrawal.

They proved a revelation, delivering agile, close-in support with massive firepower for troops in contact.

At peak more than 1,000 Cobras were in service. They weren’t invulnerable and some 300 were lost.

But they did set the direction for every subsequent helicopter gunship followed the Cobra, whether it be the Boeing Apache or Russian Hind.

Although Bell refers to the latest version as the Viper or Zulu, it remains a Cobra to its USMC operators

Now the latest variant of the Cobra – the Bell AH-1Z (Zulu) Viper – is a contender for Australia’s next generation armed reconnaissance helicopter, possibly replacing the Army’s 22 Airbus Tigers under Project LAND 4503.

That calls for 29 aircraft able to deliver “armed reconnaissance efforts in close and deep contested battlespace”, with initial operating capability of a squadron of 12 aircraft in 2026 and full operational capability in 2028.

The fleet would comprise 24 operational aircraft and five for training.

Contenders appear to be upgraded Tigers, the Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian and the Bell Viper.

Out of 189 Vipers on order for the USMC, around 133 have been delivered, replacing the older AH-1W (Whiskey) Super Cobra. The USMC program of record ends in 2021-22 but that will be followed by Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Bahrain and the Czech Republic and maybe Australia.

Although Bell refers to the latest version as the Viper or Zulu, it remains a Cobra to its USMC operators.

From the very start the Marines were most interested in the Cobra gunship but preferred it to have two engines for greater safety in operations over water. The result was the AH-1J Sea Cobra which saw service at the tail end of the Vietnam War.

For many and varied reasons, the US Army and USMC, each with particular capability requirements for their attack helicopters, parted ways. The Marines stuck with Cobra and the Army opted for Apache.

First and foremost, the Marines needed an aircraft configured for amphibious operations, flying from ships to support Marines on the ground.

That mandated effective aircraft marinisation, to mitigate the harmful effects of salt water exposure, and folding blades for ship hangar stowage.

The AH-64 Apache was developed primarily to smite west-bound Russian tanks on the North German plain. The US Army accepted the first production aircraft in 1984 and more than 2,000 have now been produced.

Both types have seen plenty of operational service, although mostly not in their particular lanes but in counter-insurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both are the latest developments of mature and proven systems and Australia wouldn’t go wrong with either.

However the third and perhaps cheapest and most appealing option might be to extend the life of Tiger until the arrival of the next generation of helicopters being developed through the US Future Vertical Lift program.

After all, Tiger is now working well following a protracted and troubled period of development. It’s well understood and apparently liked by its operators.

But Tiger, chosen in 2001, has never really attracted the love and it’s been criticised in a succession of reports, including in 2013 by the Defence Rapid Prototyping, Development and Evaluation (RPDE) organisation which declared it a high risk and said an alternative should be considered.

A 2016 report by the Australian National Audit Office recommended Defence think very hard about investing further in Tiger for only a short period of improved performance “against other alternatives”.

We are where we are now because of the 2016 Defence White Paper which says: “The government will replace the 22 Tiger Armed Reconnaissance helicopters with a new armed reconnaissance capability from the mid-2020s.”

That would appear to declare finito for Tiger but it’s not entirely clear and Airbus is proposing an upgraded Tiger, making LAND 4503 a three horse race.

Bell is making a strong pitch for Viper as the best helicopter to meet the Army’s requirements, a proven and reliable platform for maritime operations, with low life cycle costs (US$4,115 per flight hour according to their latest figures) and an upgrade path funded by US not Australian taxpayers.

“Where we come out on top is because of marinisation and because of your ability to conduct maintenance in your own shadow – that gives us the advantage in the Asia Pacific, especially in the littoral environment,” says Victor Chin, team lead for Bell military helicopters for Asia Pacific.

“Littoral is unforgiving, with the salt air and salt water in the middle of nowhere where logistics is difficult. You need something that is robust.

“A joke is that if you want to see if your equipment will stand up, give it to the Marines for two weeks and if you get it back and it’s still working it’s good to go.

“That’s what we designed them for. It’s combat proven in Afghanistan and Iraq and in deployments all over the world on all the different Marine Expeditionary Units.”

Bell is making a strong pitch for Viper as the best helicopter to meet the Army’s requirements

That marinisation process, conducted during manufacture not added later, means Vipers could operate indefinitely from the Navy’s two Canberra class landing, helicopter dock (LHD) ships.

Viper rotor blades can be folded in three minutes for onboard stowage. That also means two Vipers can fit into a C-17 or three into a C-5 without any further dismantling. Within 30 minutes of landing, they could be flying.

The Marines sure like their Vipers.

“Since we train to fly really low and as fast as we can it’s pretty much like a sports car,” says USMC Viper pilot Captain Daniel Kelly who spoke to defence reporters on Okinawa where his unit Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169 (HMLA-169) is currently based.

