FLUG REVUE July 2005: AH-64D Apache Longbow developments

July 2005

AH-64D UPGRADES UNDER WAY

By Karl Schwarz

The numbers speak for themselves: twice the range, reliability 150 percent higher, maintenance effort down by 60 percent, plus savings in operating costs of almost a billion dollars over a period of 20 years. Everyone is talking about Arrowhead, the AH-64’s state-of-the-art target acquisition and designation sight/pilot night vision system. The process of installing it in the US Army’s Apache and Apache Longbows commenced in June, and by 2011 704 of the attack helicopters should have been fitted with the system. “We have been needing these capabilities for some time,” says Lieutenant Colonel Shane Openshaw from the US Army’s Apache Program Office, “as they will enable us to detect and attack the enemy at distances that simply are not possible today.” The system will finally allow the range potential of the Hellfire guided missile (approx. 8km) to be fully utilised.

AH-64D Apache Longbow

Arrowhead’s design has a similar architecture to the original Target Acquisition and Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS), but uses electronics modules based on the latest technology. This applies especially to the thermal imager (FLIR), which has three levels of zoom and is capable of tracking several targets at once. Moreover, the lower half of the rotatable nose turret contains a laser rangefinder, a laser spot tracker and a CCD TV camera. Instead of looking through an optics system, the gunner sitting in the front cockpit now views the sensor imagery on a liquid crystal display.
The upper half containing the night vision systems for the pilot accommodates a FLIR and a CCD TV camera with night vision intensifier. Special processing algorithms lend the sensor imagery a much greater sharpness of detail and thus facilitate the detection of obstacles at low altitude.

Arrowhead was selected for the Apache in 2000. Flight testing commenced at the beginning of November 2003, after extensive laboratory tests. The order for the first production batch of 55 units worth $260 million (Euro207 million) arrived the same month. 19 of these are earmarked for the US Army and the rest for export customers, including the Netherlands, Greece, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The contract for production batch 2 (97 systems worth $247 million/Euro237 million) was signed in mid-February 2005. Delivery of these systems will commence in July 2006. This could be followed by a single multi-year order for a further 612 units, with deliveries spread over four years.

Now that integration of the new sensor in the nose has been dealt with, Boeing is turning its attention to Block III, the next stage of the Apache upgrade programme. Studies on this have been under way for years, in the course of which the requirements and priorities of the US Army have changed frequently. According to the requirements laid down in the 2006 budget, Block III will now comprise the following components:

Open system architecture for the avionics so as to facilitate integration with other elements of the Army’s Future Combat System. To this end, the Apache is to be fitted with communication systems such as the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) with higher data rate permitting the exchange of information about the battlefield situation.
System management systems with artificial intelligence to relieve crew workload, for example, in connection with target detection (Cognitive Decision Aiding System)
Capability to control the sensors of unmanned air vehicles and their flight route (referred to as “Level IV capabilities”)
Greater range for the Longbow radar (16km instead of 8km)
New rotor blades made from composite materials. The improved profile of these blades means that an extra 150kg of ayload can be carried. Their service life is also a lot longer.
Modified gearbox, which can accommodate an output of up to 2,530kW (3,400shp) (up from 2,130kW)
General Electric T700-GE-701D engines with FADEC, as will be used on the future UH-60M Black Hawk. These offer around four percent more power.

US Army Aviation’s latest modernisation plan provides for Apaches to be upgraded to Block III standard from 2010. First of all, around 285 AH-64D’s of Block I standards are to be upgraded by 2015, although not all the improvements will yet be available for the first machines.

To ensure that the Boeing plant in Mesa is not be without work in the meantime, the US Army plans to release $546 million (Euro435 million) for the upgrade of a further 96 AH-64A’s to D standard (Block II). In addition, 13 new helicopters could be procured to replace losses in the Iraq war. Deliveries would commence in March 2007.
Boeing is hoping that the gap between production of the last of 501 AH-64D’s so far ordered for the US Army in July 2006 and production batch 11 can be bridged by work for export customers. The latest customer to receive the AH-64D Longbow Apache was Israel. On 10 April, the Hornissen squadron of the Israel Defence Force/Air Force (IDF/AF) at Ramon airbase officially became operational once more with the first three helicopters. They were flown out from Mesa in an Antonov An-124. These machines are new-build AH-64D-I’s, eight of which have been ordered. Ten further Apache Longbows, which in Israel are designated the Saraf (the name of a poisonous snake), are to be created through modification of existing AH-64A’s (designation Peten).

Israel is equipping its Sarafs with some special systems of its own. These include equipment for electronic self-protection from Elisra, including a missile warning system and a laser warning system. On top of this, Elbit is supplying a mission management system, Rafael a datalink and Elta a satellite radio.

Egypt too has been having its 35 AH-64A’s upgraded to D standard at Boeing since March 2004. By the spring, about half of the order placed in November 2001 had been processed. The Egyptian Apache Longbows do not have a radar on the rotor.

Starting this year, Singapore is to take delivery of a dozen AH-64D’s. These were the subject of a second order dating from August 2001. Eight helicopters have already been delivered since May 2002. These have been used to deliver pilot training, with support from the US Army National Guard in Marana, Arizona (“Peace Vanguard”).

Also pending are deliveries to Kuwait, which placed an order for 16 helicopters at the beginning of September 2002. Finally, starting in 2007, Greece is to receive a dozen new-build AH-64D’s, which were ordered in September 2003.

As usual, Japan is a special case. It selected the Apache Longbow over the Bell Cobra in August 2001, but so far it has only ordered six out of a total of perhaps 60 helicopters. Two of these are being built and tested in Mesa, the rest are being assembled from delivered components under licence at Fuji Heavy Industries, with an extremely low production rate of only two or three helicopters per year.

The prospects for further international orders are difficult to assess at present. The manufacturer at any rate sees a potential requirement for a further 200 helicopters. At all events, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are candidates for upgrade programmes and have at least requested information. Boeing has its sights set on South Korea and Taiwan as possible new customers. Having broken off negotiations for the purchase of AH-1 Cobras and issued a new invitation to tender for an attack helicopter in February of this year, Turkey is another possibility.

In the long-term, that is, the middle of the next decade, the US Army could initiate a new round of improvements for its AH-64D’s. New, significantly more powerful engines in the power rating class of 2,235kW (3,000 shp) are being considered for the Block IV standard. As far as avionics are concerned, Boeing has in mind a continual modernisation process that will enable it to respond more quickly to changes in the operational requirements. “We are always thinking about new technologies that could help us, for example, to detect car bombs or control a rebellious mob with non-lethal weapons,” said Hugh M. Dimmery, responsible for international marketing, in an interview with FLUG REVUE. “One major issue in Iraq is improved protection of convoys. This would require a longer flight duration. Under the Future Combat System, we will have to work together with unmanned air vehicles.”

Given that the US Army has terminated the Comanche programme, the Apache will probably remain in service until at least 2030. Until then, plenty of challenges will no doubt face the “best attack helicopter in the world”, the prototypes for which first flew 30 years ago.

From FLUG REVUE 7/2005

Last updated 10 June 2005

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