AH-1 Cobra

The Bell AH-1W Super Cobra, is a helicopter gunship featured in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It is used by the United States Marine Corps as their Primary Attack Helicopter.

The Cobra is armed with an M197 20mm 3-barreled rotary cannon, along with four hard-points capable of firing Hydra 70 Un-Guided Rockets, T.O.W. Wire-Guided Missiles or AGM-114 Hellfire Laser-Guided Anti-Armor Missiles. Two more hard-points hold Heat-Seeking AIM-9 "Sidewinder" or FIM-92 "Stinger" short-range Air-To-Air Missiles, making it a versatile combat helicopter capable of engaging both air and ground targets.

In Game
Cobras played a significant role in the USMC military invasion of the unnamed Middle Eastern country in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The first sighting is in The Bog where Lt. Vasquez calls support from two Cobras to attack a building full of enemies. The most significant role is in Shock and Awe where they fire at infantry and armour. And the last sighting in Call of Duty 4 is also in Shock and Awe when the nuke goes off.

When a helicopter is called in during a multiplayer session, the Marines, S.A.S., U.S. Army Rangers, Task Force 141, or U.S. Navy S.E.A.L.s will get Cobras. OpFor, Spetsnaz, or the Brazilian Militia will get the Mi-24 "Hind" helicopter. The hardpoints on the helicopter are oddly arranged, however. One wing has only one rocket pod on it, while the other wing has only Hellfire missiles. Loadouts are usually symmetrical, so as to avoid unbalancing the helicopter.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the Cobra does not appear in the Campaign or the Special Ops mode, it is only seen and used in multiplayer matches.

Outdated design
In 2010, a good portion of the Marine Corps Cobra fleet is to be upgraded to the AH-1Z model. As Call of Duty 4 is set in 2011 and Moder Warfare 2 is set in 2016, many of the Cobras would be the Z model. They would differ in the design of their wings, the sensor pods mounted on the nose of the aircraft, avionics systems, differently shaped exhaust pipes, and 4-bladed rotor systems.

Trivia

 * The AH-1W Super Cobra was originally to be used in a single-player mission known only as "cobrapilot". The player was to provide air support from the helicopter. The mission was cut from the final version of the game, and the only proof that it ever existed are a file called "compass_map_pilotcobra.iwi" and a file that came with the mod tools called "cobrapilot.str".


 * Some players have mistaken this for an AH-64 Apache, because their appearance and weapons are similar.

Known Cobras

 * Cobra Two
 * "Deadly"