Monday March 25, 2002
WAH-64D cannot fire missiles ?
UK Army's new helicopter cannot fire missiles
( by MICHAEL SMITH for news.telegraph.co.uk ) - The Army's new
Apache attack helicopter cannot fire its Hellfire anti-tank
missiles for fear that debris ejected on launching could cause
catastrophic damage
The problem is confirmed by a Ministry of Defence document
leaked to The Telegraph.
The MoD was unable to say how much damage could be caused. It was
working with the makers to solve the problem, officials said.
But defence sources said there were serious concerns that the
debris could damage the main or tail rotors, causing the helicopter
to crash.
The Army is buying 67 Apache helicopters at a cost of at least £27
million each. They are being built in Britain by Westland under
licence from the US manufacturers Boeing.
The US has restricted its Apache helicopters to firing missiles
only during wartime and to launching them only from the right-hand
side of the aircraft to try to ensure that the debris does not hit
the tail rotor which is on the left-hand side.
The WAH-64 Apache, which is due to take over the anti-tank role
currently performed by about a quarter of the Army's Challenger 2
tanks in three years' time, normally carries a total of eight
Hellfire missiles, four on each side.
The problem comes amid worrying signs from Afghanistan that the
helicopter, which is seen as providing devastating frontline
firepower, may not be as effective as was hoped, particularly in
hot, dusty conditions.
Five out of the seven Apache attack helicopters sent to attack
al-Qa'eda terrorists during Operation Anaconda two weeks ago were
disabled by machinegun fire or ancient Soviet RPG-7
rocket-propelled grenade launchers fired from the ground.
The five helicopters had to be taken back to the US base at Bagram,
north of Kabul, and replaced by new aircraft flown out from
America.
Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies, said yesterday that
there were also serious problems with sand and dust getting into
the engines.
"In northern Europe you would expect to have around 90 per cent
serviceability for these aircraft," he said. "But we are hearing
reports that in Afghanistan it may be as low as 60 per cent."
The introduction of the Army Air Corp's first operational Apache
squadron has already been delayed by at least eight months by
software problems with the Full Mission simulator that will train
the pilots.
The Apache problem is the latest in a series of embarrassing
equipment problems to hit the forces. The SA-80 rifle had to be
modified at a cost of £80 million after it consistently jammed on
operations in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.
And the 12-year Bowman project to replace Army radio sets that
dated back to the Falklands was abandoned 18 months ago. Soldiers
operating in the Balkans were forced to use their mobile telephones
to contact each other.
During the Kosovo campaign the RAF ran out of precision guided
weapons that could bomb through clouds.
http://www.helis.com/news/2002/wah64debris.htm
