Stewart Penney/LONDON
GKN Westland handed over the first WAH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopter to the British Army Air Corps (AAC) on 15 March. The AAC has 67 Apaches on order, all equipped with the Northrop Grumman Longbow radar.
AAC machines are powered by Rolls-Royce Turboméca RTM322s instead of the General Electric T700s in all other Boeing AH-64s.
Other features unique to UK Apaches are manual blade-folding, to allow routine operation from navy ships in support of Royal Marine amphibious operations; rotor de-icing; provision for air-to-air missile (AAM) carriage; and the reinstatement of the back-up control system, which has been deleted on US Army AH-64Ds during the upgrade from AH-64A standard.
Additional differences to other AH-64s will include use of the BAE Systems Helicopter Integrated Defensive Aids Suite (HIDAS),which will be fitted from aircraft 22 and retrofitted to earlier machines; an improved identification friend or foe, with Mode S capability; and a basic health and usage monitoring system.
Boeing vice-president US Army programmes and helicopters Chuck Vehlow says a memorandum of understanding, to be signed shortly, will allow the flowback of UK-specific systems and capabilities to the US Army's machines.
AUK Defence Procurement Agency source says the in-service date for an AAM has slipped by two years to 2005. Although there is funding to equip the Apache with an AAM, the source says a balance of investment exercise is determining whether the money would be better spent on other changes, such as giving the HIDAS an active jamming capability. While the Shorts Missile Systems Starstreak is considered the most likely AAM, others include the Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD) Mistral, Raytheon Stinger and, "as a long shot", the MBD ASRAAM short-range infrared-guided missile.
Other possible improvements include second-generation forward looking infrared systems for the piloting and targeting sensors, but such upgrades may be linked to similar moves by the US Army.
The first machine is instrumented to support military aircraft release testing, while other key testing for the non-marinised Apache includes clearing the machine for use on Royal Navy ships from later this year.
The UK Apaches will be split between four regiments - three at Wattisham in Suffolk and one at Dishforth in Yorkshire.
Source: Flight International
