The US aircraft and defense giant begins the delivery of AH-64E Version 6 Apache helicopters to an unnamed customer. The machine has a number of important improvements that allow you to fully reveal the potential of the air platform, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

According to Terry Jamison, Boeing Defense, Space & Security spokesman, the first AH-64E Version 6 Apache helicopter is delivered to an unnamed customer. “We have an international client who is the first recipient of Version 6, and now we supply helicopters (to this client). This is the standard that all customers will receive,” said Jamison.

Although Boeing did not name the future operator of the new version of Apache, Jamieson noted that the company plans to complete the delivery of a new batch of Apache helicopters to Qatar by the end of this month. It is also known that this country should become the first recipient of the AH-64E Version 6.

This improvement can be considered part of a larger program to upgrade the AH-64D to AH-64E. As previously announced in the US Department of Defense, the Version 6 update includes the Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (MDSA) package, which will allow pilots to better respond to modern threats. The helicopter received a number of other improvements, affecting avionics and giving the combat vehicle higher capabilities to detect and destroy targets, including in marine conditions.

Recall that last year the AH-64E Version 6 Apache passed an important stage of testing. Then the upgraded Apache proved the ability to work in conjunction with unmanned aerial vehicles and ground units. All this is vitally necessary in the framework of the new realities of the use of combat vehicles, when a helicopter has to deal with modern anti-aircraft missile systems.

Note that today the AH-64 is the most common attack helicopter in the world: as of 2013, more than two thousand such machines were produced. Among the Apache operators – more than a dozen countries located in different parts of the world.

The main operator is the US Ground Forces, and they plan to operate Apache for more than a dozen years. At the same time, the United States does not refuse to develop fundamentally new combat helicopters.

Recall that in March it became known that the U.S. Ground Forces chose two from the proposed Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) helicopters: Bell 360 Invictus and Sikorsky Raider-X. They will continue the struggle, and in the future one of these machines will be adopted.

BulgarianMilitary.com recalls that Eqypt also wants to buy the updated version of Boeing’s apache helicopter. On May 7 the possibility of repair and modernization of 43 AH-64E Apache Guardian combat helicopters of the Egyptian Armed Forces was approved by the US Department of State.