Exploding shells may turn the Apache helicopter into a drone hunter

Photo: Apache helicopters with the South Carolina National Guard lift off during Operation Flyswatter, a counter-drone exercise at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, on Aug. 12, 2025. Photo credit: U.S. Army National Guard / Sgt. Ana-Grace Catoe. Public Domain. Article by Meghann Myers. Defense One – April 23, 2026.

NASHVILLE—The Army thinks its Apache helicopters, developed a half-century ago to kill Soviet tanks, might offer a solution to enemy drones two or three orders of magnitude smaller. As the service races to mold a counter-drone strategy based on lessons from Ukraine and now Iran, it is testing AH-64s armed with rockets and proximity-fuzed shells against drones weighing over 50 pounds, officials said recently during the Army Aviation Warfighting Summit. […]

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