The AH-1 HueyCobra, the first true gunship put into production,
rushed into service during the Vietnam War and remained the
backbone of the US Army attack helicopter fleet until it was replaced by the AH-64 Apache during the 1980s.
A twin engine variant, known as the Sea Cobra, was soon adopted by the USMC too and as of 2010, remains in production in the far more sophisticated AH-1Z variant.
Read more at AH-1 Cobra
A twin engine variant, known as the Sea Cobra, was soon adopted by the USMC too and as of 2010, remains in production in the far more sophisticated AH-1Z variant.
Read more at AH-1 Cobra
Derivatives & Versions | |
| Model | Year | History |
| AH-1G Cobra | 1965 | |
| AH-1J Sea Cobra | 1969 | The AH-1J Sea Cobra was developed for the USMC as a twin engine variant based on a desire for improved safety and redundancy for over-water opera ... |
| AH-1E Cobra | 1970 | |
| AH-1T Super Cobra | 1974 | |
| AH-1S Cobra | 1976 | The US Army upgraded the AH-1G (and its modernization AH-1Q and AH-1R ) with a three step program called AH-1S.
- Production AH-1S ( AH-1S Pr ... |
| AH-1F Cobra | 1979 | |
 Fuji AH-1S | 1980 | Fuji acquired a license to build the Bell AH-1S attack helo for JGSDF. 92 AH-1S were built with provision for 8 TOW missiles and with Ichihara en ...  |
| AH-1W Super Cobra | 1986 | First delivered on 27 Mar 1986, the USMC retired its last AH-1W Super Cobra at the end of Sep 2020 after 34 years of service. Some USMC AH-1W still fly on, re-manufactured as the AH-1Z Viper. |
| AH-1Z Viper | 2000 | Part of the H-1 upgrade program the twin engine AH-1Z ( Bell 449 ) was developed from the AH-1W Super Cobra as the new US Marines's attack helic ... |
| Firewatch Cobra | 2003 | Former US Army attack helicopters equipped with infrared sensors for firefighting support. They have a communications downlink to the ground com ... |