The US Army’s Apache helicopters are crashing at a historically high rate amid a widespread problem with the model’s transmission, according to a CNN analysis of military accident data.
The helicopter type has experienced five major crashes since October, and a deadly mishap earlier this month in Texas killed two soldiers, sparked a wildfire and led the Army to temporarily bar Apache pilots from conducting routine training flights. With that crash, fiscal year 2026 is on pace to be the second worst for Apache flight accidents since a new model of the AH-64 was rolled out in 2011.
The Army announced that the pause in training flights, which exempted units deployed to the Middle East, ended Wednesday.
This is what an un-audited military gets you. Auditing the pentagon’s budget is a matter of serious national security. If they don’t submit to one, they are not defending the nation so should be completely defunded.
Yep. It’s obvious if you pay attention to real veteran complaints about the va not having enough resources or always denying claims. The money is being funneled to those at the top
The purpose of the MIC is to funnel money to wealthy contractors
MIC stock goes brrrrrrr
I’m picturing the selection process for pilots to be the same as Battlefield games where it’s first person to get in the vehicle.
Behold: The commoditized military!
Military as a Service.
Mercenaries offered by private companies have been a thing in Murica for ages
Yeah. They’re called cops now. :)
Oh…
No…
I am SOOOOOO concerned…
Anyway…
There is something special je ne sais quoi about the Apache helicopter.
So much winning.
Saved you a click: Five “notable” crashes
CNN estimated this year’s major Apache crash rate to be approximately 6.24 per every 100,000 flying hours. Thus far in fiscal year 2026 [Oct 2025 - 2026], five Class A flight mishaps involving the attack helicopter have occurred. The Apache, through August 15, had flown approximately 80,171 hours. Fiscal year 2024, by comparison, had a rate of 7.02 major crashes per 100,000 hours for the aircraft.
As far as I can tell, the official data combines multiple categories of incident into the total - the “Class A flight mishap” is what we think of as a crash (helicopter fall down, go boom), and the unreported rest are everything from "Huey Louie landed too rough for nosegear-kun >_< " to “engine fell out and they plummeted, but lived”. It’s not a great article, but it looks like they’re doing the best they can with the data they have.
Engineers are woke. We DOGEd em all because we care about your freedom
Did somebody stupid cut servicing checks, along with healthcare, environment and essential checks.
pmcs can only help if you have the logtrain to service and supply it.
I suspect there’s large chunks of the military that are pencil whipping the shit outta everything, because they know it’s pointless
Don’t forget removal of oversight of QA, parts custody, etc.
Let’s not jump to obvious conclusions when Joe Biden is likely to blame.
What are you talking about, this was obviously Clintons fault
It’s peanuts! Oh, and talking about peanuts - it’s Carter’s fault.
I blame Lincoln. Ending slavery put the southern economy in the shitter.
Now look at the gas prices!
A lot of comments on here didn’t read the article and/or simply don’t know how aviation or military aviation works.
Some blaming the current administration even though the article notes a slightly higher accident rate in 2024. The current model Helicopter was fielded in 2011, and the article doesn’t mention when the transmission issues began.
This could be a maintenance problem, a Boeing problem. Is Boeing or an army subcontractor rebuilding the transmissions?
I just did inspections on some gearboxes because the incorrect self-locking nuts were used. I’ve seen a series of accidents caused by o-rings made out of spec internal to hydraulic servos. I remember NASA killing a crew due to o-ring issues. I remember a few decades ago Airbus had a series of helicopter accidents where the main rotors detached due to a gear in the main transmissions being hardened incorrectly. Before all that De Haviland Comets were coming apart in air due to metal fatigue.We should be concerned with the reaction to and correction of the issues. The Army has grounded training flights, which they should. Not long ago the V-22 fleet was grounded for like a year while clutch failures were investigated.
Just because YOU’VE only just heard of an issue doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a long standing issue nor that it’s the fault of whoever is in charge right now. We need more information before we start finger pointing.
Though Boeing has been on a downhill trend since the McDonald Douglas takeover.
That’s what happens when you put some dipshit who thinks militaries should be only “warriors” when all of history tells you successful militaries are logistics engines first and foremost
And worse, when professionalism is replaced with naked sycophancy and corruption.
