A New Mission for One of many Army’s Most Iconic Plane
For many years, the AH-64 Apache was constructed to destroy tanks and supply shut assist to troops on the bottom. Now the Army is giving it a mission few anticipated: looking drones.
The rise of drone swarms in Ukraine, the Crimson Sea, and throughout the Center East has pushed each service to rethink air protection. Mounted techniques like Patriot, Avenger, and IFPC present vital protection, however they’ll’t be in all places. The Army’s personal evaluation, echoed via congressional testimony and the Division of Protection’s 2024 Technique for Countering Unmanned Techniques, reveals a widening hole: drones transfer quicker than floor air-defense models can reposition.
To shut that hole, the Army is popping to a platform it already trusts, the AH-64E Model 6 Apache, and shifting it right into a cellular counter-UAS position.
“We all know drones are actually a continuing a part of the battlefield,” Army aviation officers have stated publicly throughout 2024–2025 modernization briefings. “This requires cellular, layered defenses that may transfer with maneuver forces.”
That’s the brand new logic behind the Apache’s transformation.
Proving Apaches Can Kill Drones With Weapons They Already Have
The Army started formally evaluating Apache counter-UAS efficiency in a collection of 2024–2025 live-fire occasions, together with a serious demonstration at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina. AH-64E helicopters from the South Carolina Army Nationwide Guard served as the first shooters.
In line with the Army’s official launch from PEO Aviation and DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Heart, the plane efficiently engaged a number of unmanned plane utilizing solely present Apache weapons and sensors. No experimental missiles, no labeled pods, no particular prototypes.
Confirmed Army capabilities displayed within the occasion included:
- Laser-guided rockets (APKWS) for small, quick targets
- Hellfire and JAGM missiles for medium UAS threats
- 30mm cannon hearth for close-range intercepts
- Cooperative lasing with floor groups and different plane
- Longbow radar and M-TADS/PNVS sensors to trace drones even in poor visibility
Army officers stated the demonstration confirmed that the Apache “can prolong air-defense protection and complement ground-based techniques,” particularly throughout high-tempo operations the place cellular models want safety instantly relatively than ready for SHORAD models to reposition.
Why the Army Wants a Cellular Drone Killer That Can Transfer With Troops
Drone warfare has modified quicker than air protection applications can evolve. The DoD’s 2024 unmanned-systems technique notes the identical downside militaries worldwide are experiencing: drones are low cost, quick to area, and getting smarter annually. They cut back warning time and overwhelm fastened radars.
Congressional Analysis Service stories from 2024 and 2025 add one other concern: U.S. air protection models are nonetheless too few and infrequently tied to defending fastened belongings, bases, ports, logistics hubs, not each convoy or frontline aspect.
That leaves gaps. And gaps are the place drones win. A helicopter, nonetheless, can transfer wherever the menace seems.
Apache benefits the Army now needs to take advantage of:
- Velocity: The AH-64E can shortly reposition to cowl gaps, particularly throughout quick maneuvers.
- Altitude: It may possibly see over tree strains, ridges, and concrete terrain that disguise drones from floor radars.
- Sensors: The Longbow radar and M-TADS system can monitor small objects that floor models might not see.
- Networking: Hyperlink 16 integration permits Apaches to obtain drone tracks from floor sensors, different plane, or close by models.
- Firepower: A number of weapon choices imply they’ll reply to totally different drone sizes with out ready for specialised air-defense belongings.
Briefly, the Apache turns into the Army’s first cellular air-defense truck, a gunship that may dash to guard models when drones immediately seem.
U.S. Army Troopers assigned to the Fight Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division, reveal the capabilities of the AH-64 Apache helicopters in Lielvarde Air Base, Latvia, Might 2, 2025. The CAB offers important air assist, executing reconnaissance, assault and medical evacuation missions to boost floor forces’ effectiveness. (U.S. Army video by Sgt. Charlie Duke)
Coaching Shifts: Crews Are Studying a New Mission Set
The Army isn’t treating this as a one time demonstration. Apache models are already receiving new coaching steerage primarily based on TRADOC, the Air Protection Artillery Faculty, and Army Aviation Heart of Excellence suggestions.
In line with publicly accessible Army coaching updates:
- Counter-UAS duties are being added to unit Mission Important Process Lists.
- Simulator eventualities now embody drone threats built-in into assault, escort, and reconnaissance missions.
- New gunnery tables incorporate aerial targets and small UAS engagements, not simply tanks or floor automobiles.
- Aviation, air protection, and digital warfare models are coaching collectively extra usually to construct unified response techniques.
That shift impacts everybody, from pilots to maintainers to floor commanders who request Apache assist.
As a substitute of calling Apaches solely when a patrol wants shut air assist, models might quickly request an Apache presence after they anticipate drone exercise or when air-defense models are stretched skinny.
What This Means for Troopers and Units on the Floor
For troops who function in areas the place drones are a continuing menace, the Apache’s new position may change how missions are deliberate and executed.
Right here’s what models might begin seeing:
- Apaches offering overwatch throughout drone-heavy operations, not simply throughout kinetic contact with floor enemies.
- Quicker response instances to sudden drone contacts, particularly on lengthy convoys or throughout dispersed operations.
- Extra requests for air-ground coordination, since many drone kills depend on shared sensor information and laser designation.
- Elevated integration with M-SHORAD Strykers, as Apaches backfill gaps throughout motion or large-scale workouts.
- Extra flight hours devoted to protecting missions, not simply offensive assault profiles.
Whereas the Apache will stay a premier assault helicopter, the Army’s management has acknowledged that drone threats require platforms with mobility, sensors, and the flexibility to react immediately. The AH-64E suits that want higher than any present ground-based asset.
The Highway Forward
The Army’s counter-UAS modernization plan consists of new radars, directed-energy techniques, upgraded SHORAD platforms, and the IFPC program, however these techniques will take years to area throughout all the drive.
The Apache, against this, is already right here. It has the sensors, the weapons, the community hyperlinks, and the crews. All of the Army wanted was a mission shift.
As drone swarms develop extra frequent on world battlefields, the service is betting that turning the Apache right into a drone-killing gunship will give maneuver models the safety they’ve lacked and purchase time till next-generation air protection techniques arrive.
The transformation of the AH-64E isn’t about changing its historic position. It’s about retaining it related in a world the place the subsequent menace received’t roll on tracks, it’ll fly.
Sources
U.S. Army / DoD Main Sources
• PEO Aviation – Apache Counter-UAS Demonstration Launch (MCAS New River)
• DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Heart – Check & Analysis Notes
• U.S. Army AH-64E Model 6 Reality Sheet
• Division of Protection – 2024 Technique for Countering Unmanned Techniques
• U.S. Army TRADOC / ADA Faculty – Cellular SHORAD & Layered Protection Doctrine
• U.S. Army DOT&E Annual Report (2023–2024) – Counter-UAS assessments
• Army Futures Command – Counter-UAS modernization briefings (AUSA 2024–2025)
• Congressional Analysis Service – Counter-UAS: Background and Points for Congress (2024 & 2025 updates)
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