Maritime Mode Radar Planned for Army's AH-64E Apache

The latest and most capable version of the U.S. Army’s Apache attack helicopter could possibly take on more of a role in joint operations with the Navy. Among planned upgrades, the fire-control radar of the AH-64E Guardian will be enhanced to work in the littoral environment close to shore, said the service’s Apache project manager.

“We’ll extend the radar and we will also broaden its bandwidth to pick up littoral small ships [and] large ships during different sea states,” Col. Jeffrey Hager told reporters October 13 during the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The software-based maritime targeting mode upgrade is part of a production Lot 6 “capability insertion” the service plans for the AH-64E. This includes updating the software of the Apache’s unmanned aircraft tactical common datalink assembly, or UTA, which it uses to control the MQ-1C Gray Eagle and RQ-7 Shadow UAVs. The schedule calls for final operational test and evaluation of the enhancements in March 2017.

Meanwhile, pilots with the second Army unit equipped with AH-64Es, the 1st Armed Reconaissance Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Carson, Colo., conducted deck-landing qualification flights on the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu off the coast of Hawaii in July, the first time AH-64Es operated to a ship. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Army Pacific commanding general, said Army helicopters including Apaches “did several hundred deck landings” during the Rim of the Pacific 2014 exercise from late June to August 1.

The first unit equipped with the Guardian, the 1-229th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, was starting to withdraw from Afghanistan, Hager said.

In March, the Army awarded Boeing a $1.15 billion contract for full-rate production of 10 new-build and 72 remanufactured AH-64Es, comprising production lots 3 and 4. The Apache program wants to persuade the Department of Defense to support a multi-year procurement contract in Fiscal Year 2016 to build toward the AH-64E program of record of 690 helicopters. “We are absolutely focused with the customer and our supply chain partners on securing the multi-year,” Kim Smith, Boeing vice president of attack helicopter programs, told reporters. “It goes without saying the win-win benefit that that will provide.”

Separately, Lockheed Martin announced on October 13 that it received a $90.6 million foreign military sales contract from the Army to provide its modernized target acquisition designation sight/pilot night-vision sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) for the Qatar Emiri Air Force, which has ordered 24 AH-64E Apaches with the targeting and piloting assembly. The contract extends production of the systems in Orlando and Ocala, Fla., through 2017, the company said.