The first Boeing AH-6 light attack helicopter bound for the Royal Thai Army had its maiden flight in Arizona on 22 August.
The first flight took place at Boeing’s manufacturing facility in Mesa, according to the airframer. It did not provide the length of the sortie or other details.
In 2022, Boeing won a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract from the US Army to produce eight AH-6s for Thailand, the second international customer for the type.
Following the completion of Thailand’s AH-6 fleet, Boeing will train Thai army pilots at Mesa and at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground.
The FMS deal for the eight helicopters was valued at $103.7 million in early 2022.
The type will replace Thailand’s aging fleet of Bell AH-1F Cobras. Cirium fleets data indicates that Thailand has seven in-service examples with an average age of 42.8 years.
The AH-6 is a heavily modified derivative of the MD Helicopters MD500, with a sixth main rotor blade and a four-bladed canted tail rotor. Boeing representatives have said that this offers superior control characteristics, particularly in hot and high conditions.
At the time it won the contract, Boeing said that AH-6 benefits from upgrade work on the AH-64 Apache, namely a mission computer “capable of processing large amounts of data and sharing system information with the rest of the aircraft quickly – enhancing safety and situational awareness, enabling faster decision making, reducing pilot workload and decreasing support costs throughout the aircraft’s life cycle.”
