Comanche

Air cover's on the way.

Rocket pods

73 (Elite)

98 (Heroic)

219 (Heroic)

Rocket pods: 30 (primary), 10 (secondary)

Rocket pods: 10 (primary), 40 (secondary)

Stealth Upgrade (Granger)

Rocket Pods (Granger)

## Introduction

The **Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche** is Air Force General Malcolm “Ace” Granger’s advanced armed reconnaissance and attack helicopter unit. It’s used primarily for the close support of ground forces.

## Overview

Despite its cursed development history which was marred by overflowing costs of over $7 billion, and even a temporary cancellation in early 2004, the US Army's LHX (Light Helicopter Experimental) project has eventually produced one of the most agile and flexible helicopter gunships in the world.

The RAH-66 Comanche is a an attack helicopter that has a quite geometric chassis (with pointy, sleek edges) which can accommodate two pilots. It hovers with its 5-blade main rotor at its "tip" and a smaller tail rotor on its back with a T-shaped tail wing as support and steering. The RAH-66 Comanche is a highly versatile unit capable of tackling all types of targets: it’s armed with a 20mm chaingun on its "nose" which can effectively eliminate hostile infantry units, as well as multi-purpose missiles installed on its two sides which can lock-on to armor, structures, and enemy air units. Although slim, the Comanche can fire in a decent amount of add-ons: it can be upgraded with an another 8-round rocket pods to carry more rockets while sacrificing the rocket's lock-on mechanism, carry magnesium flares as a "decoy defense" against AA missiles/rockets, apply a classified stealth coating to hide itself from sight even via human vision, only allowing pilots who finished their training in forward bases to operate the helicopter for greater performance in battle and install laser-guiding systems in rockets to increase damage output (accuracy) of rockets.

To fulfill its role as a reconnaissance helicopter, the Comanche is capable of housing and launching its very own scout drone. The drone can be launched from the helicopter to perform forward reconnaissance, uncover hidden enemy units and, if necessary, distract enemy AA firepower.

Stealth coating can also be applied to the Comanche, removing it from enemy radars and turning it into an excellent ambush predator.

The optional rocket pod add-ons were discarded in favor of additional space for missiles. While this reduces the Comanche’s overall firepower, the added ability to engage hostile aircraft makes the Comanche far more versatile. Compared to the current mainstream attacking helicopter of the US Army and the successor to the AH-64 Apache: the Thor Gunship, the Comanche is less armored but makes up for it with superior speed and agility and the ability to engage both air and ground units. Its long ferry range of 1,200 miles (2,200 km) would have allowed it to fly itself to battlefields overseas on its own, should the USAF General demand it.

## Variants

General Ironside also uses Comanches as his primary attack helicopter. However, for balancing purposes, his Comanches lack the Stealth Coating upgrade and the Advanced Comanche Missiles upgrade thus making them less versatile than General Granger's. Instead, their missiles can be upgraded with Laser Guidance, increasing their damage by 25%.

## Upgrades

**Rocket pods**

* Individual upgrade, adds rocket pods to the Comanche which allows them to perform area bombardment with unguided rockets. Available at the Strategy Center at Rank 3.

**Countermeasures**

* Allows the Comanche to launch flares to evade missiles and become 20% more resistant to AA weapons. Available at the Levitation Pad at Rank 1 for General Granger and at the Airfield at Rank 3 for General Ironside.

**Laser Guided Missiles** (Ironside only)

* Increases the damage output of the Comanches missiles, available only to General Ironside.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Decent speed.
* Versatile all-rounder which can engage air and ground targets.
* Stealth coating makes it effective at ambushes and base guards.
* Can fire on the move.
* Can deal with armored vehicles and lightly defended bases when in numbers.
* General Granger can obtain them for free if the relevant General's Powers are chosen.

Cons:

* Weak armor.
* Tends to clump together when attacking in groups, therefore highly vulnerable to AA weapons that deal splash damage.
* Considerably pricy ($1,000), mass production is no option.

## Quotes

The Comanche reuses its vanilla *Zero Hour* quotes.

### When Selected

* In the field.
* Frequencies open.
* Need a little ground support?
* Comanche here.
* Yes, Sir.

### When Ordered to Move

* Moving to new AO.
* Nav systems set.
* Visibility clear.
* Flying low.
* Air cover's on the way.

### When Ordered to Attack

* Hose them down!
* Search and clear.
* Making a sweep!
* We're going in.
* Got their position.
* Operation underway.
* Gotcha covered!
* This one's mine!

### When Crashing

* I'm hit, I'm hit!
* I've lost control of her!
* Going down!
* Eject, eject!

## Trivia

* Originally the Comanche had rocket pods upgrade like in the vanilla *Zero Hour*, it was eventually removed in 009 FINAL and replaced with the Advanced Comanche Missiles upgrade.
	+ It was later reimplemented as an upgrade that replaces the Comanche's standard missiles, sacrificing its AA capabilities in exchange for better anti-ground firepower.
	+ Later on the rocket pods upgrade returned, but this time it has to be applied to individual Comanches.
* In the 009 Final and earlier versions of *Contra*, Comanches are capable of attacking descending paratroopers with their chainguns, this ability has been removed in the subsequent patch due to the high tendency of it causing a mismatch in multiplayer games.
* The Comanche originally had the ability to launch a scout drone to uncover hidden enemies and draw AA fire, this ability was eventually removed.
	+ In the earlier version of *Contra* 009, the Comanche's launch scout drone ability was bugged, it did not launch its drone where ordered sometimes. Instead, it got launched at nearby enemies.
* The name Comanche originally comes from a native American tribe of the same name living mostly in the Southern part of the Great Plains.

## Gallery

RAH-66 Comanche prototype in real-life.The only two RAH-66 Comanche prototypes to exist, note that the one further from the camera appears in General Granger's cameo.