The Army and Marines have evolved helicopter tactics over a period of more than 40 years. Here's how things work:

Scout helicopters like the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and the RAH-66 Commanche are typically lightly armed (relatively speaking). Their mission is to locate the enemy forces and coordinate the attack. They sneak around down in the weeds, poking up their heads (or sensors) to look around, then duck back down out of sight. They're very hard to see, so they're hard to kill. In a pinch, they can fire Hellfire missiles to take out a target. However, like a ground recon team, they know that firing on the enemy will give away their position, which is almost always well behind the enemy lines.

Attack helicopters like the AH-1W SuperCobra and the AH-64D Apache are the heavy hitters. Their missions are to negate enemy armor, hit other targets, and to escort the transport helicopters. Fighter planes go way too fast to escort helicopters. In Vietnam, they used A-1 "Sandy" planes (rugged single-engined prop planes designed in WWII that flew slow, could loiter for hours, and packed a big punch). Today, the attack helicopters do the same mission. They're far more compatible with transport helicopters than fighter planes and have a much greater loiter time.

Transport helicopters like the CH-47 Chinook, CH-46 Sea Knight, CH-53 Sea Stallion and UH-60 Blackhawk carry the troops and supplies into and out of the battle area. They also evacuate the wounded, perform special ops missions, and some are used for things like electronic warfare. Like their fixed wing counterparts, the "trash haulers" get the job done but they can't do it alone.

As far as helicopters against fighters, several of our helicopters are equipped to fire Stingers (OH-58D, AH-6 and Commanche) and some (AH-1W and AH-64) can even carry Sidewinders. Helicopters can turn very quickly into an attack. If they know a fighter is on to them, the fighter pilot can very quickly be in for a rude surprise.

UAVs definitely have a role in land warfare. The technology is still maturing. They're very good at overall battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance (not the same thing) but like other fixed-wing aircraft, they can have a hard time picking out bunkers and vehicles hidden from view. Scout helicopters are flown by skilled pilots who understand where to look for ground forces and can get close enough for a good view.