Apache Longbow helicopters are lithe, deadly birds. With the kind of training they do out of their headquarters near Raleigh-Durham International Airport, the citizen-soldiers in the N.C. National Guard’s 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion can swoop in just above the trees, dive on a target and fire one of three kinds of ammunition with almost no warning.
So skilled is the battalion, part of the 130th Aviation Regiment, that it has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11 without losing a single Apache.
It doesn’t want to lose them now.
But it could, under an aviation restructuring plan by the Army that would take all the National Guard’s Apaches, just under 200 aircraft from eight attack battalions across the country, including those of the 1-130th at Morrisville. The Army says it needs the helicopters so it can stop using the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, which it has been updating since the Vietnam War. And in a time of severe budget constraints, taking Apaches from the Guard is the least costly option.
h/t Buzz Cayton
