On 1 Jul 2003 06:50:23 -0700, (tedster) wrote:

Apparently the debris problem on the Apaches was caused by a plug
covering the Hellfire motor not vaporising on firing. This could
damage the stabilizer. Don't know why this should have affected the UK
Apaches and not the US ones. Was there a problem with the CRV7 rockets
as well? It seems as though the MoD is taking the view that they will
put up with the debris from Hellfire as an additional maintenance
cost.

IIRC it was a slightly dodgy batch of missiles - good enough to pass
acceptance testing, not good enough to field. As the US has rather
more missiles, they were less affected.