APACHE/APACHE LONGBOW TEAM INFO (Source

The AH-64A Apache (Apache Team, AMSTA-LC-CSAA) received it's production go-ahead in March 1982. The Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) (formerly Hughes) AH-64A Apache is the Army's primary attack helicopter. The McDonnell Douglas Apache is regarded as the most lethal and survivable helicopter in military aviation history. It is designed to fight and survive during the day, night, and in adverse weather throughout the world. It is equipped with a Target Acquisition Designation Sight (TADS), laser range finder/designator (LRF/D), and a Pilot Night Vision Sensor (PNVS), that allow the two-man crew to navigate and attack in darkness and in adverse weather conditions at extended standoff ranges. The Apache has a full range of aircraft survivability equipment and has the ability to withstand hits from rounds as large 23mm, in critical areas. The Apache's primary mission is to destroy high-value targets with Hellfire anti-tank missiles. It also is capable of employing the M230 30mm chain gun and Hydra 70 (70mm, 2.75-inch) rockets that are lethal against a wide variety of targets in the ground support and armed escort missions. Rockets are fired from the M261 19-tube rocket launcher. The Apache has a four-bladed articulated rotor system. Both the AH-64A Apache and AH-64D Apache Longbow are powered by two General Electric T700-GE-701 1698 shp turboshaft engines.

The AH-64D Apache Longbow (Apache Longbow Team, AMSTA-LC-CSAL) is an improved variation of the AH-64A Apache aircraft modified to integrate the mast mounted Longbow fire control radar with the Hellfire Missile System. Longbow is the result of a development and acquisition program for a millimeter wave radar air/ground targeting system capable of being used in day or night, in adverse weather, and through battlefield obscurants.

In operational tests along side the AH-64A Apache at Ft. Hunter, California in 1995, it was determined that the AH-64D Apache Longbow is four times more lethal and seven times more survivable the the AH-64A Apache. The U.S. Army took delivery of its first production model AH-64D at the Boeing Co. (formerly McDonnell Douglas) facility in Mesa, Arizona on 21 Mar 97.

Longbow's digitized target acquisition system can automatically locate and classify more than 128 potential targets and prioritize the 16 most dangerous targets based on an on-board computer "library". It can then hand-off targeting information to other Apache and Comanche helicopters, and attack, all within less than 30 seconds after initiating the radar scan. Other improvements over the AH-64A include additional power, expanded avionics bays, upgraded processors, integrated avionics, MANPRINT crew stations, and improved data modems that allow secure situation and target data transfer on the digital battlefield.

Longbow will significantly enhance situational awareness of both friendly and enemy air and ground dispositions through secure voice and digital data burst information exchanges to both air (for example, other AH-64Ds Longbows, RAH-66 Comanches, F-15s/F-16s, Joint-STARS) and ground assets by using the jointly developed improved data modem and the communication suite. The modernized Apache heavy attack team now will be able to provide a truly "coordinated" rapid-fire (16 separate targets within one minute) capability to the maneuver force commander on a 24-hour basis in day, night, and adverse weather conditions.

* EXTRACT from "Tapes show division firing first shots of war" by Rob Dollar, KENTUCKY NEW ERA Staff Writer

On January 17, 1991, four MH-53 Pave Low III helicopters from the 20th Special Operations Squadron led two flights of Apaches to make the first strike of the war. Pilots of the two flights, eight AH-64A Apache attack helicopters of 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) fired the first shots of Operation Desert Storm. Code named "Normandy", in rememberance of the 101st "Screaming Eagles" airborne operation during World War II, the dangerous mission consisted of simultaneous attacks designed to knock-out two key early-warning radar installations in western Iraq at precisely 0238 hours, January 17, 1991. Both radar sites, each hit by a team of four Apaches, were destroyed within a time span of 4 ½ minutes. Each pilot's primary target became the secondary target for adjacent Apache team members.

The first combat mission of the gulf war was launched at 1300 hours January 17th from a staging airfield in western Saudi Arabia, with the two teams of Apaches flying about 90 minutes to the two radar sites about 35 miles apart. The Apache crews observed a radio blackout until 10 seconds before unleashing up to 27 Hellfire missiles that destroyed 16 to 18 targets at each site.

The near perfect mission opened a 20 mile wide corridor all the way into Baghdad, Iraq. Moments later, some 100 U.S. Air Force jets streaked across the border for an undetected bombing run on Baghdad that marked the start of Operation Desert Storm's punishing air war. By the end of the day 900 coalition aircraft passed through the corridor.

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