MSPO 2025 — In the wake of the US Army disclosing a plan to cancel the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), Boeing will focus on the design of a next-generation Apache AH-64F attack helicopter in an effort to find an alternative way of increasing the capabilities of the aircraft.
The blueprint of the more advanced Apache would revolve around reducing its weight and a composite designed fuselage so the service could operate the helicopter out to a timeframe of 2060 to 2070, according to Terry Jamison, director of attack helicopter programs at Boeing.
“We are ready to respond either way,” if ITEP is cut or goes ahead, he told Breaking Defense at the MSPO trade show in Kielce, Poland, today.
The F-model variant would focus on “reducing the weight of the aircraft to bring more payload and more capability into it [the in production AH-64E Apache Guardian] because ITEP was going to give us a little bit more power,” shared Jamison. “So now we’re focused on [learning] where can we use composites in the fuselage.”
Serving as a powerplant replacement for both the Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter and based off General Electric’s T901, ITEP’s leading priorities are a 50 percent increase in horsepower and a 25 percent improved fuel efficiency rate. But the troubled program had suffered disruption, including delays, prior to the US Army’s cancellation plan.
It is not the first time Boeing has disclosed plans for an F model, with the US Army rejecting a previous concept in 2016 which at the time, was looked upon as a bridge solution ahead of Future Vertical Lift (FVL) aircraft development.
The new push behind reviving the next-generation helicopter design is distinctive from the last iteration because it does not center on high speed and is grounded in a series of “joint working sessions” with the US Army to determine “requirements” held over the last two years, according to Jamison.
At an operational level, the concept of Apache helicopters striking targets with air-launched effects for future missions, in theory at least, makes high speed flight for the rotorcraft less of a priority.
“Whether or not [high speed is] going to be a customer requirement, I just don’t know at this point,” said Jamison.
In the near term, Boeing continues to work through the US Army contracted Multi-Year II (MY2) Apache order, with a ceiling of $3.8 billion, initially signed in 2023.
MY2 production will finish in the summer of 2028, and then “Poland will fill those production spots” on Boeing’s line at Mesa, Ariz., out to 2031, explained Jamison.
In 2022, under the KRUK attack helicopter program, Warsaw announced the acquisition of 96 Apaches, the largest export order of the aircraft.
Jamison noted that new or additional orders for the AH-64 depend on future decisions from Canada, India, Indonesia and Romania.
“There’s a continued demand internationally for this capability and … we’re anxious and ready to support” it, he said.