The first of 28 Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbows to be remanufactured to the latest AH-64E v6 Apache Guardian standard was rolled out for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, on 25 October. (Netherlands MoD)
The first AH-64E Apache Guardian for the Netherlands was rolled out at Boeing's Mesa production facility in Arizona, on 25 October.
The Dutch Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced the milestone, noting that it had received the logbook for the first AH-64E Version 6 (v6) for the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) ahead of the helicopter's anticipated transfer to the Netherlands Defence Helicopter Command.
News of the implementation came five months to the day after it was reported the first Dutch AH-64D Apache Longbow had been inducted into the AH-64E remanufacturing line in the US, and about three-and-a-half years after the US Department of State approved the remanufacture of the 28 Dutch Apaches in February 2018.
In its approval, the state department noted that the USD1.191 billion project would include cross-decking those already paid for and expensive items such as the AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation Sights (MTADS)/AN/AAR-11 Modernized Pilot Night Vision Sensors (PNVS), that are common to the AH-64D Block 2 and AH-64E standard, over from the current airframes onto newly built airframes, while at the same time replacing those items that are not common to the two standards, such as the latest T700-GE-701D engines. The introduction of the new engines means that the mast-mounted sight can be carried during ‘hot and high' operations, when earlier it had to be removed because of weight restrictions.
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