November 12, 1999 -
ARMY TO INSPECT APACHE TRANSMISSIONS
Army Grounds Attack Helicopters
By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Many of the Army's 743 Apache attack helicopters
will be grounded for up to 10 months to replace tail rotor bearings blamed
in a crash early this year, the Pentagon says.
Apaches used in Bosnia, Kosovo, South Korea and other high-priority
operations will get fixed first; others will have to await a restarting
of the bearing production line, officials said Tuesday.
When the Army disclosed Friday that it would inspect the full fleet
of Apaches to determine which carried the defective bearing assemblies,
it did not indicate the grounded copters would be out of action for an
extended period. It said it anticipated ``no problems with readiness''
in the fleet.
Asked for additional details Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman P.J. Crowley
said nearly all 743 Apaches had been inspected and that about 400 will
require bearing replacements. He said it will take eight to 10 months to
get all the aircraft back in operation. And because there are too few spare
bearings in Army stocks to complete the work, the manufacturer will have
to restart production.
Crowley said it could take as long as three months for first deliveries
of the new-production bearings.
``We will have substantial numbers of these helicopters that will
not fly for the next three months or so as they accelerate the production
of these replacement bearing assemblies,'' Crowley said.
The Apache, made by Boeing Co., is the Army's best attack helicopter.
The replacement work is expected to cost about $13.5 million, the
spokesman said.
The decision to inspect the full fleet was made when the Army recently
determined that the bearing was the cause of an Apache crash in January
at Fort Rucker, Ala., in which the helicopter was destroyed and the two-man
crew suffered minor injuries. Investigators determined that a heating process
used by Boeing to make the bearing assembly extra hard led to stress corrosion
fractures in the bearing.