[JudgeAmint]

Ah-64A Specifications

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Length: Height: Wing Span:	58.17 ft (17.73 m) 15.24 ft (4.64 m) 17.15 ft (5.23 m)
Primary Mission Gross Weight   15,075 lb (6838 kg)	Standard Day	Hot Day ISA + 15C
Hover In-Ground Effect (MRP)	15,895 ft (4845 m)	14,845 ft (4525 m)
Hover Out-of-Ground Effect (MRP)	12,685 ft (3866 m)	11,215 ft (3418 m)
	Sea Level Standard Day	Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)
Vertical Rate of Climb (MRP)	2,175 fpm (663 mpm)	2,050 fpm (625 mpm)
Maximum Rate of Climb (IRP)	2,915 fpm (889 mpm)	2,890 fpm (881 mpm)
Maximum Level Flight Speed	150 kt (279 kph)	153 kt (284 kph)
Cruise Speed (MCP)	150 kt (279 kph)	153 kt (284 kph)

[JudgeAmint]

[ChiefKujo]

Your picture is of an AH-64D Longbow, not an Alpha model. People get confused because only 1/3rd of Longbows have the distinctive radome over the main rotor blades.

Chief

[ChiefKujo]

Comments only on the first picture, the next ones are right.

[_Jim]

Nota Bene: I would view ANYTHING Hack says with a GREAT deal of suspician when it comes to his evaluating modern day equipment, systems OR tactics ...

[1rudeboy]

Great. Send your best into the ---t, only to have somebody write about how it got shot-up.

[MississippiMan]

If there are any chopper pilots around, what do the 'hover in ground effect' and 'hover out of ground effect' specs mean? I hold a private pilot's ticket, but strictly fixed wing and that spec intrigued me.

MM

[Psycho_Bunny]

I was horribly disappointed in Coronal Hackworth the last time I heard him live; he was virtually freaking-out on Hugh Hewitt's show.  This article seems like the Hackworth I used to really like reading.

Is this a accurate portrayal of the Apache? 

Ping to Army FReeper Peepers.

[mikegi]

I agree somewhat with Hack, for a change. Can someone explain to me the problems our Apaches had in Afghanistan and Iraq? I've never been in the military and don't know a whole alot about helicopter tactics and all my info comes from the media. Having said all that, here's my understanding of the two problem encounters:

1) In Anaconda, something like 9 out of 10 Apaches sent in to support the troops got kicked out of action (no losses, just shot up with small arms and RPGs). They apparently had trouble in the high altitude. A bunch of Super Cobras were rushed in to make up for the damage and performed well because they had better power at altitude. Is this just a case where the Cobras had the advantage of coming second so they knew what NOT to do? Or were the Cobras actually better suited for the particular fight?

2) In the disastrous Karbala raid, 30 out of 32 Apaches were shot up and their mission aborted. Again, we see a huge percentage of Apaches knocked out of action. Altitude wasn't a problem. Was this a case of the wrong tool being used for the job? I would assume that helos are designed to be in conjunction with ground forces so that each offers protection for the other. In Karbala, the Apaches were used far out front of our troops for low-level, nitty gritty, attacks on enemy forces. Isn't that the realm of the USAF's A-10s.

Is there a problem with the Apache, or with its usage, or has the media simply blown out of proportion a few bad encounters? The facts are indisputable, in these two engagements more than 90% of the Apaches were knocked out of action. Why?

[Flyer]

I refuse to listen to a word Hackworth says until he changes his wardrobe. The black thing is getting old.

[Newbomb Turk]

Last I read from Hackworth we were MIRED down in Iraq. Out running our supply lines and we were loosing the momentum to the enemy.

My how things change in a few days.I admire Col. Hackworth for his service but I think some of these retired people have lost pace with the Same services they served in. New day New ARMY.

