INTERMEDIATE BUILD
Duncan Cooke finishes a recent large-scale rotary offering… Takom’s 1/35 AH-64E Apache Guardian.
Boeing’s AH-64 Apache first entered the public consciousness due to its impressive performance first in Panama, but then in the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, where it destroyed numerous Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles. Developed under the auspices of the US Army’s Advanced Attack Helicopter project, the type’s large tandem cockpit and long, narrow tailboom give it a dragonfly-like appearance. Optical and infrared targeting sensors are mounted on the nose, although Longbow-equipped AH-64Ds also have a millimetric-wavelength targeting radar above the rotor hub. The Apache’s primary armament is the AGM-114 Hellfire, with up to 16 carried, although a more common load is just eight missiles, plus either external drop tanks or 19-shot 70mm rocket pods.
The AH-64A first entered service with the US Army in 1986 and was exported widely, being superseded by the AH-64D, which could be fitted with the Longbow radar – first deliveries of that variant began in March 1997. The latest version is the AH-64E Apache Guardian, which initially entered service as the AH-64D Block III, before being redesignated in April 2012. With im…
