Desert War (known as Wangan Sensou in Japan) is a shoot'em up developed by NMK and published by Jaleco. It was only released in the arcades.

You play a helicopter pilot in a conflict against a terrorsit group called Jackal. Desert War is somehow a hybrid between a normal vertical shooter and Choplifter. You fly a helicopter through vertically scrolling levels, but apart from shooting enemies you also need to rescue people. Prisoners walk in the open and call for help. You can land your helicopter, nearby prisoners will automatically walk towards it. The capacity of your chopper is limited, but there are several landing sites in each level where the prisoners can exit the helicopter. There is no autoscrolling and no direct time limit, but you have a fuel gauge which decreases over time. Rescuing normal prisoners and prisoners with fuel barrels will increase your fuel supply. There are also prisoners who give you a weapon upgrade.
You helicopter can take three hits until it is destroyed, and each hit will make prisoners fall off your helicopter. Each level has a different objective, but you always have to rescue a certain number of prisoners. Unlike Choplifter, you cannot roam the whole level freely, as the game does not scroll back, so you cannot go back to fetch prisoners you missed.