An interesting strike mission involved U.S. AH-64E Apaches teaming up with British AW159 Wildcat helicopters, which acted as forward reconnaissance units, relaying intelligence and designating targets for Hellfire missiles.
British and U.S. Army AH-64E Apaches operated together for the first time as part of a British-led battlegroup, which also included the U.K.’s AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopters. This happened during the biennial Saber Junction exercise at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels Training Area, southeastern Germany, from Aug. 25 to Sept. 19, 2024.
Described by participating officers of the U.K’s 4 Regiment Air Corps Battlegroup and their American counterparts as the “most realistic” exercise, this year’s edition sees the participation of 10 countries with more than 4,000 troops. The exercise allows the participants to practice the execution of unified land operations in a joint, combined environment and to promote interoperability with Allied and partner nations.
As part of the combined forces environment, the exercise used helicopter gunships and scout/reconnaissance helicopters to destroy enemy armor, tanks and mechanized infantry. The Forces News published a video of the drills, with interviews to the officers and personnel involved.
In one of the interviews, the commander of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade explained that current wars are being closely observed, defining them as “battle labs.” The lessons learned are being applied to the way the Army fights so it can evolve and be better prepared for future scenarios.
The Aviationist had reported how Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk marked the clash between the Western and Russian doctrines of ‘maneuver’ and ‘positional’ warfare, and to enhance the benefits of the former. Kyiv desperately needed attack helicopters and has also renewed its push for AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters from the U.S., which were initially meant for Slovakia but are now being possibly rejected.
The British battlegroup deployed for the exercise included British and U.S. AH-64E V6 Apaches, as well as U.K’s AW159 Wildcat helicopters, with a total of 405 personnel, 16 helicopters and over 100 vehicles. The British 4 Regiment, led by its commanding officer Lt. Col. Dave Lambert, has an Apache squadron of six helicopters in the battlegroup, to which is also assigned the U.S. Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade’s Charlie Company, led by Captain Cody Clinebell, with eight Apaches and the British 661 Squadron with two Wildcats.
Maneuvers and scenarios
The 12th CAB, based at Wiesbaden Army Airfield in Germany, received the first two units of the AH-64E V6 on Sep. 1, 2023. According to Lambert, 4 Regt has also been fielding the AH-64 Echo for about one year, immediately after the type was declared ready for frontline service in 2023, but this is the first time that they took the new helicopter to operate with the U.S. counterparts.
Both the UK and US units employ the AH-64E V6 variant, which has “multiple enhancements to the aircraft’s sensors, software, and weapons performance, and is designed for interoperability within the multi-domain operational ecosystem,” according to the U.S. Army. The new variant allows the use of the new AGM-179 JAGM (Joint Air-to-Ground Missile) and future integration of the Spike NLOS (Non-Line of Sight) missile.
The AH-64E V6 can also employ another mast-mounted system instead of its distinctive Longbow radar, the L3Harris’ Manned-Unmanned Teaming-Extended (MUMT-X) which allows to get full control of drones in the area. In the video it was possible to see some of the helicopters equipped with the Longbow radar, while others had the MUMT-X.
The Apache Company, assigned to 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, meanwhile is playing the part of the enemy. In addition to dismounted infantry, the specialized unit also employed M113 Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) to simulate the enemy throughout the exercise. These vehicles are replicating Russian Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) of the BMP series with a laser on the turret to simulate the BMP’s 25 mm cannon.
Let’s now talk about an interesting mission which saw American and British assets flying together. In this particular scenario, two British AH159 Wildcat helicopters flew 40 minutes ahead of the U.S. Army’s AH-64E Apaches in a “deep strike mission,” and sent back “vital information” which allowed the Apaches to successfully strike their target.
U.S. Army’s Capt. Clinebell mentioned earlier that, despite speaking the same language and using common systems, the two armies use different terminology and parlance, joking that they might need an “interpreter.” However, he also explained that exercises like this one allow to find these differences in a safe environment.
British Army’s Capt. Si Longworth, 661 Squadron’s Qualified Helicopter Instructor, described the drill and tactics employed by the Wildcats during this mission, which played “hide and seek” with the enemy using vegetation and terrain features to mask the helicopters while collecting intelligence.
Longworth said the Wildcats would be looking into a Target Area of Interest (TAI), a small region in the forested area where they need to find camouflaged enemy armor.
Maneuvering around the Battle Positions (BP) with their “playmate,” as the other Wildcat was referred to on the radio, the helicopters would “mask” or “unmask” from the tree line or a geographical feature to obtain a line-of-sight on the enemy. The helicopters try different BPs, moving around until they find their target and one of the Apaches fire a laser-guided missile, possibly an electronic-simulated launch of an AGM-114 Hellfire.
The Wildcat has a nose-mounted Electro-Optical (EO) system with a laser designator which can be used both to cue the Apache’s Hellfire or its own missiles. It’s unclear if the M113s were used as a simulated target or if a static dismissed tank was used as target similarly to gunnery ranges.
On a different note, it is interesting to see the Apaches, especially the American ones, fly with a forward recon-scout helicopter like the Wildcat, after the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior was retired. As The Aviationist had noted in the past, this was exactly how the Apaches were designed to fight in the Cold War, with scout helicopters looking for Soviet tank columns and Apaches destroying them with volleys of Hellfires.
The final battle.#SkySoldiers 🪂 completed exercise Saber Junction 24 strong after a grueling month of training in Hohenfels, Germany 🪖🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/gHXIno0qTJ
— 173rdAirborneBrigade (@173rdAbnBde) September 18, 2024
Russian tactics
It is fascinating how both the western maneuver and Russian positional doctrines are even ideologically opposed, each with their own advantages, and how Russian ground forces have shown consistency in their unconventional use of their land systems.
Despite a stable defense industrial base consistently supplying abundant armored, mechanized infantry and helicopter gunships, it has not used them in breakthrough roles on Ukrainian lines head on. Put differently, it is ironically in a more suitable position to undertake Kursk-like thrusts, when it is Ukraine that lacks the equipment yet carries out such periodical tactical surprises.
Rather, Russia uses uses its tanks like the T-80BVMs and T-90s for indirect fire support and armored ambushes, IFVs for area defense and infantry for defensive offenses into Ukrainian trenches, while Mi-35 Hind, Mi-28 Havoc and Ka-52 Alligators are used in long-range standoff strikes with 9-A-4172K Vikhr-1 ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) against Ukraine’s Western-origin armor. The few armor-on-armor contacts have been chance encounters when either side launches small, localized counter-attacks.
1/ A still from a newly uploaded Russian MoD video showing a Ka-52 equipped with four 9-A-4172K Vikhr-1 ATGMs, two B8V20-A rocket pods (in this case, loaded with 20x 80mm S-8KOM folding-fin aircraft rockets (FFARs) each), and an external fuel tank – a very commonly seen loadout. pic.twitter.com/ppeFEJppYq
— Guy Plopsky (@GuyPlopsky) July 4, 2023
Russia can easily send its tanks, IFVs and infantry, supported by synergized overhead attack helicopter strikes and artillery fires to plough through Ukrainian positions like the US and NATO armies have been practicing. A reason why it doesn’t could be that it aims to maintain an even tempo of operations, defined by its ‘long war’ doctrine. This choses slow, incremental gains over quick and sweeping victories, which require more resources, expended at a faster rate.
