The Most Vaunted Aerial Tank Killer is on a Song...
The deteriorating geopolitical security environment has led to a surge in defense spending globally over the recent years driving up sales of defense equipment. Boeing's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter program has received a new lease of life as the threat of armor grows further.
In the mid-1970s, while the clarion call for detente, de-escalation and disarmament were getting louder globally; the U.S. Army was looking for a new attack helicopter to replace its existing fleet of AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters built by Bell. In a fierce competition held between Bell and Hughes Helicopters, Hughes won with its prototype Model 77 which eventually became the U.S. Army's Apache in the early 1980s, which, via a long series of mergers & acquisitions entailing Vertol & McDonnell Douglas; became a part of Boeing in the late 1990s, the decade of defense consolidations for the Western defense industrial base.
Armed to the teeth with a 30mm M230 Chaingun along with 70mm Hydra rockets and lethal AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, the Apaches subsequently acquired a formidable reputation for anti-armor operations with a single Apache easily capable of decimating an entire column of armor in a head-on battle.
The latest surge in global defense spending, driven by the prevailing geopolitical chaos & revisionist waves blowing across regions as well as globally since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, have given a new lease of life to a number of legacy, Cold War-era defense programs which have seen a renewed interest globally. Apache is one such program which has seen a resurgence of sorts as of-late with a series of new, mega orders received by Boeing for it as the threat of armor returns to haunt policymakers and defense planners globally.
Recently, two key FMS contracts for the sale of Apaches to international allies & partners have been approved by the U.S. Government. These include, the sale of 36 AH-64 Apaches to South Korea worth $3.5 billion as South Korea builds its anti-armor capabilities to check North Korea's growing armor threat. Additionally, Poland, too, has ordered 96 Apaches worth $12.5 billion to deter aggression from Russian Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) into Eastern Europe. Polish Apaches deal, too, have just received the green light from the U.S. State Department. In 2023, the U.S. Army ordered almost 130 remanufactured Apaches from Boeing while Australia, too, chose Apache, after ditching the Airbus' Tiger platform, for its need for attack helicopters.
The latest string of orders, thus, have provided a new lease of life and will also extend the final assembly line for the Apache platform which will mark half-a-century of its maiden flight next year in 2025.
Thus, if the King of the Kill Zone, the MBT, is on a resurgence trajectory, the most vaunted aerial tank killer, too, is not far behind...
Image Credits: U.S. Army
