The missile approach warning system and automatic counter measure system had quite a few issues back in the day according to my friend and former whisky pilot Brian. The system routinely detected camp fires, cooking fires and burning trash barrels as an incoming missile and would dump countermeasures and scare the hell outa the crews!
If you and him don't mind, I have two questions. Did he ever get to use the HSS? Was it mainly for shooting the gun, for pointing at targets with the IZLID-1000 or for directing the bucket somewhere so that the gunner could then acquire the target? The Whiskey Cobra is my favorite helicopter, by the way. 😄
Me with my 14 inch laptop screen trying to distinguish the 6 pixels of my target at 5 km. It's kinda crazy how the effectiveness hinges so heavily on just the zoom level.
Just like in real life, which I think is cool. There's this 45 minute AH-1W walkaround video where the former pilot explains that the limiting factor of the Whiskey is its optics, whereas the limiting factor of the Zulu is the range of its weapons.
Helicopters 'hang' from their rotor blades. This means that the rotor hub 'should' represent the pivot point when maneuvering. But War Thunder puts the pivot point centre mass in the fuselage. Once you see it, you can't un-see it.
This is a carry over from Gaijin's previous Apache Air Assault game, as that is where they took the helicopter flight mechanics from and simply developed more on them for WT. Honestly, helicopters have always been incredibly lazily implemented in WT since day one.
@@jonathanoriley8260 Indeed. I remember an explanation from Gaijin how they adopted their former mechanics for WT using heavily modified prop flight models. As they are right now, WT helicopters still use that prototype modification. I hope that with this Summer's heli damage model changes, they also overhaul all of the flight models, as that's a change I'd rather see.
Super happy to get this in the Chinese tree, even if I need to grind out a whole new heli line for it. Seems like it'll slot in the fantastic 10.7 lineup really nicely.
I love the cobras so much, they so cool looking, so happy my country decided to get them instead of something else, not like there is much else to get in terms of helicopters, they are kinda an outdated concept on the modern battlefield but still
I usually just call it the ROC, because thats what they call themselves. Some people get pissy over the nomenclature, but its the Internet, so someone will always get pissy about something ;-)
The low zoom+long range ATGM combo is reminiscent of the Ka-50, but you're even worse for wear on that since it doesn't even have thermals. (which is why I only really use it in Heli PvE)
I feel like you should have mentioned that at least for America the Super Cobra has the extra issue of not having a line up to go with it currently. Forcing you to uptier 10.3 tanks or uptier the cobra to 11.0
Fun fact: Although it is possible to equipped Taiwanese AH-1W and OH-58 with APKWS II laser guilded rockets without any major modification, Taiwanese army had never perchaced any APKWS kit for their fleet. So in theory, it is inhistorical to give Taiwanese helicopter APKWS II in game.
hello, will you make a review about the mi-35M , i considering between grind the mi-35 and just going for the ka-29/52 tree since i am not very interested in cas and just need a good enough heli to use, cant find any detailed review about this heli so your opinion would be amazing.
I have a review up of the Mi-24, which flies and performs VERY similar (the 35's weapon package is better), and also of the Ka-29 (my first ever helicopter review, but its still accurate, the 29 hasnt really changed), as well as the Ka-52 (recent review). I'll get around to the Mi-28N eventually.
@@TimsVariety i should have worded my question better , but what i meant is do you think the mi-35 is good enough to use in top tier for someone who just use it as a support/aa vehicle and not gonna use it seriously , or if i gonna grind then might as well get the meta ka-52 instead?
@@ricepotato7424If you're just playing as a support heli, the 35M can work since it has 4 Iglas in conjunction to 8 Atakas. You'd probably better off going down the 28NM line if you're going to play less offensively since all of the upcoming helis (28N and 28NM) has modern FCS and the capability to carry Iglas. Ka-52 technically has a shorter grind, but the Ka-29 lacks anti-air missiles and defensive countermeasures other than IRCM and chaff/flares.