Over the years various commentators have suggested the Australian Defence Force has most in common with the Marines, with their expeditionary role and sea, land and air capabilities, than with the gigantic US Army, Air Force or Navy.

It would appear that how the Marines use their attack helicopters also aligns with the Australian Army – operating from ships and austere land bases in support of deployed forces.

“The number one mission we train to is close air support. That’s pretty much our bread and butter. That is the standard that we train to always – to integrate as close as we can to the ground units,” Kelly says.

“Normally they have a forward air controller but they can have a joint fires observer and then we will communicate over the radio with them.”

Staging through a forward base (FARP – forward arming and refuelling point) Viper can be topped up and re-armed and returned to the fight in 30 minutes.

In USMC service, Viper operates alongside the Bell UH-1Y (Yankee) Venom utility helicopter. Although of different appearance to the Viper, these are 85 per cent the same aircraft, with all the maintenance benefits that entails.

The Marines of course refer to their Venoms/Yankees as Hueys, just as did their predecessors in Vietnam 50 years ago.

The Venom/Yankee is armed with door guns and rockets and can transport up to six passengers, inserting troops or evacuating casualties.

For operations, the USMC possesses one other significant asset – the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey which can transport up to 24 troops plus their kit over long distances.

Kelly explains how a mission could play out.

“For a normal escort mission, the Vipers and Huey would normally go in first, clear the landing zone, destroy any targets or anything like air defence artillery,” he said.

“The Ospreys would then come in. We will protect them as they come on finals they will land and let off all the troops and we will protect them as they leave.

“We will stay as we are usually already in the area and provide close air support for those troops.”

Viper rotor blades can be folded in three minutes for onboard stowage. That also means two Vipers can fit into a C-17

Although the Viper is a much improved aircraft to its Whiskey predecessor, it lacks an integrated datalink for sharing of imagery and data from other assets such as UAVs or USMC F-35B aircraft.

But it’s coming.

Chin said Link 16 datalink was part of the USMC Viper capability upgrade roadmap and would be fielded in the 2022-23 timeframe.

“That means the Marine Corps is paying for all these upgrades so FMS customers will get these if they sign up for upgrades,” he said.

“Just about every new platform now has Link 16. That just wasn’t a priority for the Marine Corps back then. They were operating aboard ships in the middle of nowhere.

“They were more concerned about getting the platform running and they put in the Link 16 for later on. It’s being worked on right now. If you purchase FM now and not buy the upgrade program, you get that when the time comes.”

Even without an integrated datalink, Viper can still work as part of a team, hiding behind terrain and firing Hellfire missiles (it can carry 16) in lock-on-after-launch mode at targets laser-designated by a distant UAV.

“With the ability to designate from such significant distances, we can be very close and the drone can be very far away. We can always terrain mask. We practice being extremely low and fast and being able to hide behind terrain,” Kelly said.

Since we train to fly really low and as fast as we can, it’s pretty much like a sports car

As well as Hellfires, Viper can carry a pod of 19 2.75 inch rockets in free flight or laser guided mode, plus a pair of AIM-9 air-to-air missiles at the end of the stub wings. Should the situation dictate, a Viper can carry
up to six AIM-9s.

That gives Viper a capability against fast jets or other enemy aircraft, in theory – missiles have been fired against drones but never in combat.

On internal fuel Viper has a combat radius of 139 nautical miles with half an hour on station. With four auxiliary tanks on the hardpoint, Viper has a ferry range of 627 nautical miles.

Viper does come with one feature which may or may not appeal to the ADF – unlike Tiger and Apache, it has skids instead of wheels for its landing gear.

“We are pretty much the only platform with skids any more,” said Corporal Zachary Potter, a senior USMC helicopter technician.

“The skids allow us to land anywhere. We can land on a dirt field, we can land in a grassy field, we can land on concrete.

“They are metal tubes. There is no wheel maintenance. If ours messes up, we just pick it up, bolt a new one on and we are good to go.”

Potter said he had always worked on Cobras and Hueys.

“Pretty much any maintenance job that needs to be done on the aircraft is all done within a few feet of the aircraft. Even when it comes to removing an engine, you pretty much pick it straight out. You need the space to get it out and put it into a box.

“The fastest I have changed out an engine as about three hours to take the old one out and put a new one in. “

Bell doesn’t talks about Viper unit prices, which aren’t very useful anyway as military aircraft are mostly purchased as part of a package.

But it points to the FMS deal for the Czech Republic for four Vipers, along with 14 Hellfires, spares, tools and test equipment plus sustainment for two years for US$205 million. That suggests a unit price well under US$50 million.