October 23, 2007:
Israel is refusing to accept six
AH-64 Apache gunships from the U.S. manufacturer until it gets some guarantees,
and probably some modifications, that will enable the Israelis to do what they
want to do with the gunships. It turns out that the Israeli Apache pilots use
some maneuvers that, while technically within the AH-64s capabilities, have
been known to cause equipment failures. Most notably, there was an incident in
July, 2006, when an Israeli AH-64 lost a rotor, and crashed, killing both
pilots. Israel grounded all of its AH-64s for a while, until it discovered the
cause. Thus the intense negotiations with the Apache manufacturer. The Israeli
maneuvers are apparently not being used by any other nations that have the
gunship.