Boeing rolls out Apache fix

By Maximilian Kwiatkowski / July 18, 2018 at 11:31 AM

A retrofit to a defective part on the Army's AH-64E Apache helicopters is expected to be finished by December 2019, according to a service spokesman.

A new strap pack nut was designed by Boeing after a flaw in the old nut was found in 2016 to be the likely cause of a fatal accident in Galveston, TX.

The Army stopped accepting deliveries in February and is still not accepting new Apaches from Boeing and does not know when it will allow them to resume.

This nut keeps the main rotor blades secure, according Paul Stevenson, a spokesman for the program executive office for aviation.

"The issue was a material failure of the mega nut due to stress corrosion cracking," he said. "This is a critical safety issue."

Fielding of the new part began in June with the Texas National Guard. So far, the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade in Hawaii and the Mississippi National Guard are the only other units to have the parts replaced. The retrofit team is now at McChord Air Force Base, WA, working on two battalions' aircraft.

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