AH-64 Apache: A Key West Loophole, Desert Storm and the Drone-Era Sunset

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The 1948 Key West Agreement gave fixed-wing strike aircraft to the new Air Force, leaving the U.S. Army facing Soviet tank armies without its own attack jets. After the AH-56 Cheyenne was canceled, the Army launched the Advanced Attack Helicopter program in 1972, and in 1976 Hughes beat Bell with the YAH-64, partly on a four-blade rotor and tailwheel landing gear suited to low-level flight and rough forward bases. The Apache carried about 2,500 pounds of armor, self-sealing fuel tanks and a blast shield between its tandem crew. Its integrated helmet and display sighting system slaved the 30mm M230 chain gun to the gunner's head movements, and laser-guided Hellfire missiles could hit tanks from about 6,500 meters.

The Apache first fought in Panama in 1989, and on January 17, 1991, Task Force Normandy's eight Apaches destroyed Iraqi early warning radar sites before the air campaign began. In Desert Storm Apaches destroyed 278 tanks, but maintenance demands forced the Army to strip parts from fleets elsewhere, and in 1999 Task Force Hawk needed 26,000 tons of equipment and 550 C-17 flights to deploy 24 helicopters to Albania. In the 2026 Iran War an Apache was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz by an Iranian drone, and its two crew were recovered by a U.S. Navy Task Force 59 autonomous sea drone. After a 2025 order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Army stopped buying new AH-64s.

• General Carl Stiner said an Apache crew could put a Hellfire through a chosen window from four miles away at night.
• In 2007 insurgents in Iraq destroyed four parked Apaches with mortars aimed using GPS data embedded in soldiers' online photos.
• In 2009 an Apache crew mistook a British patrol base in Afghanistan for an insurgent position, resulting in a fatal strike.
• By 2026 the Tata-Boeing plant in Hyderabad, India had built over 400 Apache fuselages.
• Over 90 percent of those fuselage components came from small and medium Indian suppliers.