@@SetouchiQueens thank for the reply mate, i just worrie that the 35 wont be able to fights other heli at that tier since they all have faster air frame, very advanced rwr and some radar, and the Iglas is a rank 4 research so i would have to fight other helis using atgm
The Shturms are actually still viable for heli-on-heli engagements, especially because of its speed. The 35M also gets auto-track on top of that so guiding them is a breeze. There's also the built-in 23mm turret if you like getting up close and personal
Love the helicopter but the only issue I have is the lineup. As of right now, the heli is going to be either at a 10.3 lineup bringing into a 10.7 matchmaker or it's going to be in a 11.0 lineup where bringing in the yah64 would be more viable.
One thing I don't understand is this thing has the twin engines of the Zulu but somehow climbs slower than the AH-1F. It also feels very heavy at low speeds.
I noticed this as well, as a big enjoyer of the Japanese ah1 helis I didn't expect this thing to feel so fat, maybe once I get the performance upgrades it'll feel better but its whatever zunis go boom.
One thing to take into account with many twin engine helicopters is that they are gearbox limited. They use a combining gearbox. So the two engine are not running 100%. The gearbox limits each engine power to say 60 to 70%. The idea is that in conditions with high density altitude the two engines together would be cranked up to still deliver 100% of gearbox power. And in the case of a engine failure due to damage or maintenance failure the second engine could be cranked up to deliver enough power ( especially over water!!!!) to get the helicopter back to ship or base. So in short two engines doesn’t translate to twice the power in some helicopters, some helicopters are not gearbox limited and do have nearly twice the power available.
@@SKGunslinger Ah I see, thank you. I guess the twin-bladed propeller on the Whiskey vs the four-bladed one on the Zulu also plays a big part in flight performance.
Okay so you go into controls/camera controls, and where it says zoom axis you make that a positive number. The higher the number the more zoomed it is by default, which can be either really really handy or really really annoying. I was testing it a bit in VR and it was either really cool or really frustrating (mostly frustrating) but it did let me see stuff from farther out. 13% was too much for me I think I settled on 3% All this was in an attempt to get the VR pilot out of my face, and ended up just disabling it, but left the 3% zoom in place for VR. The cockpit looks better.
I would say that the history section kind of fast forwarded a bit too quick. The AH-1J’s ( primarily engine) upgrade program was essentially funded in part by Iran before the revolution. The Marines lacked the R&D budget. Iran bought upgraded Js that still exist today in Frankenstein form, as the US stopped supporting them long ago. The J became the T, and the the T became the W. Of course the W became the 4BW and then the Zulu. It would have been interesting if the Navy (Marines)would have funded the “Navalized” version of the Apache what that would have looked like.
Oh this certainly won't be the last. Plenty more to cover, but I try to spread them out - sadly Heli reviews get half the views of my combat jet reviews.
Excelent video as usual. But US Helicopter tree has same weird quirks, like lack of BR 9.0 attack helicopter when AH-1Q has been sitting in Israeli TT for some time already. It would make sense to expand it a little to add a bit more fireppower in those mid tiers like AH-1W. US ARMY line: AH-1G --> AH-1Q --> AH-1S --> AH-1F --> AH-64s USMC line: AH-1J --> AH-1T --> AH-1W -->AH-1Z With those incremental changes and weapon selection serving the role of balance. UH-1s and UH-60 should have seperate lines along with scout helicopters.
The UH-1/UH-60 tree could even have the ACH-47 Chinook gunship variant that had some impressive firepower somewhere in with the UH-1s. Also alongside the Cheyanne, I'd love to see the S-67 Blackhawk prototype make it in somewhere as well. It was apparently tested with the 3 barreled 20mm off the Cobra, the 6 barreled Vulcan 20mm, and the 3 Barreled 30mm off the Bell YAH-63. It also could carry a ton of rockets or TOW missiles.
