DENVER — Boeing [BA] said Wednesday it’s “confident” there will be another procurement deal for the Apache attack helicopter, with a company official adding that details on the next award are already “in the works.”
“We’re looking for the Army to make a determination on [the] contracting mechanism, but we are already in the works for that next contract,” Christina Upah, Boeing’s vice president of attack helicopter programs, said during a media briefing at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit here.
Upah’s comments follow Army Secretary Christine Wormuth’s recent remarks to lawmakers that the
Apache program was “not at any risk” as the service moves out on its major aviation restructure, reiterating plans to continue upgrading the platform (Defense Daily, April 12).
“We are committed to Apache. It’s going to stay in the fleet for a long time. I was just talking to the folks that build Apache and they felt, I think, pretty comfortable with where we are. We do plan on continually upgrading it. It’s not at any risk,” Wormuth said during a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on April 10.
The Army signed the second and what was at the time the expected final multi-year contract for AH-64E Apache attack helicopters with Boeing last March, which will run through 2027 and could be worth up to $3.8 billion (Defense Daily, March 17 2023).
Boeing has previously told Defense Daily it “absolutely” believes there will be future procurement deals for Apache beyond the new multi-year award (Defense Daily, Oct. 11 2023).
Looking ahead to future upgrades of Apache, Boeing has been working on the latest Version 6.5 upgrade for the AH-64E and last fall completed a first flight for the newest version of the helicopter.
Upah on Wednesday described the Version 6.5 upgrade as a “holistic, common configuration with an open systems interface…that really paves the way for Modernized Apache.”
“With that modular open system architecture, we are able to rapidly integrate capability and technology onto the aircraft at an affordable price for the warfighter,” Upah said.
After Boeing first detailed its Modernized Apache concept last year, Upah noted the company continues to work with the Army to inform design priorities and anticipates that a first flight with the future platform would likely occur in the 2030s.
“We are focused [on working] with the U.S. Army on the requirements for the future with our Boeing concept of the Modernized Apache. We’re investing in and developing broader reach with long-range precision fire, deep sensing capability, [being] highly networked in that [modular open systems architecture] environment with launched effects,” Upah said. “When we look to the future and looking at the demand that we have for Apache, which is so tremendously great, we would think the 2030s is the timeframe that we would be seeing that new Modernized Apache.”
Upah added that Modernized Apache will include going after enhanced lethality with the attack helicopter platform, as the Army eyes flying the helicopter into the 2060s.
“[That includes] extending the wings so we can add additional pylons to the wings for more weapons suites and configurations. The airframe [will be] redesigned to really capitalize on the drivetrain enhancements,” Upah said.
For the more near-term Version 6.5 effort, Upah said Boeing will continue flight testing with a second build later in FY ‘24 and will go through the software baseline verification test in late FY ‘25, while the company awaits the Army’s detailed plan for bringing in the upgrade to its Apache fleet.
“That’s really, ultimately, up to the U.S. Army as to when they will field that capability and where that cut-in [to the production line] lies. We’ll continue our development efforts. But I can’t really speak on behalf of the U.S. Army to determine when that would be on the timeline. They have not communicated that at this time,” Upah said.