UAE displays upgraded Apache AH-64D Block II

Boeing has completed work bringing the United Arab Emirates’ fleet of 30 Apache attack helicopters up to AH-64D Block II configuration, it has been announced. Speaking at the Dubai Helishow, Boeing director for rotorcraft business development, Mike Burke, said the company had remanufactured all 30 of the aircraft, which now feature the Longbow fire control radar and new fire control system. The UAE Army displayed one of its AH-64D Apaches at the static display here at the show. As well as the Longbow radar, the Apache fleet now incorporates the Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) electro-optical fire-control system and AGM-114L3 Hellfire II laser-guided missile. Burke said the upgrade to the fleet, carried out under a contract with Boeing that was signed in 2006, was made possible by the ‘plug and play’ nature of the Apache.Boeing was awarded a $247 million contract on 22 October for the initial production of eight Apache Block III aircraft, with the delivery of the first scheduled for October 2011.

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Posted in: Helicopter,UAE