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They train to the same standards as their active duty counterparts and cost 60 percent less to maintain. Yet after years of defending freedom in Afghanistan, Arizona’s Citizen-Soldiers are being told they are unworthy of operating the Army’s premier attack helicopter. Army leaders recently revealed a plan to take away all 192 National Guard AH-64D Apache attack helicopters — 24 of which are assigned to Arizona — asserting that Guardsmen aren’t as ready to perform attack aviation missions as the active duty. That claim is inaccurate and statistically unproven. Adding insult, proponents of the Army’s plan say the Guard can’t...

The US Senate is looking more favourably at a request to provide attack helicopters to Iraq, but a top senator has not yet given the Obama administration a green light for military assistance that Baghdad wants to help it rebuff an al-Qaeda bid to seize a western province.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2007 – Multinational Division Baghdad helicopter crews killed four armed insurgents yesterday in northwestern Baghdad. The team of two Apaches from 4th Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, was providing area security for 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Infantry Regiment, troops when the unit came under small-arms fire. The encounter began when Apache pilots saw five insurgents with weapons maneuvering through alleyways. After being cleared by the ground unit, the Apache crews engaged the insurgents, killing four and wounding one. "(Insurgents) think they can engage coalition forces and escape, but they cannot outrun the deadly effects of our Apaches,"...

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Apache attack helicopters fired some 300 rockets and dozens of Hellfire missiles Friday as part of the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade’s first “running” rocket and missile shoot in the training area. Maj. Thom Crowson, 1st Armored Division’s Division Artillery (Divarty) operations officer, said 14 12th CAB Apaches participating in the exercise — from 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment — are training to deploy to Iraq later this year. 12th CAB operations officer Maj. Brian Hoff, said the Apaches practiced running fire — shooting rockets and missiles on the move at ground targets. It is the first time...

Strapped to Apaches and dodging fire, how troops recovered fallen comrade · Marine died during failed attack on Taliban fort· Four soldiers clung to gunships in rescue effort Declan Walsh in Islamabad and Richard Norton-Taylor Wednesday January 17, 2007 It was an extraordinary end to a tragic operation. When Lance Corporal Matthew Ford was shot during an assault on a Taliban fortress last Monday, his comrades mounted a dramatic rescue mission that saw soldiers being strapped to the wings of helicopter gunships as they crossed a river under heavy enemy fire. The remarkable mission, dubbed "Flight of the Phoenix" by...

BAGHDAD, Sep. 4, 2006 – Two Longbow Apache helicopters provided air-to-ground support to American soldiers by blasting enemy vehicles during action in western Baghdad yesterday, U.S. officials reported. The flight of choppers from Multinational Division Baghdad’s Combat Aviation Brigade teamed up to assist U.S. ground forces from the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The combined effort resulted in one terrorist killed, four captured and two terrorist’s vehicles destroyed, officials said. The Apache crews were conducting a combat air patrol mission when they received the call to assist. At about 4:45 p.m., the pilots noticed two abandoned vehicles...

The defence minister and the foreign affairs minister say six Apache helicopters which have been in Kabul since the beginning of the month will also be used outside the Afghan capital city in the future. The Dutch helicopter unit is part of NATO's ISAF peacekeeping force. NATO is going to concentrate more and more on reconstruction work outside of Kabul, and the six Apaches are well suited to this duty. The Dutch chief-of-defence will evaluate each mission to see if participation of the Apaches is reasonable and responsible. In addition to the helicopters, the cabinet is also considering sending troops...

In an address just over a year ago, President George W. Bush argued that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was, in some ways, a blessing in disguise. The surprise attack sunk or crippled eight battleships, the backbone of the US Pacific fleet, forcing the navy to rely on its flotilla of aircraft carriers to fight its way back across the ocean. The next 60 years saw the carrier battle group go from an afterthought to the centre of what would become the most powerful maritime force the world has ever seen. America's military is once again set to make...

Army's Readiness Soars as Better Weather Permits UnloadingKUWAIT CITY, March 8 -- The wind died, the skies cleared and, just before dawn today, the weather-delayed USNS Dahl berthed with the last critical U.S. Army weapons needed to attack Iraq. By noon the first of 72 helicopters belonging to the 101st Airborne Division had been hoisted from the hold and moved to a dockside parking lot. Army mechanics in white hard hats swarmed over the initial Apache attack helicopter, stripping away protective plastic and reattaching rotor blades that were removed two weeks ago, before the voyage from Jacksonville, Fla. The helicopters...