New Attack Choppers Supplement NC Guard Force
Longbow attack helicopters, equipped with fire-control radar for their Hellfire missiles joined the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion based at RDU.
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Twenty-four are expected to be in place by the end of the year.
The AH-64(D) Longbow aircraft are upgraded versions of the Army's Apache attack helicopters. The Longbow has improved fire-control radar and radar guided Hellfire missiles. The Army also ordered improved engines for the new model.
The choppers that came into service Sunday are part of the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion of the Guard's 130th Aviation Regiment. The 1st of the 130th is the first operational reserve unit in the Army to get the new model helicopter, Maj. Matt Handley, a Guard public information officer said.
Maj. Gen. William E. Ingram Jr., adjutant general of the state's National Guard, spoke at a ceremony marking the arrival.
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