Army accepts 100th Apache 'Echo' model

- In late March, the Army accepted delivery of the 100th AH-64E Apache helicopter.

The "Echo" model is a complete rebuild of the AH-64D model. It includes an improved drive system, composite main rotor blades, a more powerful 701D GE engine, is fully digitized, and has level-4 manned-unmanned teaming, which allows pilots to control unmanned aerial systems - such as the Gray Eagle.

The Echo model, "can fly higher, faster and further than the D model - and the D model is an extremely capable aircraft," said Col. Jeffrey Hager, the Apache project manager.

Hager spoke, March 31, during a media event at the Army Aviation Association of America conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

"But this aircraft outperforms and outdoes the Delta model to date," Hager said. "The enemy continually [was] thrown off-base because the Echo showed up to combat operations well before the Delta could have under the same conditions."

The AH-64E's recent success came in Afghanistan with the 1-229th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, or ARB, out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. The unit was the first to be fielded with the aircraft.

 http://www.army.mil/article/145864/Army_accepts_100th_Apache__Echo__model/