I wonder how many thousands are gonna get fucked up by being roided up on testosterone supplements they never needed.
Let me guess, AI decided to extend certain maintenance schedules and the wrenches who know better were ordered to go along with it.
Boeings doing what Boeings always do, nothing different about the Boeing.
hope it’s not mechanical issues but instead actual attack.
Once upon a time I would find this sad because USA was an ally defending democracy and freedom, or at least so I thought.
But honestly today, I don’t give a shit.Fuck USA.
They never, ever, defended democracy.
We straight up installed dictators and over threw democracies all over the world in the fight against communism because they decided to vote in more left leaning politicians.
Quite the opposite in fact 🤷
America sided with the defense in both world wars and Korea. For much of the 20th Century America was the good guys who defended democracy in other countries. Then Nixon and neoliberalism turn America into what it is today. But the US was good.
You’ve been fed some horseshit dichotomy of good guy vs bad guy when nothing could be further from the truth. The world doesn’t work on such simple terms, and america is responsible for destabilizing much of central and south american democracies under the pretense of defending against communism since the end of WW2. The US was never good.
So good that, for example, in 1954 Eisenhower’s CIA overthrew democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz.
Let’s also not forget the 1953 Iranian coup d’état.
1954 Eisenhower’s CIA overthrew democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz
Also Eisenhower’s assassination of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.
It always cracks me up when people quote his warning about the industrial war complex. It’s like a guy who just mugged you then warns you afterwards that the alley you walked down is really dangerous… Thanks I guess?
Wasn’t that speech essentially an expression of regret and admission that he did the wrong thing? That was always the impression I got anyway, and what gives his words even more weight.
Not really, in the same speech he doubled down on the need to rapidly increase the arms industry to combat the Soviets.
sided with the defense in both world wars and Korea
Eh… Defense doesn’t = good guys, especially when considering Korea. The government in South Korea was basically a war crimes machine being driven by an evil dictator.
Then Nixon and neoliberalism turn America into what it is today. But the US was good.
So long as you ignore the entirety of the southern hemisphere. It’s hard to claim they really cared about democracy when they overthrew several democracies in Africa and centra/south america just to install fascist dictators.
You do realize that Native Americans didn’t have the right to vote until the 1970s right? Even in the 20th century America was not a bastion of democracy, and that’s glossing over the Trail of Tears and the whole slavery thing from the previous centuries…
South Korea was a military junta at that time. Can you explain how you feel that is defending democracy?
Can you also explain how you feel the world wars were about democracy? Democratic levels on both sides of the wars were roughly even
Here in the grand ole USA we defend concepts even higher than the ideal of democracy first and foremost. Fruit companies. Oil. Shareholder value. HOO-RAH!
I’m very well aware of the failings of the US, but to claim that the US has “never, ever” been on the side of the “good guys” is manifestly false. Specifically: WW2.
WW2
You’re gonna hate to learn they needed to be paid-off to get into that conflict. “But but but mercenaries for the good guys that time” doesn’t hit so hard.
deleted by creator
defending democracy and freedom
When exactly if I may ask
That’s the American propaganda. It’s so good most people actually believed the USA was a bastion of freedom and democracy. People are finally waking up. Hopefully they won’t just vote blue and pretend like the dems are totally about freedom and democracy.
I just watched a cute little YT video, Satan’s Guide to the Bible, that addressed the made up origin story of Israel (among other things) that is openly taught in credible Divinity Schools, that pastors just… ignore when preaching. And I get it, because the mobs would “leave not one alive.” But it is very sad how we cling so tightly to our myths without the ability to acknowledge that’s all they are, while allowing them to dictate ethos and government.
- WW2
But to be fair, that is pretty much the only unambiguous example that comes to mind.
It is a totally ambiguous example. The US under Truman partnered with the Vatican to save almost 10k Nazis from trial and spread them all over the US sphere of influence with protection, money, jobs, property, etc. and then it immediately took over imperial Japan’s holding of Korea, established a fascist military dictatorship, and killed a million civilians in the North. Around the same time it protected the KMT in the province of Taiwan during the White Terror wherein the KMT established a fascist government that killed tens of thousands of civilians for political control.
It’s completely ambiguous whether or not the US was fighting for freedom or liberty.
I’m afraid npt even that was the case
