• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Work progressing on Apache helicopter repairs: Army

ROC Central News Agency

2014/02/21 17:23:32

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) Taiwan's military is fitting the 12 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters received from the United States with new flight transmission boxes, the Army Command Headquarters said Friday amid questions over when the choppers will be put back into service.

Once the transmission boxes are installed, the Army said, a full range of safety tests will be conducted before formal test flights are conducted.

After the test flights are completed and the safety of the helicopters is verified, training missions resume, according to the Army.

'Safety is our paramount consideration. We don't want to set a date (to resume training flights) before completing test flights,' an Army official said, after falling short on a previous timetable, raising concerns over when its Apache aircraft will be back in the air.

The Army had said on Feb. 11 that the helicopters would be put back into service the following week, but that schedule has apparently been pushed back.

The 12 aircraft are part of a 30-helicopter package ordered from the United States in June 2011 at a cost of more than US$2 billion. The model E is the latest in the Apache attack helicopter series.

Taiwan received its first delivery of six Apache helicopters last November followed by a second batch in early January.

The 12 helicopters were grounded after Taiwan's military received word from the United States in mid-December of a main transmission failure in one of the Apache AH-64Es in service in the U.S. army.

No problems had been found in the helicopters received in Taiwan, but the transmissions are still being replaced as a precaution.

The final three batches of six choppers will be delivered to Taiwan with the new transmission boxes later this year and are scheduled to arrive in March, May and July, respectively.

The U.S. and Taiwan are the only two countries that have used the latest Apache helicopter model so far.

(By Claudia Liu, Elaine Hou and Lilian Wu)
enditem/ls