July 7, 2009: The U.S. Marine Corps began receiving Target Sight System turrets for their AH-1Z helicopter gunships. This system has a day/night camera (color for the day, black and white for night) with zoom. There is also a target tracker and laser rangefinder and illuminator. This would be most useful with Hellfire missiles, which have a range of 7 kilometers.
The marines will receive another 15 Target Sight Systems by the end of next year. This is an upgrade from the NTS (Night Targeting system marine AH-1s currently use. The 16 ton AH-1Z is a much upgraded and modified version of the U.S. Army AH-1 gunship developed during the Vietnam war.
