The 50th and final Boeing AH-64E Apache has been handed over to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), completing the British Army’s fleet of this latest-model attack helicopter.
The final AH-64E was handed over to the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation at Boeing’s manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, on 5 March 2025 and will remain in the United States for software testing to enable advanced teaming with unmanned aeriala vehicles (UAVs) before being delivered to the UK in 2026.
The UK’s operational AH-64E fleet is now fully established at the British Army’s Wattisham Flying Station in Suffolk, while the training fleet is complete at the Army Aviation Centre in Middle Wallop, Hampshire.
The British Army’s AH-64E fleet was procured through a GBP 1.7 billion (EUR 2 billion) Foreign Military Sale (FMS) contract signed with the US government in July 2016. The deal covered the remanufacture of 50 AH-64Es from the British Army’s original fleet of WAH-64 AH1s that were built under licence from Boeing by AgustaWestland. Boeing upgraded the WAH-64 AH1s, equivalent to D-model Apaches, to the E-model configuration in a process that combined existing parts with a new fuselage and updated technologies.
The first pair of remanufactured AH-64Es was delivered to Wattisham in November 2020, with the British AH-64E fleet achieving initial operational readiness in May 2023.
“Battle-tested and modernised, the AH-64E Apache is a fully integrated weapon system designed to fight multi-domain operations in highly contested, complex battlespaces, and in the harshest environments from the desert to the Arctic,” Colonel David Amlôt, from the British Army’s Combat Aviation Programme, was quoted as saying in a 6 March DE&S press release. “Through this procurement we will see an increased interoperability with our NATO and allied partners, with an expected 19 nations operating the Apache by the end of the decade, further strengthening our collective deterrence,” Col Amlôt added.
