Advanced Attack Helicopter
| Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| A YAH-64A during a demonstration flight in 1982 | |
| Project for | Attack helicopter |
| Issued by | United States Army |
| Prototypes |
Bell YAH-63 Hughes YAH-64 |
| Outcome | YAH-64 selected for production as AH-64 Apache |
| Predecessor programs | Advanced Aerial Fire Support System |
| Successor programs | Light Helicopter Experimental |
The Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) was a United States Army program to develop an advanced ground attack helicopter beginning in 1972. The Advanced Attack Helicopter program followed cancellation of the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne. After evaluating industry proposals, the AAH competition was reduced to offerings from Bell and Hughes. Following a flight test evaluation of prototypes, Hughes' YAH-64 was selected in December 1976.
During the mid-1960s, the United States Army initiated the Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) program, which led to the development of the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne for use in the anti-tank gunship role. The US Army pursued the AH-1G HueyCobra as an "interim type" for the "jungle fighting" role. However, the Army's broader concern was the task of protecting Western Europe from the legions of Warsaw Pact armor to the east. The main scenario used by NATO throughout the Cold War was that, if the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact forces were to conduct a massive tank offensive attack on Western Europe, they would probably cross either the Fulda Gap (capturing Frankfurt first and then aiming for the westward bend of the Rhine south of Wiesbaden: a total distance of just 85 miles), or cross the North German Plain (see map). The Advanced Attack Helicopter was conceived from the need to defend against such an attack.
In 1971, political friction increased between the Army and the Air Force over the close air support (CAS) mission. The Air Force asserted that the Cheyenne would infringe on the Air Force's CAS mission in support of the Army, which had been mandated with the Key West Agreement of 1948. The Department of Defense (DOD) conducted a study which concluded that the Air Force's A-X program, the Navy's proposed Harrier, and the Cheyenne were significantly different and that they did not constitute a duplication of capabilities.
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