Apache Choppers to Bolster Taiwan's Combat Capability

The six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to be delivered to Taiwan on Monday will significantly bolster the military's capability to mount rapid attacks once they are commissioned into service, a military expert said Saturday.

The six AH-64Es are part of an order of 30 of the advanced American attack helicopters that Taiwan's military bought for NT$59.31 billion (US$2.01 billion) under a deal announced by United States President George W. Bush in 2008.

Taiwan will become the world's first country besides the U.S. to deploy this helicopter type when they become operational in April 2014 at air bases in northern Taiwan. The U.S. Army took delivery of its first AH-64E only at the end of 2011.

Su Guan-chiun, a commentator familiar with military weapons systems, said the AH-64E helicopter's main functions are similar to those of the workhorse of the U.S. military, the AH-1W, but it has enhanced combat capabilities. The new helicopters will enable their crew to target and attack enemies from miles away, day or night, Su said.

In addition, AH-64E is equipped with AN/APG-78 Longbow, radar which is capable of simultaneously tracking 128 airborne and ground targets in an area of 55 square kilometers, or engage multiple targets at a distance.

Comparing the AH-64E with attack helicopters used by China, Su said China's first independently developed WZ-10 attack helicopter is equipped with a homemade WZ-9 turboshaft engine, leaving it less mobile than similar helicopters developed by the U.S. and Europe.

Moreover, the WZ-10 uses traditional optical guided anti-tank missiles, which lag behind the Longbow radar-guided missiles used by the Apaches, Su said. More than 60 Taiwanese pilots and maintenance personnel returned to Taiwan in August after completed 20 months of training on the advanced model in the United States.

They will help train other Taiwanese pilots and crews at Guiren Air Force Base in Tainan once the six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters are delivered, according to Chen Kuo-ming, senior editor at Taiwan-based Defence International magazine.

Taiwan's long, narrow and complex terrain constrains the movements of armored vehicles, making it important to deploy attack helicopters to overcome the limitation, Chen said.

He speculated that Washington's decision to supply Taiwan with the most advanced AH-64E Apache may be aimed at finding problems with the helicopters as Taiwan's military trains on them so that upgrades can be made on models to be supplied to Japan and South Korea in the future.

According to Boeing, the builder of the Apache helicopter, the model E can carry a maximum load of 10 tons and has a maximum speed of 293 kilometers per hour, a cruising speed of 265 kph and an effective range of 480 km in radius.

The chopper has a 30 mm automatic cannon with 1,200 rounds of ammunition, and is armed with 16 Hellfire Missiles and four air-to-air missiles. It can also be fitted with Stinger Missiles, Sidewinder Missiles or TOW Missiles, depending on mission requirements, according to Boeing.

A second batch of Apache helicopters is scheduled to be delivered in late December and the delivery of all 30 AH-64Es over five batches will be completed by the end of 2014, military sources said. 

(By Chen Yi-wei and Y.L. Kao) [via]