A U.S. Apache attack helicopter appears in China. Did they clone it?

The Aviationist – by David Cenciotti

Images have surfaced on the Chinese Internet of what seems to be an actual AH-64D Apache or a real-size copy of the world’s most famous attack chopper.

The helicopter, on a truck, seems to be in the process of being moved even if it is at least strange that it is is not hidden below a protective covering, as happened for other mysterious choppers spotted on the move in China.

It’s not easy to guess how Beijing put their hands on the helicopter. It could be one of the U.S. Army Apaches downed or crash landed in Iraq, that was later fixed and exported in China.  

A famous episode is the one of the AH-64 shot down intact during the 2003 attack on Karbala, during which the two US pilots were captured and shown on television along with the helicopter: still, Pentagon later stated the Apache had been destroyed with an airstrike the day following the capture.

Or, it may be a perfect copy of the Boeing AH-64: China has already shown its ability to create clones of the American most advanced weapons systems.

Image via Chinadefense blog. H/T to Ugo Crisponi for the heads-up

http://theaviationist.com/2013/10/14/apache-clone/#.UlzIKxB6TPQ

6 thoughts on “A U.S. Apache attack helicopter appears in China. Did they clone it?

  1. Maybe it’s a mock up of the real thing and they are just playing mind games with the US. I hope it doesn’t put Obama off his game! What’s his handicap again?

  2. I think China cracked the security measures which guard the Apache’s design on Bell’s computers. Industrial espionage-come-spying. When the Russians copied the Concorde’s design to produce the Concordski they actually had to get their hands on the hard copy blueprints, in either France or Britain, but I doubt that’s necessary today and that itself is a major design weakness.

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