Other news stories

Military home page

The first of the aircraft were delivered to the Ministry of Defence earlier this year amid much publicity,
but plans for them to fly at the annual Famborough air show this month have been scrapped following "teething problems".

Instead, an American version is due to fly at the show - the biggest date in the aviation industry calendar - while a British model will be parked on the ground.

The  British  WAH-64 Apache was to have been demonstrated to the media at the Defence Evaluation
and Research Agency (Dera) site at Boscombe Down last week, but this was also abandoned. Aviation writers were invited to view an Apache on the ground.

A total of 67 Apaches have been ordered by the MoD in a £2.8 billion deal with Boeing, but only three have been delivered so far. The problems have occurred on aircraft being flight tested at Dera's site in Wiltshire.

In one incident an electrical short circuit in the windscreen-wiping system caused clouds of smoke to billow over the cockpit. The soldering on the electric circuit was later corrected.

In another, an Apache made an emergency landing in a field at Bulford Barracks next to the A303 in Wiltshire after an electronic warning signal reported traces of metal in the fuel system. The engine was later flushed out to remove any shards of metal that could have been left after manufacture.

The Apache, which can fly at about 200mph, is planned to be the key weapon in the Army's new 16 Air Assault Brigade and is expected to transform military tactics.  It is powered by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca engines. The British version is being assembled by GKN Westland in Yeovil, Somerset.

The arrangement helped to secure 3,000 UK jobs, even though US rather than British technology is being used. MoD officials played down the Apache difficulties as "minor niggles" which had now been cleared up. A spokesman said: "It's a new bit of kit and these things need to be teased out. These
were minor probleins which were quickly dealt with."

Industry insiders, however, are concerned that because the Apache is being built for the first time in the
UK, unforseen engineering problems could arise.  Nick Cook, of Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "The
UK Apaches are significantly different from the American version. You would anticipate some developmental difficulties."

There is no suggestion that there is a serious problem with the design of the aircraft, which has been used extensively by the US Army, and which provided devastating displays of firepower during the Gulf war.

The aircraft fired the first shots of Operation Desert Storm, blowing up radar sites behind Iraqi lines to
open a corridor for the first bombing raids on Baghdad.

The British-built model is designed to be a more potent version of the US Army's Boeing Apache Longbow. It will have the latest defensive aid suite, which allows it to detect enemy missile attacks and take counter-measures.

Its Longbow fire control radar allows the pilot to detect more than 1,000 targets at once.

The aircraft's Hellfire anti-tank missiles are capable of striking at heavily-armoured tanks from a range of nearly four miles and its CRV7 rockets can devastate light armour or unarmouredvehicles.

When the first Apache was delivered to the MoD in March, officials hailed it as a rare success for the ministry's much criticised procurement arm. The aircraft was delivered on time and on budget.
The first helicopters are expected to enter service in December and the last will be delivered by the end of 2003.

The Westland Apache (the British version) is a derivative of the Boeing Attack Helicopter AH-64. During
the Kosovo crisis last year, 24 American-built Apaches were stationed in Albania to bolster the Nato offensive. Despite widespread publicity around their arrival, the helicopters were not used because of the mountainous terrain and poor weather conditions. Two crashed during training exercises, killing two American crew members.

The WAH-64 Westland Apache has a more advanced radar system than the American model used in
Kosovo, enabling the aircraft to fly in bad weather.