Posted on 10/29/2015 10:34:26 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The Republic of China Army Aviation (RoCAA; Taiwan) has extreme difficulties keeping its 29 new AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters airborne. Part of the problem is a discovered material failure due to faulty production by Boeing.
The American manufacturer of the legendary attack helicopter is using a new aluminum-magnesium alloy for the tail rotor gearbox and this material seems to be the reason of corrosion in salty and humid climates such as in Taiwan. Nine AH-64Es are grounded because of this issue, while Boeing technicians are trying to find a solution but for now just advising ill-tested short-term measures. Another 12 helicopters stay on the tarmac since there are insufficient spare parts to keep them airborne, sources inside the Taiwanese military confirmed. This leaves only eight choppers operational in a country under constant threat by mainland China.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that corrosion woes with AH-64E Apache helicopters have led to the aircraft’s grounding, and Boeing, the US manufacturer, has dispatched a special task force to help identity and fix the problem.
The Apache Guardian is so far a very unsuccessful story in Japan. On 25 April 2014 one RoCAA AH-64E crashed into a house reducing the number of aircraft immediately to 29 shortly after purchase. Taiwanese Apaches were grounded for a while as well after a problem with the main transmission was discovered on US Army versions.
When the RoCAA can really make use of all its AH-64Es is still unknown.
No tranny, no flight.. Surprised this just now was revealed..
Reminds me of the moldy old days
I wonder if this is deliberate? If there are ‘delays’ getting them fixed, we will know for certain.
Used to be that materials were tested to the point of redundancy before being used in civilian, let alone military, aviation.
What’s our relationship ... our agreement ... with Taiwan ?
Given the current leadership, our official relationship with Taiwan doesn’t matter. The Obama Regime would sell them out in a second.
Shoddy Chinese parts?
Wait until China “blockades” the US with a single phone call to their own people: “Stop our trucks. Stop our trains. Stop our cranes. Stop our tugs. Shut our ports down.”
What do we do? Attack China to force China to open up its trade with us?
Oh the irony. When “Made in the USA” is a sign of poor quality...to the Japanese.
It’s difficult to imagine a modern alloy gear box casing corroding to the point of failure. You’d think the crew chief could be tasked with applying some sort of corrosion protection with each daily inspection.
Under normal conitions the alum/mag would be fine but the salty environment is no good with magnesium. Salt loves mag, and when mag parts get into sea water it can be gone very quickly, days sometimes.
There are several ways to correct this. Most expeditiously a good coating of Glyptal Red paint. Another alternative would be a new non mag alloy with a nice hard anodizing.
The best thing would be to fire the dumbass who let magnesium get around salt water for use as anything but a sacrificial anode.
I agree totally. I don’t remember us using the Apache in sea operations, just the sand and dirt. I remember the media saying our stuff would not function properly in the desert sands and heat of the middle east. Surprise,worked fine.
I remember talking to an American Airlines captain that flew Apaches in GWI and he said it was a turkey shoot on Saddams tanks. Of course he said they could have done the same thing against any tanks, including ours.
First sentence 4th paragraph of the story:
The Apache Guardian is so far a very unsuccessful story in Japan. On 25 April 2014
Then the typo is in the original story. Taiwan is not Japan.
You're right - probably poor aircraft maintenance practices.
Nobody does aircraft maintenance like the west (US, Brits, Germans, etc)
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