AAC Apaches ready to go - nearly
From the thunderer - what a shambles:
AFTER a decade of design problems and delays, and at a cost of more than £4 billion, just four of the British Army’s 67 Apache attack helicopters will be ready for full-time operations this summer.
However, it seems unlikely that the Ministry of Defence will want to risk such a small force in any hostile environment.
The arrival of the Apache, the most formidable weapon system ever flown by the Army Air Corps, will transform the Army’s whole doctrine on manoeuvre warfare, according to Brigadier Richard Folkes, Director of Army Aviation.
By the summer an operational unit consisting of four Apaches and two Lynx helicopters will be merged into 16 Air Assault Brigade — Britain’s answer, on a much smaller scale, to the American 101st “Screaming Eagles” Division. Next year a full battle group of 16 Apaches and eight Lynxes will be operational, but it will take until 2007 for the whole Apache force to reach full war-ready status. The Apache programme began in the early 1990s.
Concern about using the first four Apaches in anything but a benign environment was underlined by the experience of the Americans in the war in Iraq. In its first mission of the war, the US 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, with more than 30 Apaches, was forced to retreat after flying into a hail of Iraqi small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. One Apache was shot down. Even though the other Apaches, all of which were hit, returned safely to base, the operation was a blow to the reputation of a mighty war machine that was sent to Iraq to destroy Iraqi tanks.
However, Brigadier Folkes said at the Army Air Corps headquarters at Middle Wallop, Hampshire, that it was tactics, not the helicopter, that were at fault. Apaches, he said, should not operate in isolation but as part of an overall land-manoeuvre strategy in which all elements, including troops and armour, should be involved in the same mission. Subsequently in the Iraq war, US Apaches played a leading part in destroying armour.
The first British Apache pilots, from 656 Squadron 9 Regiment Army Air Corps, are now training at a new centre at Middle Wallop which includes two giant simulators for practising attack helicopter war missions.
The training programme for 168 pilots, as well as ground crew and maintenance staff, is costing £1.1 billion under a Private Finance Initiative scheme involving a company called Aviation Training International. The 67 GKN-Westland Apaches, with advanced Longbow radar, a huge array of weapons and support programmes, are costing £3 billion.
Although the simulators are acknowledged as world-beating training facilities, they were the main cause of the delay in the programme. The MoD ordered them late and because the software proved to be more challenging than had been expected, there was a delay of 18 months.
There were also technical problems with the helicopter itself. In a report last October, the National Audit Office revealed that debris from the powerful CRV7 rockets and Hellfire anti-tank missiles was flying back into the rear stabiliser and causing damage. There were also communications problems with linking pilots to ground commander