The US's most advanced Apache attack helicopter is losing its battlefield edge

Business Insider

2 days ago

A US Army official said the Apache helicopter faces threats that may reduce its battlefield prowess.
Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan said the older Apache AH-64D is no longer a "war-winning capability."
Efforts are focused on upgrading the latest Echo model to integrate it with drone technology.
The US's formidable Apache attack helicopter is increasingly under threat on future battlefields, a top US Army official said this week.
Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan, the US Army's deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training, described how and why the Army is phasing out older versions of the Apache, and modernizing the most recent variant.
The older AH-64D, which is now into its third decade of service, "is not a war-winning capability that we can fight with and win today," Ryan said at a conference at the Center for a New American Security.
The Delta model has also become prohibitively expensive to fly and operate, he added.
Even the most recent upgrades to the AH-64E — the most advanced Apache helicopter — "are also on the cusp of being capabilities where we don't necessarily see them contributing to the fight the way they have done perhaps in the past," Ryan said.
Apache attack helicopters have the speed and firepower to destroy an enemy's fortified positions or to rout an ambush on friendly positions, but they are increasingly threatened by the proliferation of accurate air defenses.
Ukraine battlefield issues
First introduced into Army service in 1986, the Apache has long been one of the most — or even the most — feared multi-role attack helicopters.
Armed with a 30mm chain gun and Hellfire anti-tank missiles, Apaches dominated the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, upgraded air defenses and cyber tactics capable of interfering with the Apache's complex digital systems may end its reign as an apex predator that can support ground forces.
Meanwhile, although the Apache's Hellfire missiles have successfully taken down drones in exercises, drones have also been known to return the compliment. Either way, the shift towards uncrewed systems has prompted a rethink of the helicopter's dominance overall.
At the CNAS conference, Ryan alluded to a recent classified call between top military brass that gave a bleak picture of how comparable Ukrainian and Russian helicopters had fared in Ukraine.
"I'll leave it to your imagination about the effectiveness of those platforms on the battlefield over there today," he said, but added, "Extremely limited. Extremely limited."
This would include the Russian Kamov Ka-52 "Alligator" — long considered a close rival to the Apache — which, despite its advancements, has been repeatedly shot down. Both sides are armed with modern air defenses that have limited the operations of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, turning the war into a slug-it-out ground fight that plays to Russia's numerical advantages in soldiers and artillery.
Open-source intelligence site Oryx has identified 64 Ka-52s damaged or destroyed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Upgrading the Apache
Ryan's statements came amid an efficiency drive at the Pentagon aimed at building what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called "a leaner, more lethal force."
In April, Hegseth directed Pentagon leadership to take on a wide-ranging transformation of the armed forces, including moving to "reduce and restructure manned attack helicopter formations and augment with inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries."
At the CNAS conference, Ryan said that "we just simply spread ourselves too thin, and now we're making a bold correction again."
As part of this, the retirement of Delta-model Apaches is being accelerated, with only the latest Echo model being focused on for modernization. Personnel tasked with maintaining and flying the older aircraft are to be transferred to the newer formations, in what will be a welcome staffing boost, Ryan said.
The AH-64E features more powerful engines as well as flares designed to fool heat-seeking missiles.
Nonetheless, according to manufacturer Boeing, demand for the latest Apache variant remains strong worldwide, and efforts to make it work more closely with drones, known as Manned-Unmanned Teaming, or MUM-T, have been underway for a decade.