After flying the AH-6M I cant have fun unless I am 3 meters off the ground the majority of the time hahaha. I do want to use the gunpods and only about 75k xp away from unlocking the AH-1W
I agree, it’s kind of odd that it came after the Zulu. When the Snail introduced helicopters, they may not have been sure how much interest there would be, so they introduced the Zulu to have a bright and shiny toy that peeps would grind to ( or pay to…….). My guess is that eventually we will see the Juliet but it too would be redundant at this point but cool.
In most games, I wouldn't say that playing at 4k gives you an advantage, war thunder seems to really benefit from higher resolutions and bigger screens.
I thought this would be far superior ground attack alternative to the Z-9WA, but the optical zoom does sound like a severe drawback. Z-9WA even with its inferior missile might still be a better option for me.
@@SetouchiQueens Z-9WA is actually really good at 10.7, even if AKD-9s are subpar compared to other missiles at the same tier, the amazing optics and the lack of powerful AA vehicles mean you can still get kills fairly reasonably. There's also the TY-90s which are extremely potent even at 11.7.
I might have a major skill issue, but I personally hated this thing in Chinese tech tree. It's really unwieldy and cumbersome compared to mainland China machines, keeps trying to ram itself into ground on high speed turns, IRCM and Countermeasures can't deflect things like R-60 and AIM-9Es, and the sensor suite is inferior even to Z-9W. Again, maybe I'm doing something wrong but it just doesn't seem to be any good at all
I love Cobras even though I live in the city that manufactures the Apache. ( Mesa Arizona). There is at least 4 more versions of the Cobra that could be added. The AH-1S (modified), the AH-1J, AH-1T, the Bell 249. Did I mention that there was a prototype of the King Cobra? ….
with hellfires you need to actually manually aim at weakspots, auto tracker wont help you other then to keep on target, it is a "skill issue" but something easily learnable with time.
You missed the entire point here. The optical zoom isn't strong enough to do that. You can't zoom in far enough, and you can't aim at weak points on at target that is only 12 pixels wide. I spent several minutes explaining that if you wanted to aim at weak points correctly, you have to fly in REALLY close because of the poor zoom.
yeah i understood that, i was just saying that you kinda gotta do that for hellfires to work, i hear so many people saying they just suck @@TimsVariety
The missile approach warning system and automatic counter measure system had quite a few issues back in the day according to my friend and former whisky pilot Brian. The system routinely detected camp fires, cooking fires and burning trash barrels as an incoming missile and would dump countermeasures and scare the hell outa the crews!
I love hearing this kind of stuff. Maybe war thunders "slave cm to maw" isn't so inaccurate after all
@@Asspiss100 that absolutely exists!
Actually the slave cms to maws is similar in wt. Any missile goes out on the battlefield and it's dumping everything.
If you and him don't mind, I have two questions. Did he ever get to use the HSS? Was it mainly for shooting the gun, for pointing at targets with the IZLID-1000 or for directing the bucket somewhere so that the gunner could then acquire the target? The Whiskey Cobra is my favorite helicopter, by the way. 😄
Me with my 14 inch laptop screen trying to distinguish the 6 pixels of my target at 5 km.
It's kinda crazy how the effectiveness hinges so heavily on just the zoom level.
This is why I don't like playing ground. I have a 17 inch monitor and just get shot from across the map constantly.
Just like in real life, which I think is cool. There's this 45 minute AH-1W walkaround video where the former pilot explains that the limiting factor of the Whiskey is its optics, whereas the limiting factor of the Zulu is the range of its weapons.
Helicopters 'hang' from their rotor blades. This means that the rotor hub 'should' represent the pivot point when maneuvering. But War Thunder puts the pivot point centre mass in the fuselage. Once you see it, you can't un-see it.
This is a carry over from Gaijin's previous Apache Air Assault game, as that is where they took the helicopter flight mechanics from and simply developed more on them for WT.
Honestly, helicopters have always been incredibly lazily implemented in WT since day one.
