Tigre attack helicopter

Record

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Operators

France: French Army light aviation's attack helicopter for Serval and Barkhane; withdrawn with the end of Barkhane. · United Nations / MINUSMA: German Tiger UHT escorts at Gao, 2017–2018; one lost with its crew in July 2017.

Battlefield role

Barkhane's escort and strike helicopter across the Liptako-Gourma — armed reconnaissance over convoy routes and quick reaction to troops in contact, a capability the Malian forces have since only partly replaced with armed drones.

Strengths

A purpose-built attack helicopter with a mast-mounted sight, 30 mm cannon, rockets and anti-tank missiles, able to escort a convoy or answer a contact at night; the fastest firepower the intervention could put over a patrol.

Limitations

A small fleet with demanding maintenance in heat and dust; a helicopter that must return to a base the intervention no longer has. Its relevance to the module is historical — it left with the French withdrawal in 2022.

Visual identification

A slim tandem-seat attack helicopter with stub wings carrying weapons, a mast-mounted sight above the rotor on the HAD and a distinctive narrow, angular fuselage.

Documented conflict use

Flew armed escort and strike sorties throughout Serval and Barkhane, including the November 2019 night operation in the Liptako in which a Tigre and a Cougar collided, killing thirteen French soldiers; German Tigers flew for MINUSMA from Gao, and one crashed with its crew in July 2017. Historical only.

Branch & service operators

• Operation Barkhane Historically associated