Ok now we are talking
Likely as air defense and long range missile launch but this CAS exercise does look cooler…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SCXZrnkrexc
A recent demo showing how a AH-1Z and UH-1Y pair provides overwatch for transport/heavy lift helicopters. Note how they dynamically occupy the perfect position to project counter drone weapons and EW countermeasures from for a landing zone area.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9GLQ22pEnqc
A Ukrainian military official, whose identity was withheld, said at the Special Air Warfare Symposium in 2023 that the supply of AH-1Zs had risen to the top of Ukraine’s priority list. Around the same time, the Ukrainian Army hosted a media event near the front lines, showing off the continued operational missions of a small, surviving fleet of Mi-8s and Mi-24 helicopters, but pleading for the West to supply new rotorcraft.
Talks appeared to stall in public, but Bell’s comments reveal that discussions continued quietly since 2023.
Ivchenko also said he had written to US President Joe Biden asking the administration to reroute the Vipers to Kyiv if Slovakia finally turned them down. “Slovakia should decide what kind of weapons and equipment they require for their military, and if they don’t need these helicopters, then their delivery to Ukraine should take place as soon as possible,” he said.
Ivchenko said that Kyiv was also talking to Bell helicopters to persuade them to enter into a production partnership at a Ukrainian facility. “We wish to deepen our industrial cooperation with the United States to produce such helicopters in Ukraine,” Ivchenko said. “This foreign investment would be guaranteed by the Ukrainian government.”
An older article on AH-1Z production finishing, probably more than any other attack helicopter the production, maintenance and training is ready to drop in and go for this helicopter and all the support systems are battle tested and mature.
The UH-1Y achieved initial operating capability in 2008, followed by the AH-1Z in 2011. The first combined Viper/Venom deployment with a Marine Expeditionary Unit occurred in 2009. Since the first delivery of the AH-1Zs and UH-1Ys to the U.S. Marines, the H-1 mixed fleet has accumulated more than 450,000 flight hours in various missions. Bell will continue to support the U.S. H-1s with lethality, survivability, and reliability upgrades through a long-term modernization plan. Even given their upgraded capabilities, the Marine Corps has begun placing dozens of both H-1 designs in long-term storage as part of an ongoing force redesign. The service decided to curtail almost all standard helicopter operations, including decommissioning relatively young AH-1Zs, in Hawaii in a bid to promote operational flexibility in the Pacific region.
^ https://www.twz.com/the-last-u-s-ah-1-attack-helicopter-has-been-delivered-to-the-marines
I think the idea that helicopters like the AH-1Z are obsolete is hilarious. Nope, attack and utility helicopters are becoming more valuable than ever. For one, AH-1Z helicopters would gobble up shaheds like the cookie monster gobbles up cookies. For another the list of munitions and equipment the AH-1Z can mount is dizzying meaning it can fulfill a large variety of mission roles while still also carrying a 20mm chaingun for direct high volume fire.
He also pointed out that the Army is presented with unique questions to answer compared to the Air Force, Marines, and Navy, given that those services primarily expect CCA-type drones to operate collaboratively with higher and faster-flying fixed-wing tactical jets. The Army, in contrast, as noted, sees any such uncrewed aircraft partnered with its existing helicopters, as well as its future MV-75A tiltrotors, with much lower and slower operational flight profiles. It is worth noting here that the other services still have many questions to answer when it comes to their future CCA fleets, including how they will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated, let alone employed tactically.
comparison with the AH-64E, likely the best attack helicopter in the world
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YunWFAlbkDw
video from a year ago comparing Russia’s best attack helicopter the ka-52 with the AH-1Z
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wcFzld9l1Zg
history of the AH-1