@@jonathanoriley8260 Indeed. I remember an explanation from Gaijin how they adopted their former mechanics for WT using heavily modified prop flight models. As they are right now, WT helicopters still use that prototype modification. I hope that with this Summer's heli damage model changes, they also overhaul all of the flight models, as that's a change I'd rather see.
The Cobra is my absolute favorite. Thanks for the video.
Tim consistently making the most comprehensive and down to earth Warthunder reviews on TH-cam 🔥🔥🔥
Super happy to get this in the Chinese tree, even if I need to grind out a whole new heli line for it. Seems like it'll slot in the fantastic 10.7 lineup really nicely.
Always like the look of the Cobras. Good video as always Tim.
I love the cobras so much, they so cool looking, so happy my country decided to get them instead of something else, not like there is much else to get in terms of helicopters, they are kinda an outdated concept on the modern battlefield but still
I'd love it if Gaijin made it possible for buddy lasing in the game. I can't wait to get my hands on the AH-1.
"... the Republic of China over in Taiwan ..." is certainly one way to attempt evading that debate.
I usually just call it the ROC, because thats what they call themselves. Some people get pissy over the nomenclature, but its the Internet, so someone will always get pissy about something ;-)
God forbid someone tried to avoid controversy
@@ericknoriega6507If I told you the ocean was red and as a compromise you decided to call it purple for the rest of your life you'd still be an idiot
It is the official destinated way of evading the debate in Taiwan.
Thanks Tim
Love your work!
The low zoom+long range ATGM combo is reminiscent of the Ka-50, but you're even worse for wear on that since it doesn't even have thermals. (which is why I only really use it in Heli PvE)
It's a cool looking monster. Best looking attack helicopter imo.
Hopefully the Italians get a Turkish version of this
I feel like you should have mentioned that at least for America the Super Cobra has the extra issue of not having a line up to go with it currently. Forcing you to uptier 10.3 tanks or uptier the cobra to 11.0
Fun fact:
Although it is possible to equipped Taiwanese AH-1W and OH-58 with APKWS II laser guilded rockets without any major modification, Taiwanese army had never perchaced any APKWS kit for their fleet. So in theory, it is inhistorical to give Taiwanese helicopter APKWS II in game.
Did gaijin remove the MAW yesterday? cause in my client (which is in german btw) the stat card shows nothing of the MAW just the RWR and LWR
Its still there.
Its a researchable upgrade in tier1, you may not have it unlocked yet.
@@TimsVarietyahh then thats the reason. Thanks Tim, great review btw. As always!
hello, will you make a review about the mi-35M , i considering between grind the mi-35 and just going for the ka-29/52 tree since i am not very interested in cas and just need a good enough heli to use, cant find any detailed review about this heli so your opinion would be amazing.
I have a review up of the Mi-24, which flies and performs VERY similar (the 35's weapon package is better), and also of the Ka-29 (my first ever helicopter review, but its still accurate, the 29 hasnt really changed), as well as the Ka-52 (recent review). I'll get around to the Mi-28N eventually.
@@TimsVariety i should have worded my question better , but what i meant is do you think the mi-35 is good enough to use in top tier for someone who just use it as a support/aa vehicle and not gonna use it seriously , or if i gonna grind then might as well get the meta ka-52 instead?
@@ricepotato7424If you're just playing as a support heli, the 35M can work since it has 4 Iglas in conjunction to 8 Atakas. You'd probably better off going down the 28NM line if you're going to play less offensively since all of the upcoming helis (28N and 28NM) has modern FCS and the capability to carry Iglas. Ka-52 technically has a shorter grind, but the Ka-29 lacks anti-air missiles and defensive countermeasures other than IRCM and chaff/flares.
