U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters are refining their ability to detect and destroy enemy aerial drones while forward deployed to the Middle East, a region where the drone threat — especially from one-way attack munitions or ‘kamikaze drones’ — has exploded in recent months. Apaches have a little-known but proven capability to act in an air defense role against drones. This includes using their AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, which are traditionally air-to-ground weapons, to take them down.
A recent video published by Central Command shows a U.S. Army AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopter destroying a target drone during the Red Sands exercise in Saudi Arabia. Red Sands is a joint Saudi-CENTCOM-sponsored exercise that focuses partially on counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) capabilities, including trialing emerging countermeasure technologies. The Kingdom is no stranger to the threats posed by increasingly capable but comparatively inexpensive drones, especially the long-range one-way attack types.
The video shows a pair of Apaches targeting a drone with an AGM-114 Hellfire missile. The type used appears to be a variant or modification of the AGM-114L, which features a millimeter-wave radar seeker that is initially cued by the Apache’s AN/APG-78 Longbow mast-mounted radar system. Combined, the radar and missile pairing allow Apaches to launch multiple Hellfires against ground targets — primarily vehicles — simultaneously and in any weather. The radar is capable of detecting and tracking some aerial targets, like lower-flying helicopters, but, as it may show in the video, detecting and engaging aerial drones could now be in its playbook as well.
The use of AGM-114s and Apaches to swat down lower-end long-endurance drones is not new. Israel has been using the Apache in an air defense role for this purpose for years, which includes one well-known shootdown near the Syrian border of a Hezbollah drone.
AH-64s were built with an austere air-to-air capability from the get-go, with the capacity to employ FIM-92 Stinger short-range heat-seeking missiles, but the Hellfire-Longbow combo could take this capability to a whole other level. It’s also worth noting that the same general types of radar-guided Hellfires are being used on some Littoral Combat Ships to rapidly engage swarms of small boats. We have discussed in the past that this capability could also be adapted to taking down nearby slow and low aerial drones as well.
The Apache’s other weapons, like its 30mm cannon, can also play a role in counter-drone defense, but getting close enough and precisely targeting a drone with the gun system in such a fashion can be challenging and even quite dangerous, both in terms of the aerial dynamics at play and the fact that the drone likely carries a powerful blast fragmentation warhead. The highly destructive cannon rounds that do not connect with the target will also fall somewhere and at altitude this can be over a large area. Still, the gun has its uses against aerial targets, as seen in the video below.
Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) laser-guided rockets are perhaps the most intriguing armament option as they could give the Apache a huge magazine of effectors, although only one drone can be engaged at a time due to the type’s laser guidance. APKWS joins a laser-guided control section to a standard 70mm Hydra rocket. APKWS has been tested with fighters in the air-to-air role and is now being used in a surface-to-air counter-UAS role in Ukraine. They are also far less costly than a Hellfire, coming in at around $25-30k per round compared to around $215k for an AGM-114 with the radar-guided L models costing even more. Still, $215k is relatively cheap compared to many modern air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles. A laser weapon has been tested on Apache, but little is known about the status of that concept at this time.
AH-64s also now have Joint-Air-to-Ground-Missile (JAGM) in their inventory with their multi-mode seeker capabilities, which could dramatically expand the helicopter’s counter-drone efficacy even more.
Not all of the U.S. Army’s AH-64s — which include AH-64E Apache Guardians and some remaining AH-64D Longbows — carry the Longbow radar at all times, but the aircraft have the ability to share targeting information with others in their formation, so even if just one Apache has it, its data can be exploited by the flight. The Apache Guardian is a particularly highly networked asset beyond simpler intra-flight datalinks. This allows for greater situational awareness and connectivity with command nodes and other platforms in the battlespace, all of which could play a major factor in the drone defense mission. The evolving ability of the AH-64E to team with its own drone wingmen could also open up the C-UAS mission in unique ways, including drastically expanding area of defensive coverage a single aircrew can provide and bringing new distributed sensors to the fight. You can read all about the AH-64E’s networking capabilities and manned-unmanned teaming operations in this previous feature.
Apaches acting in this unique role have other advantages. Unlike ground-based air defenses, they can be rapidly repositioned and set up counter-drone screening wherever is most advantageous within their combat radius. They can also position forward, with ground forces if need be, and quickly take to the air in order to respond to incoming threats. Escorting ground forces and providing overwatch while also some drone defense capacity is another possibility and even protecting other airborne helicopters from enemy drones is a potential application for the concept.
A radar-equipped Apache offers a networked and elevated sensor and weapons platform capability that is uniquely capable of detecting hard to spot, low and slow-flying targets amongst the ground clutter, although not over long distances. The fact that the Apache’s radar can detect and track many targets at one time could potentially also allow for rapid engagements against swarms of incoming enemy drones where the timeframe to shoot will be very compressed. Hardware and software tweaks to the system may be needed to better acclimate the AH-64 to a robust C-UAS role, if that hasn’t been fully realized already.
Even with all these advantages, the AH-64 is still a helicopter with the speed and endurance limitations that go with it, but rotary-wing assets are increasingly playing a key role in the cocktail of measures being put into action to help counter the ballooning drone threat.
The Red Sands exercise also comes at a very unique and troubling time in the region, with the multi-domain drone and missile barrages still being sent up regularly by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran and Israel teetering on the brink of a larger conflict. Tehran possesses massive numbers of long-range kamikaze drones spread amongst its forces and those of its proxies that would certainly be put into action if a larger conflict erupted across the Middle East, putting an expansive list of potential targets at risk. Under such circumstances, it will be an all-hands-on-deck effort to even attempt to counter these drones and the Apache could end up playing a tangible role in doing so.
Regardless, let’s hope its capabilities don’t get put to the test.
Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com