Seen during an earlier media demonstration near its Mesa production facility in Arizona, the AH-6i is to shortly be discontinued. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
Boeing is to end production of its AH-6i light attack and reconnaissance rotorcraft once orders for the type's latest customer are completed.
Senior director, business development for vertical lift at Boeing, Mark Ballew, told Janes and other defence media on 26 February that the company's ‘Little Bird' line in Mesa, Arizona, will be shuttered as soon as the eight helicopters now on order for Thailand are built.
“We will cease production on the AH-6i, once we've got Thailand down the line. Right now, unless there's another country that comes immediately and says, ‘Hey, we want the AH-6i today,' [it will end],” Ballew said at the IQPC International Military Helicopter (IMH) 2025 conference in London.
Ballew did not expand on why this decision had been taken at this time, but with only the Saudi Arabian National Guard and Royal Thai Army buying 32 helicopters between them Boeing appears to have decided that the market for substantial further orders is not there.
Launched in 2009 in the wake of the US Army's aborted Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) programme, the AH-6i was designed by Boeing to meet the needs of those countries that either could not afford or did not require the capabilities of a dedicated attack helicopter such as the company's AH-64 Apache.
In its guise as a light/heavy attack, security and escort, troop insertion, reconnaissance, and combat search-and-rescue platform, the AH-6i was equipped with an electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor turret, and configured to carry a range of unguided and guided air-to-surface weapons including the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire precision missile.
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