@@SetouchiQueens thank for the reply mate, i just worrie that the 35 wont be able to fights other heli at that tier since they all have faster air frame, very advanced rwr and some radar, and the Iglas is a rank 4 research so i would have to fight other helis using atgm
The Shturms are actually still viable for heli-on-heli engagements, especially because of its speed. The 35M also gets auto-track on top of that so guiding them is a breeze. There's also the built-in 23mm turret if you like getting up close and personal
Love the helicopter but the only issue I have is the lineup. As of right now, the heli is going to be either at a 10.3 lineup bringing into a 10.7 matchmaker or it's going to be in a 11.0 lineup where bringing in the yah64 would be more viable.
One thing I don't understand is this thing has the twin engines of the Zulu but somehow climbs slower than the AH-1F. It also feels very heavy at low speeds.
I noticed this as well, as a big enjoyer of the Japanese ah1 helis I didn't expect this thing to feel so fat, maybe once I get the performance upgrades it'll feel better but its whatever zunis go boom.
One thing to take into account with many twin engine helicopters is that they are gearbox limited. They use a combining gearbox. So the two engine are not running 100%. The gearbox limits each engine power to say 60 to 70%. The idea is that in conditions with high density altitude the two engines together would be cranked up to still deliver 100% of gearbox power. And in the case of a engine failure due to damage or maintenance failure the second engine could be cranked up to deliver enough power ( especially over water!!!!) to get the helicopter back to ship or base. So in short two engines doesn’t translate to twice the power in some helicopters, some helicopters are not gearbox limited and do have nearly twice the power available.
@@SKGunslinger Ah I see, thank you. I guess the twin-bladed propeller on the Whiskey vs the four-bladed one on the Zulu also plays a big part in flight performance.
Okay so you go into controls/camera controls, and where it says zoom axis you make that a positive number. The higher the number the more zoomed it is by default, which can be either really really handy or really really annoying. I was testing it a bit in VR and it was either really cool or really frustrating (mostly frustrating) but it did let me see stuff from farther out.
13% was too much for me
I think I settled on 3%
All this was in an attempt to get the VR pilot out of my face, and ended up just disabling it, but left the 3% zoom in place for VR. The cockpit looks better.
I would say that the history section kind of fast forwarded a bit too quick.
The AH-1J’s ( primarily engine) upgrade program was essentially funded in part by Iran before the revolution. The Marines lacked the R&D budget. Iran bought upgraded Js that still exist today in Frankenstein form, as the US stopped supporting them long ago. The J became the T, and the the T became the W.
Of course the W became the 4BW and then the Zulu.
It would have been interesting if the Navy (Marines)would have funded the “Navalized” version of the Apache what that would have looked like.
really recommend free hand targeting with hellfire's. Still keep it locked on target, but aim bit higher for the turret
That was the point - that the optical zoom is too crappy to do that accurately/effectively.
Please do more helicopter reviews Tim!!!
Oh this certainly won't be the last.
Plenty more to cover, but I try to spread them out - sadly Heli reviews get half the views of my combat jet reviews.
Excelent video as usual. But US Helicopter tree has same weird quirks, like lack of BR 9.0 attack helicopter when AH-1Q has been sitting in Israeli TT for some time already.
It would make sense to expand it a little to add a bit more fireppower in those mid tiers like AH-1W.
US ARMY line: AH-1G --> AH-1Q --> AH-1S --> AH-1F --> AH-64s
USMC line: AH-1J --> AH-1T --> AH-1W -->AH-1Z
With those incremental changes and weapon selection serving the role of balance. UH-1s and UH-60 should have seperate lines along with scout helicopters.
I'd like to see helicopter trees fleshed out with all their subvariants but Gaijin must ease the grind and improve PVE first.
The UH-1/UH-60 tree could even have the ACH-47 Chinook gunship variant that had some impressive firepower somewhere in with the UH-1s. Also alongside the Cheyanne, I'd love to see the S-67 Blackhawk prototype make it in somewhere as well. It was apparently tested with the 3 barreled 20mm off the Cobra, the 6 barreled Vulcan 20mm, and the 3 Barreled 30mm off the Bell YAH-63. It also could carry a ton of rockets or TOW missiles.
You should review the YAH squadron vehicle cobra
Could u do a video on their the merkava mk4?
