THE US GOVERNMENT is about to clear the improved McDonnell Douglas AH-64D Apache helicopter for sale to Singapore and Malaysia.
Approval to offer the attack helicopter is "imminent" says a senior US defence source. Release of the accompanying Lockheed Martin/Westinghouse Longbow millimetre-wave radar will take up to another 12 months.
US industry has been strongly pressing the defence and state departments to clear the AH-64D in response to a growing Southeast-Asian requirement for attack helicopters. The earlier AH-64A had previously been approved for sale to Singapore, but not for Malaysia.
MDC is pitting the AH-64D, against the Denel CSH-2 Rooivalk, in pursuit of a Malaysian order for an initial, 12 helicopters. Singapore is widely anticipated to follow suit with a similar requirement for eight-12 machines.
Each of the Asian nations, are expected to want the Longbow radar, to be included in any Apache purchase. Industry lobbyists in Washington are striving for AH-64D approval first, to be followed later by acceptance of the Longbow radar.
The US Army is understood to be resisting early release of the radar until after the system has entered operational service, scheduled for 1997.
The Army is instead proposing to offer the AH-64D Apache to Singapore and Malaysia equipped for (but not fitted with) the radar. While the AH-64D would be able to receive targeting information from other Longbow-equipped helicopters, it would not have the capability of classifying or prioritising threats automatically.
The AH-64D helicopter, without the radar, is reliant on the shorter-range Lockheed Martin target-acquisition and designator-sight/ pilot night-vision sensor for Lockheed Martin/Rockwell Hellfire anti-tank missile targeting.
Source: Flight International