[Rokke]

Once again Hack proves he's full of crap. The development of the Longbow had nothing to do with Soviet tanks. The Soviet Union was history 5 or 6 years before the Longbow was in its earliest testing phases. Unlike Hackworth, the Army has figured out that they will be fighting in more environments and facing more challanging enemy than skinny Iraqis in the desert. They have to plan for all contingencies, not just the desert.
With regard to getting shot up. This will come as a seriously newsflash to all the "experts" who claim you have to get in the weeds to kill tanks, but when you get in the weeds you expose yourself to everything from slingshots to artillary rounds. Guess what. You're going to get shot up. Not only that, but while you are getting shot from every direction, it is nearly impossible to shot back. That is why we saw 30 fully armed Apaches go in, and almost all limp back without hardly firing a shot. Remember the pictures of the one the Iraqi's were dancing all over. It was fully loaded. The Air Force had similar results the day several A-10's decided to fly low over Baghdad. We lost one and had the rest barely make it home.
Meanwhile, the true CAS experts (the Marine Corps, and I am not a Marine) don't want aircraft like the A-10. They have figured out the best way to provide CAS is with accurate weapons system fired with lethal precision outside the enemy's firing range. A good laser targeting pod is a better tool for identifying tanks than the eyeball, whether it's from 30,000' or 500'. The best CAS happens when the tank blows up, and the aircraft that dropped the bomb flies home to rearm and return to blow up more tanks. The Army is learning the hard way that flying your CAS assets into the meatgrinder does nothing more than give the bad guys something different to shoot at.

[El Gato]

Hack doesn't like anything more complicated than a Ka-Bar. If we where fighting someone with even semi modern tanks, especially if we were outnumbered, and in shitty weather, our tankers would be more than happy to have Longbow around. Think ChiComs in Korea for example, but that's only one possible scenario.

[El Gato]

One Longbow was shot down

Accounts from the crew indicate that the bird was not shot down, rather a 23mm round hit the pilot in the boot, and burned his foot to the point where he could no longer fly and had to set it down ASAP. It may have been shot up, but it wasn't shot down.

[The KG9 Kid]

He's right on the point that the A-10 really does belong in the Marine Corps. The Harrier and F-18 don't fit in a role that the Marines would probably be better off with using antique A-1 Skyraiders for.

Also, more A-10s need to be built. Just after Gulf War I, the Air Force wanted to park them all permanently at Davis-Mothball in Arizona, which proves they don't deserve them. Flying down in the mud just doesn't have that style that the Air Force wants.

Give them to the Marines.

[Pro-Bush]

[xm177e2]

Does the Longbow system/the dome on top serve any purpose other than tank-killing? If so, Hack is right (we have much better weapons for getting rid of tanks--namely precision guided munitions). If getting rid of the Longbow 'copters means more 64As, that's even better.

[Fury]

Ping FYI

[snippy_about_it]

ping

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Another editorial in breaking news. Sorry but 4 of the top breaking news items are not breaking news. I don't like this. I wan't true news that is very recent when I go to breaking news!

[Kenny Bunk]

These trusty flying machines should be transferred to the Army and the Marine Corps for use alongside their AH-64A Apaches and AH-1 Super Cobras as part of an awesome, well-rounded CAS fleet that would support our ground troops with the best combination of the right stuff.

Under the terms of "The Treaty of Key West" of 1948, The Army cannot have fixed-wing combat aircraft. However, I never understood why the Marines didn't get the A-10, except that it is not fitted for carrier operations and making it so might make it too heavy to fly.

The A-10 seems some sort of embarassment to the USAF, who lost no time getting it out to ANG units. Although its combat record is brilliant, it is too slow, too cheap, and apparently too unglamorous for the USAF. It's kind of a replay of Vietnam, where undoubtedly one of the most effective aircraft in the inventory was the old 1948 Skyraider, with it's 5-ton bombload, 4 20MM cannon, Rockets, incredible loiter time, and excellent survivability. A sentence to a Skyraider squadron however, could kill your whole career!