$2,400,000,000. Any questions why the Defense Budget cuts are being fought so vehemently? These are amazing craft, but that number is for just one type of helicopter. Not fuel, weaponry maintenance nor training. These are some Angry Birds!

Just imagine the profits which the Pentagon approves for our War Machine...and the decisions made to make sure we keep improving them.

That's a lot of rotor wash.

Boeing has now produced more than 1200 of its fearsome US$20 million AH-64 multi-role attack helicopter, but with the first deliveries of the latest AH-64D Apache Block III this week, the capabilities of the 36 year old design have been lifted significantly. The Block III Apache incorporates 26 new technologies, a vastly improved 3,400 shaft horsepower drive system with a split-torque face gear transmission, a new composite main rotor blade, an enhanced digital electronic control unit, better performance and more payload, which effectively equals either more range, or more firepower.