673sq is back!

On 11 December 2020, 673 squadron at Middle Wallop ceased all flight operations. This squadron is also known as the Attack Helicopter Training Unit (AHTU), and as such provided the British Army Air Corps with Apache aircrew conversion  training. On this date, all eight Apache AH1 helicopters assigned to the squadron flew in formation to Wattisham.

On 8 June 2022, the squadron was back in business when two AH-64E Apache Guardians (ZM708 and ZM716) were delivered to Middle Wallop. They were followed by two more later in the same month, one on 16 June (ZM714) and one a week later, on 23 June (ZM702).

All were prepared for servide by 7REME at Wattisham, and it is expected that four more Apache Guardians will be delivered to 673sq soon, to bring the unit compliment back up to eight helicopters.

In associated news, on 21 July 2022, the final two Apache AH1s to be inducted into the Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP) left Wattisham by road to RAF Brize Norton.

The pair (ZJ199 and ZJ209) will be flown as air freight to the United States where Science and Engineering Service (SES) at Huntsville (AL) is contracted to remove all re-usable parts for the AH-64E conversion programme.

In total fifty Apache AH1s have now been inducted into these programmes, leaving fourteen Apache AH1s operational at Wattisham for the time being. These will be retired once sufficient AH-64Es and aircrew are available for operational missions.

Photo AH-64E ZM706: Melchior Timmers