After flying the AH-6M I cant have fun unless I am 3 meters off the ground the majority of the time hahaha. I do want to use the gunpods and only about 75k xp away from unlocking the AH-1W
I made the Suggestion on the forums for the Taiwanese AH-1W, and let me tell you, it has not mounted 2/3 of the in game loadout for it irl
Tim how do you use tank thermals
Does this being 10.7 mean you get tiered to 11.7 in ground often?
I'd say it came to the game too late! Specially to someone like me who has the AH-1Z.
I agree, it’s kind of odd that it came after the Zulu. When the Snail introduced helicopters, they may not have been sure how much interest there would be, so they introduced the Zulu to have a bright and shiny toy that peeps would grind to ( or pay to…….). My guess is that eventually we will see the Juliet but it too would be redundant at this point but cool.
In most games, I wouldn't say that playing at 4k gives you an advantage, war thunder seems to really benefit from higher resolutions and bigger screens.
Turkish Ah1W looks alot like the Zulu, is it an upgrade of the whisky??
Off the top of my head, I think Turkey did some further mid-life upgrades. Don't quote me on that though.
@@TimsVariety yeah maybe.. thanks!
Good morning
I thought this would be far superior ground attack alternative to the Z-9WA, but the optical zoom does sound like a severe drawback. Z-9WA even with its inferior missile might still be a better option for me.
Z-9WA got AKD-9s and a TV auto tracker, I actually wonder how viable it is now (updated review when Tim?)
@@SetouchiQueens Z-9WA is actually really good at 10.7, even if AKD-9s are subpar compared to other missiles at the same tier, the amazing optics and the lack of powerful AA vehicles mean you can still get kills fairly reasonably. There's also the TY-90s which are extremely potent even at 11.7.
Good to hear, I've gotten it recently and am struggling with the stock HJ-8E. At least now I know the suffering won't be in vain lmao
8:13 skill issue 😂😂😂😂😂
Yeahhhh Cobra time
It’s the helicopter from BF2
I just wonder why he doesnt use manual roll ?
Its just personal preference. No special reason.
I might have a major skill issue, but I personally hated this thing in Chinese tech tree. It's really unwieldy and cumbersome compared to mainland China machines, keeps trying to ram itself into ground on high speed turns, IRCM and Countermeasures can't deflect things like R-60 and AIM-9Es, and the sensor suite is inferior even to Z-9W. Again, maybe I'm doing something wrong but it just doesn't seem to be any good at all
Please review the su25sm3!
I'll get to it eventually.
Z19E with a ridiculous amount of zoom:
no seriously, why did the CCP need that on a Heli?
to spy on Aliens or something?
z9wa all the way, china numba one choppas
neat
We don't just need more Cobras in WT, we need all of them. When the US tree has a full line of them, I can die happy.
I love Cobras even though I live in the city that manufactures the Apache. ( Mesa Arizona). There is at least 4 more versions of the Cobra that could be added. The AH-1S (modified), the AH-1J, AH-1T, the Bell 249.
Did I mention that there was a prototype of the King Cobra? ….
@@SKGunslinger AH-1Q as well, so far it's only present in the Israeli tech tree and it would be a perfect follow-up to the AH-1G
with hellfires you need to actually manually aim at weakspots, auto tracker wont help you other then to keep on target, it is a "skill issue" but something easily learnable with time.
You missed the entire point here.
The optical zoom isn't strong enough to do that. You can't zoom in far enough, and you can't aim at weak points on at target that is only 12 pixels wide.
I spent several minutes explaining that if you wanted to aim at weak points correctly, you have to fly in REALLY close because of the poor zoom.
yeah i understood that, i was just saying that you kinda gotta do that for hellfires to work, i hear so many people saying they just suck @@TimsVariety
@@TimsVariety and sorry if it looked like I was dogging on you I meant the general community I watch your vids in full 🙏
You are bullying tanks. So I don't care if you get kills in it.
Ok nothing special