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Article: Longbow Apache Trainer: First Deployable Simulator for Army.
- Article from:
- National Defense
- Article date:
- November 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 National Defense Industrial Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Deployable training devices promise new flexibility for the U.S. Army, which wants to become a more mobile fighting force. They are especially important to attack-helicopter battalions, with their expensive aircraft and weapons.
The AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopter currently costs about $3,400 an hour to fly and a full load of 16 Hellfire missiles is priced at about $2 million. With the introduction of a new Longbow trainer, crews will be able to fly basic and tactical maneuvers, and engage targets with all onboard weapons--for a few hundred dollars per flight hour.
Economics aside, Apache units in Europe and elsewhere simply don't have live-fire ...