UH-1B Hog

The versatile Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter quickly gained the nickname ‘Huey’ from its initials, along with rockets and machine-guns as armament. The resulting aircraft were known as ‘Hogs’ as the extra weight of the armament made them slow and sluggish to fly—the transport helicopters had to fly slowly to allow them to keep up!

Despite any problems, the Hogs were essential for airmobile combat. Hogs operating as aerial artillery saturated landing zones with rockets before the passenger-carrying slicks went in, and the firepower of Hog gunships smashed Vietnamese attacks time and again. As time went on the range of armament options for the Hog increased making it even more versatile.