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American Morning
Target: Terrorism - Army Trains Pilots on Apache Longbow at Fort Rucker
Aired October 02, 2001 - 11:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From your money, to possible military action, the U.S. seems poised for a strike against Afghanistan. The military hardware now in place or soon will be in many parts and American troops on alert. With more on this and the U.S. approach, CNN's Catherine Callaway at Fort Rucker in Dothan, Alabama with more. Catherine, hello to you.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you. We are at Fort Rucker, the home of Army aviation. If you are an Army aviator you spent some time here at Fort Rucker training -- sometimes more than once. It's a tremendous facility. But once again, this is a training facility. 63,000 acres here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
The training fields alone take up some 32,000 acres. Big operation, there's about 14,000 employees. We are going to take you now to show what you some of the students do here. They're training about 1200 students per year here at Fort Rucker. They're trained in classrooms, they're trained in simulators. They are, of course, trained in the air. Some 150 hours spent in the air depending on the aircraft that are -- they're being trained on. And there are a number of aircraft here the pilots are learning it fly, including the Chinook, the Black Hawk, the Kiowa, the Apache, and the Apache Longbow, which is the newest attack helicopter for the Army.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(on camera): Brett Armstrong is joining us, standing here in front of the one of the new Apache Longbows. Brett Armstrong, you were an aviator in the Gulf War. What did you fly in the Gulf War?
BRETT ARMSTRONG: I flew alpha-model Apachees in the Gulf War,.
CALLAWAY: What's the difference between that Apache and the one you are standing in front of now.
ARMSTRONG: Well, essentially in the alpha-model Apache we can shoot laser guided missiles -- the Longbow we have radar-guided missiles, utilizing the radar above the rotor system.
CALLAWAY: So what you are seeing here on the top of this aircraft is the radar system that the other Apache did not have. ARMSTRONG: That's correct.
CALLAWAY: And what this does is helps you guide the missiles here that we see below.
ARMSTRONG: Right. We have laser-guided or radar-guided missiles. That allows us more flexibility and more survivability over the alpha model Apache.
CALLAWAY: Would you have liked to have had this in the Gulf War?
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely. It would have been -- been much better.
CALLAWAY: Tell us about how much training it takes to learn to fly one of these.
ARMSTRONG: Quite a bit. About 60 hours. Most of that is learning to fly night system. That's probably the most difficult phase of this aircraft. We use a forward-looking infrared, and it is fairly difficult.
CALLAWAY: Let's take a look now if we can roll the video. Last night we went out while they were flying the Apaches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Not the Apache Longbow, the other Apache. Firing some of their missiles there. Using their night vision. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- an incredible system. You said this is the -- what actually takes the pilots the longest to learn because you're looking through -- you're not looking out of the aircraft, you're looking through a view finder.
ARMSTRONG: That's correct. We are using a sensor. And essentially the pilot is looking through this little screen attached to his flight helmet.
CALLAWAY (on camera): Let's come out of video and give people an idea of what you are talking about. So the pilots are actually looking through this and not the window of the aircraft.
ARMSTRONG: That's correct.
CALLAWAY: That has to take a tremendous amount of concentration. How do you train a pilot to do that?
ARMSTRONG: Well, it's very difficult. It takes quite a bit of time. I think again, that takes up probably between a third and a half of the actual time they're in their training on this aircraft is just flying night sensor -- night system.
CALLAWAY: Alright, thank you very much for joining us, Brett Armstrong
ARMSTRONG: My pleasure.
CALLAWAY: An incredible amount of training here. Some students spend more than year here. They may come back to learn to fly another aircraft and make their second visit to Fort Rucker. And now back to you.
HEMMER: Alright, Catherine, the technology at times can be daunting. Amazing stuff here. Catherine Callaway in Dothan, Alabama with us.
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