MCDONNELL DOUGLAS AH-64A/D Apache

TYPE:

• Day/night twin-engined anti-tank and battlefield support attack helicopter.

PROGRAMME:

• The original Hughes Model 77 first entered for US Army advanced attack helicopter (AAH) competition.
• This required a machine that could operate in and fight from a front-line environment, and would be suitable for the day/night/adverse-weather anti-armour role.
• Bell and Hughes were selected to build the competeing prototypes. on December 10, 1976, Hughes was declared the winner.
• First flights of two development prototype YAH-64s took place on September 30 and November 22, 1975.
• later named Apache in late 1981.
• It was not until March 26, 1982 that final production approval was given with the issue of a US Army contract for an initial batch of 11 AH-64A Apache helicopters.
• Deliveries started on January 26, 1984 and the 800th delivered on July 1993.
• Self-deployment capability shown by 14th Apache with four 871 litre (230 US gallon; 191 Imp gallon) external tanks, which flew 1,020 n miles (1,891 km; 1,175 miles).
• The first combat use (11 AH-64As) was in operation Just Cause, Panama, in December 1989.
• Also used extensively (288) during January/February 1991 in the Gulf War against Iraq.
• Apaches were also recently used in NATO's Operation Allied Force, battle in Kosovo. Apaches were lost in this operation due to pilot error, running into a tree.

DESIGN FEATURES:

• The fuselage is carried on fixed tail-wheel landing gear, the main units can fold to reduce height for storage/transport and has seats in tandem.
• There is extensive armour protection and provision is made for high-impact landings.
• AH-64 is required to continue flying for 30 minutes after being hit by 12.7 mm bullets coming from anywhere in the lower hemisphere plus 20°, also survives 23 mm hits in many parts.
• Target acquisition and designation system (TADS) and pilot night vision system (PNVS) sensors are mounted in the nose.
• The PNVS incorporates FLIR for night vision while the TADS combines TV camera, laser tracker and laser ranger/designator.
• In concert with an inertial altitude/heading reference system, Doppler navigation and other advanced items, these allow the cerw to fly nap-of-the-Earth under any and all weather conditions.
• Chin-mounted Chain Gun fed from ammunition bay in centre-fuselage, four weapon pylons on stub wings (six when air-to-air capability is installed).
• Engines widely separated, with integral particle separators and built-in exhaust cooling fittings.
• Four-blade main rotor with lifting aerofoil blade section and swept tips, blades can be folded or easily removed, tail rotor consists of two teetering two-blade units crossed at 55° to reduce noise.
• The airframe meets full crash-survival specifications.
• Two AH-64s will fit in a C-141, six in C-5 and three in C-17A.
• The AH-64B is the upgrade of 254 AH-64As with target hand-off capability, secure radio, GPS, improved navigation system and new rotor blades.
• The AH-64C is the upgrade of 308 AH-64As to a standard near to that of the AH-64D with the exception of the Lonbow radar.
• The AH-64D includes uprated T700-GE-701C engines and a MIL-1553B digital databus for integration of a mast-mounted Longbow millimetric-wave-length radar and Hellfire RF missiles.

POWER PLANT:

• Two 1,265 kW (1,696 shp) General Electric T700-GE-701 turboshafts, derated for normal operations to provide reserve power for combat emergencies, and with automatic OEI rating of 1,285 kW (1,723 shp).
• -701C engines were later used from 604th AH-64A and onward (1990), giving 1,409 kW (1,890 shp) maximum continuous and 1,447 kW (1,940 shp) OEI.
• Engines mounted one on each side of fuselage, above wings, with key components armour-protected.
• Two crash-resistant fuel cells in fuselage, combined capacity of 1,421 litres (375 US gallons; 312 Imp gallons).
• Modifications were ordered in September 1993 for carriage of four 871 litre (230 US gallon; 192 Imp gallon) Brunswick Corporation external tanks on 437 Apaches.
• Total internal and external fuel is: 4,910 litres (1,295 US gallons; 1,078 Imp gallons).
• 'Blacck Hole' IR suppression system protects aircraft from heat-seeking missiles.

ARMAMENT:

• McDonnell Douglas M230 Chain Gun 30 mm automatic cannon, located between the mainwheel legs in an underfuselage mounting with Smiths Industries electronic controls.
• Normal rate of fire is 625 rds/min of HE or HEDP (high-explosive dual-purpose) ammunition, which is interoperable with NATO Aden/DEFA 30 mm ammunition.
• Maximum ammunition load is 1,200 rounds.
• New 'Sideloader' system demonstrated in June 1994 cuts normal loading time of 20 minutes by half and reduces number of personnel required, from two to one.
• Gun mounting is designed to collapse into fuselage between pilots in the event of a crash landing.
• Four underwing hardpoints, with Aircraft Hydro-Forming pylons and ejector units, on which can be carried up to 16 Hellfire anti-tank missiles or up to seventy-six 2.75 in FFAR (folding fin aerial rockets) in their launchers or a combination of Hellfires and FFAR.
• Planned modification adds two extra hardpoints for four Stinger, four Mistral or two Sidewinder missiles.
• Co-pilot/gunner (CPG) has primary responsibility for firing gun and missiles, but pilot can override his controls to fire gun or launch missiles.