As a recently retired Apache Instructor of some experience on both Alphas and Longbows I feel I have the cred to put to rest some of the bull$hit eminating from the darker blue jobs. Heliaviator you are so far out of touch its laughable! Young AAC Pilots today are of a much higher calibre than as recently as 5 years ago. They have an aptitude that suits the modern 3 dimensional battlefield perfectly and do you know what, rank means nothing today as far as ablility and aptitude is concerned; they are all from the same technical generation. So quit the sour and sad grapes its quite pathetic.
The AH training and fielding is proceeding quietly, professionally and will produce high calibre modern AH crews who can operate the Ac effectively from either seat. Fast jet Navs who aspire to upgrade to the AH need to be Pilots first and arguably the reason they are Navs is that they didn't make the grade. Someone correct me if that isn't the case and I will retract.
Time will tell!