Bye bye USMC AH-1W
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) have officially retired the Bell AH-1W Super Cobra from their operational inventory after 34 years of service. The Super Cobra was introduced on 27 March 1986 within the USMC and served since as the backbone of the USMC''s dedicated attack helicopter fleet. The Whiskey, as it was often called, served all recent wars where the US was involved, including Operations Desert Storm (Iraq), Iraqi Freedom (Iraq), Enduring Freedom (Iraq and Afghanistan) and Inherent Resolve (Iraq, Syria) and many humanitarian missions like Operation Restore Hope (Somalia) and during the US interventions of Haiti, former Yugoslavia and Libya. The last flight, an AH-1W in formation with its successor an AH-1Z, took place on 14 October 2020.
The last detachment of AH-1Ws to complete a sea-borne deployment returned earlier this year with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit on board the USS Bataan (LHD-5). The detachment of four helicopters was temporarily assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 365 (Reinforced) Blue Knights ('YM-xx') and was part of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 167 Warriors ('TV-xx'), normally based at MCAS New River (NC).
“The AH-1W Super Cobra has served admirably and leaves a remarkable legacy of on-time, on-target attack helicopter support for our Marines,” said Col. David Walsh, the program manager for Light/Attack Helicopter Programs (PMA-276). “Although the AH-1W chapter is closing, look-a-like but the far more advanced and four-bladed AH-1Z Viper stands ready with even greater capability to support our USMC for years to come.”
The AH-1W started its life as AH-1T+ and made its first flight on 16 November 1983 from the Bell Flight Research Center in Arlington (TX). The helicopter was redesignated into AH-1W and the first ones were delivered to the USMC on 27 March 1986. The final and 179th AH-1W was delivered in 1999. The Scramble database reveals that at least 33 AH-1Ws were written-off during war- and peace-time accidents. Through August 2020, the USMC flew the Super Cobra for 933,614 hours. Technically, some AH-1Ws survived, but these (43 airframes) were remanufactured into AH-1Z Vipers.
Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 773 Det.A Cobras ('MM-xx') took the honour to fly the last Super Cobra from home base NAS New Orleans JRB-Alvin Callender Field (GA).
The AH-1W will soldier on in two countries: Taiwan (some sixty still operational) and Turkey (some ten).