My guess is, they can pack more AH-1Zs onto a ship than they could AH-64Ds, plus I expect the Cobras are built to work in a salty marine environment (pardon the pun) and Apaches probably aren’t. Combine that with the parts commonality with the new Hueys allowing them to carry fewer types of spares, and it makes sense.
}:-)4
I hear the Apache has a lot of down time. especially in the desert.