The US Army aviation branch, which last month approved the configuration for the planned Block III update of its Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter, plans to start pushing for a new Block IV upgrade strategy within the next few months, writes Stephen Trimble.
Army planners expect to have a basic configuration for the proposed Block IV upgrade available within six months, says Col Ralph Pallotta, the service's AH-64 programme manager. Production funding will not be approved for the project until at least 2010 and the first Block IV aircraft will not be delivered until after 2015, he says.
The next round of upgrades would address known deficiencies in the AH-64D's engine, transmission and tail rotor systems and could lead to relaunch of the 3,000shp (2,235kW) Common Engine Programme, which was once targeted for the army's Block III upgrade of the Apache.
The common engine plan was shelved in the late 1990s as too ambitious, but Pallotta notes that was before the army's experience in Afghanistan, where the hot-and-high power requirements revealed weaknesses in its aviation inventory.
The army's Block III upgrade includes the installation of General Electric's T700-701D engine, which is also included in the Sikorsky UH-60C modernisation programme.
Other Block III enhancements include the addition of network communications, radar enhancements and a new composite rotor blade.
* The US Army last week awarded Boeing a $549 million contract to manufacture the first 17 of a planned 55 new-build CH-47FChinook transports for delivery to the service between September 2006 and late 2008.
Source: Flight International
