Europe's second dedicated attack helicopter, after the Agusta A129, was at first a cooperation between Aérospatiale and MBB. When they merged in Eurocopter, this made things a lot easier. The heli received desig­nation EC665 and popular name Tigre (French/Spanish) and Tiger (other countries). Like many similar helicopters, the Tigre/Tiger has a narrow fuselage in which the pilot and gunner/wea­pons operator sit behind each other. They have separated, stepped canopies that open on the side. Also typical are the short (stub) wings, which have two pylons each. Characteristic for the EC665 is that only the outer half has anhedral and the inner wings none. The fixed gear has two single wheel main gear attached to side and bottom of the front fuselage, and a single wheel tail gear under the ventral fin. The Tiger's tail is also a good recognition point, as it is quite tall and swept, with a three blade tail rotor on the top right. Horizontal stabilisers are attached to the lower trailing edge of the vertical fin. They have end plates swept in a similar fashion as the vertical stabiliser. The main rotor has four blades.

To distinguish the different versions of the Tiger you will have to look at

• the presence of a gun turrent under the nose
• whether it has a sensor dome on top of the rotor mast or on top of the fuselage 
• the contents of the roof mounted sensor dome

The original French version of the EC665, called Tigre, is the Hélicoptère d'Appui Protection (HAP). Apart from rocket pods and missiles being attached to the pylons under the stub wings, it has a gun turret under the nose. The main sensors, infrared and CCTV, are in a dome placed on top of the fuselage, behind the rear canopy and in front of the gear box. Normally, the opening of the sensor dome is turned to the rear so you cannot see the sensors them­selves.

The original French version of the Tiger helicopter, the Tigre HAP, has a gun under the nose and a roof mounted sensor dome between the rear canopy and rotor head. (photo: besopha/WikiMedia)

On this detail photo you can look into the roof mounted sensor dome of the Tigre HAP, that is turned for the front. There are two main sensors visible, but no laser designator. (photo: André Gerwing/WikiMedia, modified)

Spain's Tigre version, called Helicóptero de Apoyo y Destrucción (HAD), and the related Australian Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (Tiger ARH), look externally very similar to the HAP version, but have a third, small sensor in the roof mounted dome, the laser designator. With this, different missile types can be fired than by the Tigre HAP. When the sensor dome is closed, as is often the case, the Hellfire missiles could be the only recognition point. 

The Eurocopter HAD (and ARH) variants look the same as the HAP version, especially when the sensor dome opening is turned away like here. (photo: David Álvarez López/WikiMedia)

When opened, you can see the third sensor for the laser designator that is the main difference of the Tigre HAD compared to the Tigre HAP. Here the arrow points at its location. (photo: Robert Frola/WikiMedia, modified) 

Germany went a different way with the Tiger than the other customers. Its role as Unter­stüt­zungshubschrauber Tiger (UHT) required no gun turret under the nose. Even in its current role as Kampfhubschrauber Tiger (KHT) it can only use gun pods attached to one of the pylons. Another major difference compared to the HAD/HAP variants is the rotor mast mounted sight, a sphere containing infrared and TV cameras.