Boeing AH-64 Apache

Boeing · United States · first flew 1975 · helicopter

The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a twin-engined attack helicopter built around a chin turret cannon, sensor-laden nose and weapon-carrying stub wings, flown by a two-man tandem crew.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — WingsHigh-mounted, rotary
E — Engines2 × turboshaft, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage15.06 m fuselage
T — TailConventional

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Spot it by:

Look for the slim fuselage with a stepped tandem cockpit, the angular sensor turret on the nose and the chin-mounted 30 mm cannon. The short stub wings carry Hellfire missiles and rocket pods, while a four-bladed main rotor and a high-set tail rotor confirm the attack-helicopter layout.

Specifications

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Originating as the Hughes YAH-64, which first flew on 30 September 1975, the Apache won the US Army's advanced attack helicopter competition and entered service in 1986. McDonnell Douglas and then Boeing took over production, and the type became the West's standard heavy attack helicopter. It has seen combat in numerous conflicts from the Gulf War onwards.

Variants

The original AH-64A gave way to the AH-64D Longbow with its distinctive mast-mounted fire-control radar, and then the comprehensively upgraded AH-64E Guardian with more powerful engines and improved sensors. The British Army's machines began as the Westland-assembled WAH-64 Apache AH1 and have since been replaced by new-build AH-64E airframes.

Where you'll see it

The Army Air Corps operates the Apache from Wattisham Flying Station in Suffolk, providing armed reconnaissance and attack support to British ground forces. The aircraft are a regular sight over East Anglia and on training ranges, and frequently appear in flying displays at UK air shows.

In depth

The Apache's design lineage traces to a hard lesson from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Egyptian and Syrian anti-tank missiles devastated Israeli armoured columns and demonstrated that tanks were now highly vulnerable from the air. The US Army issued the Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) requirement in 1972 seeking a purpose-built anti-armour helicopter that could survive a low-level European battlefield while carrying enough Hellfire missiles to defeat an entire tank column. Bell and Hughes competed, and the Hughes YAH-64 was declared winner in December 1976 after a rigorous fly-off that included simulated battle damage and night operations.

The design philosophy that emerged was demanding: the Apache had to absorb 23 mm cannon hits to critical systems and continue flying, land safely with severe hydraulic damage, and expose its crew to less than a one-in-seventeen chance of crew fatality from ground fire. The airframe was built with redundant load paths, self-sealing fuel cells, and crashworthy seats that telescoped to absorb ground impact at ten metres per second vertical velocity. The main rotor blades were designed to absorb 23 mm strikes without immediate failure.

The chin-mounted M230 30 mm Chain Gun was the centrepiece of the original design. Fed from a 1,200-round magazine, it was coupled through the Target Acquisition Designation Sight (TADS) to the gunner's helmet — the gun follows wherever the gunner looks, slaving to the line of sight. The TADS system also carried a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor, a laser rangefinder, and a TV camera, allowing the gunner to designate Hellfire missile targets day or night at ranges exceeding eight kilometres.

Operation Just Cause (Panama, December 1989) was the Apache's combat debut, but Desert Storm (1991) was its defining test. On the night of 17 January 1991, nine AH-64As from the 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, flew 85 kilometres into Iraq guided by Air Force special-operations MH-53 Pave Lows to destroy two Iraqi air-defence radar stations. This attack — code-named Task Force Normandy — opened a corridor through Iraq's air-defence network for the subsequent coalition air assault. It happened eight minutes before the official H-Hour of the Gulf War air campaign, making the Apaches the first coalition aircraft to strike Iraq. During the ground campaign that followed, Apaches destroyed more than 500 armoured vehicles.

During Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan (March 2002), Apache crews from the 3rd Battalion, 101st Aviation flew sustained close-air-support missions in the Shah-i-Kot Valley at altitudes above 10,000 feet, suffering multiple hits from heavy machine-gun and RPG fire. Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman was killed when his aircraft was shot down on 4 March 2002 — the Apache's first combat loss in Afghanistan. The aircraft flew on in the conflict for another twelve years, accumulating the most combat hours of any rotary-wing type in the war.

The Apache's closest peer competitor is the Russian Mil Mi-28 'Havoc', which appeared in the mid-1980s as a dedicated counter to the Apache. The Mi-28 similarly uses tandem stepped cockpits and stub wing-mounted weapons but lacks the original Apache's troop-carrying capability (the AH-64 has no cabin for passengers). The Mi-28 has a different rotor design with a five-blade main rotor and a three-blade tail rotor; its night-capable Mi-28N variant with a mast-mounted radar sphere is the near-equivalent of the AH-64D Longbow. For sheer firepower the two types are broadly comparable, but the Longbow fire-control radar — which can classify and prioritise 128 targets simultaneously while the aircraft hides behind a ridgeline — gave the AH-64D a significant tactical edge.

For UK spotters, Wattisham Flying Station in Suffolk is home to 3 and 4 Regiments Army Air Corps operating the AH-64E. Apaches fly training sorties over the Salisbury Plain Training Area and Stanford Training Area in Norfolk. They are less commonly seen at civilian airports, though transit stops at places like Doncaster Sheffield occur. Airshows at Wattisham and the Army Flying Museum at Middle Wallop in Hampshire produce regular examples. A trivia point: the British WAH-64 variant was unique in using the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 engine instead of the General Electric T700, making it the only Apache variant to fly with a non-GE powerplant until the engine was later standardised on the AH-64E airframes procured for the UK.

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