Apache AH-64E. (Photo: Boeing)
On 14 October 2026, Israel officially signed an approximately US$1 billion contract for a fleet of 12 Apache AH-64E helicopters, marking a significant reversal of earlier fleet-reduction plans to retire a portion of its decades-old AH-64 platforms.
The change of course was driven by operational lessons following the 7 October 2023 attacks and ensuing conflict in Gaza, with the scale of the assault highlighting a capability gap for the Israeli Air Force as it exposed the limitations of the force’s ageing Apache fleet.
To address this, the Israeli government announced plans to procure up to 30 new AH-64Es, in two
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