The first batch of four Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters arrived at the Hindon air base in Ghaziabad on Saturday, while another four choppers will be delivered next week. The Air Force will formally induct these helicopters by August-end or early September. These helicopters will be based at Pathankot, Punjab.

The Apache is the first attack helicopter from the US in India’s defence arsenal. The helicopters were flown in from Boeing’s US facility in a heavy-lift cargo plane Russian-built Antonov.

In the first sign of tactical shift, India had ordered the C-130 strategic lift planes and the C-17 heavy lift planes a decade ago. Last year, the US-made M-777 ultra light howtizers had been inducted, but these were the ground-based platform not an air-borne one. At present, the Air Force uses Soviet/Russian-origin Mi-25/Mi-35 attack helicopters.

These are tasked with tank formations and one such unit is based at Pathankot. By 2020, the IAF will operate a fleet of 22 Apaches which were ordered by the Ministry of Defence in 2015. Separately, New Delhi has cleared the acquisition of an additional six Apaches for the Army in 2017.