Thanks to electronic systems and rocket weapons, it can origin demolition in enemy armoured tails, and the enemy is very hard to shoot him down. AH-64 Apache is considered the best assault chopper in the world. Tomorrow, the first machines in the U.S. will receive the 1st Army Air Force. What strength do Apache have on the battlefield?
The latest version of the Apache helicopter, marked as AH-64E Apache Guardian, is equipped with an advanced radar strategy (apart from the fresh version of Longbow FCR radar, it consists of an AN/APR-48B MRFI radar alert device). What distinguishes the latest version, however, is above all a fresh network-centric command strategy and combat management. It allows the crew to combat enemy vehicles and tanks, e.g. guided by Hellfire anti-tank missiles and undirected Hydra 70 and a 30 mm-caliber plot, as well as enemy helicopters and aircraft, e.g. AIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
In turn, the AAG (Air-to-Air-to-Ground Video Relay) video transmission subsystem and the MUT-X (Manned/Unmanned Teaming Expanded) subsystem enable the management of various types of unmanned aircraft (BSP) from impact to reconnaissance. Importantly, the data collected by drones can be sent from the chopper not only to higher-level command centers, but besides straight to close native (or allied) sub-divisions, e.g. to F-16 or F-35 aircraft operating in the area, HIMARS rocket launchers or Abrams tanks.
AH-64E Apache Guardian It's 1 of the fastest constructions in its class. The rotors were equipped with composite shovels and a drive unit, consisting of 2 1470 kW GE T700-701D engines, each allowing the chopper to be deployed to over 300 km/h. The cruising velocity is somewhat lower and is about 270 km/h.
Global brand
The largest user of AH-64 Apache helicopters is the United States – their armed forces have about 700 machines of this type. In addition to the USA, Apache has adopted 16 states to arm their armies – Australia, Egypt, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Holland, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United arabian Emirates and the United Kingdom. Poland will so be the eighteenth user of these pilots.
By August 2024 agreements, worth about $10 billion, the Polish Army will receive 96 AH-64E helicopters along with a logistics package, training, a comprehensive set of combat measures and spare parts. After completing this order from 2028 to 2032, our country will become the world's second largest user of Apache. However, before that happens, soldiers will usage AH-64D helicopters leased for PLN 300 million. The first of the machines will scope the 1st Air Force in Inowrocław tomorrow.
Experts emphasize that the past of AH-64 shows well how advanced equipment and military weapons should be created and developed. But at the same time they pay attention to the complicated beginnings of this machine. AH-64 Apache was created due to the fact that the command of the U.S. Army, US Air Force, and US Marine Corps were incapable to communicate and make 1 strike chopper for all (which would, of course, be specialisedly equipped according to the needs of the user). Therefore, erstwhile the marines decided to stay on their AH-1 Cobra helicopters and make them further, in 1972 the Pentagon announced a tender for a land-based chopper (with 2 priorities – the ability to fight tanks and increased opposition to harm and destruction).
Five entities stood to fight for the order: Bell, a consortium of Boeing Vertol and Grumman, Hughes, Lockheed Corporation, Sikorsky. 2 proposals were selected for the final phase – Bell and Hughes, who were commissioned to build a prototype for military testing. As the first – 30 September 1975 – the Hughes prototype was blown up, which received the YAH-64A designation. Bell's competitive YAH-63A took its first flight 2 days later, on October 1, 1975. After respective months of testing, the U.S. Army selected YAH-64A as the winner of the rivalry and commissioned the construction of 3 pre-production copies that went into investigating in units in early 1981. The tests were completed at the end of 1982 and the first serial helicopters, already renamed AH-64 Apache, were commissioned in the US Army in 1984. Interestingly, the same year that the first unit, the 7th Battalion of the 17th Cavalry Brigade, began training on them, Hughes Helicopters company was taken over by McDonnell Douglas.
Subsequent generations
Apache's AH-64 helicopters were rapidly upgraded. Just a year after entering US Army service, it decided that these centrifuges must not only have fresh radar, but besides be adapted to usage the latest Hellfire AGM114L anti-tank missiles (guided at radar mark with Longbow Hellfire Modular rocket System). The scale of the modification was so large that the rotors received a fresh designation – AH-64 Apache Longbow.
Another specified a large package of improvements – including fresh optoelectronic systems, a fresh combat management system, a fresh engine and a crucial strengthening of the compartment – went to service in the mid-1990s and received the AH-64D designation. Tests by the U.S. Army have shown that this Apache model is 700 percent more effective and accurate than the first AH-64A and 400 percent more resistant to destruction.
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the American army reassigned Apache upgrades. The fresh model received the AH-64E Guardian designation and beyond the fresh and more powerful drive (two General electrical T700-701D engines with nearly 2,000 horsepower each) the device was to receive upgraded radar and a command and control system. In 2011, the U.S. Army decided that to the AH-64E standard The Guardian will be upgraded to 634 plays of the AH-64D model with nearly 700 that tiny ground troops there.
