WASHINGTON — The US Army is weighing a future block upgrade to its AH-64E Apaches, although whether that will entail a purchase of an "F" model or remanufacturing current aircraft has yet to be decided, a service official said Monday.
The Army is set to obtain 690 "Echo" models through either new production or remanufacturing old AH-64Ds, which would take Apache production out until 2026, said Col. Jeff Hager, the service's program manager. However, it may need to buy new Apaches or modernize the current model to bridge the gap between the AH-64 program and Future Vertical Lift (FVL), the future rotorcraft planned to eventually replace it.
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"What we're looking at right now is that timeline in between there, how long the timeline is if FVL stays where it's at, comes back or goes to the right," Hager told reporters during a briefing. Depending on the timing, "we're going to have to make a decision on whether to maintain or make this aircraft more capable."
Among the upgrades currently under consideration are an improved radar, forward-looking infrared sensor and a new helmet, he said.
The Army has already started taking its first steps for procuring some of those capabilities, said Richard Tyler, the service’s deputy project manager. The program office released a request for information last year for a next-generation radar and has received industry input.
"We are evaluating the responses currently based on what the technological readiness levels are of those systems, as well as what requirements the TRADOC capabilities manager defines as what he wants in the next generation of systems," he said. A request for proposals will likely be issued "sometime in the next few years."
Boeing is confident that the service will need to modernize its Apaches before acquiring FVL, said Kim Smith, the company’s vice president of attack helicopters.
"With the current assumptions and projections, it’s felt very strongly that there will be another run of the Apache prior to Future Vertical Lift," she said. "The technological advancements that we’re studying — some of which have been mentioned — in collaboration with the government or other industry partners to make sure we bring the best technology to bear while we continue to drive affordability. We do have a very methodical approach to how we do that."
Boeing, which is partnered with Sikorsky, is one of the competitors vying to win the FVL program, which starts in the 2019 time frame. The Sikorsky-Boeing team plan to base their offering on the SB-1 Defiant aircraft that will fly in the joint multirole demonstration program, but investments in Apache upgrades could also help to de-risk FVL, Smith said.
Valerie Insinna is Defense News' air warfare reporter. She previously worked the Navy/congressional beats for Defense Daily, which followed almost three years as a staff writer for National Defense Magazine. Prior to that, she worked as an editorial assistant for the Tokyo Shimbun’s Washington bureau.
