American Heroes Channel


 * "Military Channel" redirects here. For the U.S. military's official channel, see The Pentagon Channel. For a similarly named competitor owned by A+E Networks, see Military History (TV channel).

The American Heroes Channel (AHC), formerly known as the Military Channel, and Discovery Wings Channel, is an American cable and satellite television network which broadcasts television programming related to the military, warfare and military history. It is part of the group of networks owned by Discovery Communications within the United States and Canada.

For its previous name as the Military Channel until the relaunch in March 2014, approximately 62,255,000 American households (54.51% of households with television) receive the channel as of August 2013.

Background
The channel was launched on September 13, 1999 as Discovery Wings, which focused on aircraft and aerospace. Because of its original focus, many of the Military Channel's shows are dedicated to aerial warfare and related technologies and issues. An unrelated start-up cable TV network, which also used the name The Military Channel, went dark in 1999 and later went bankrupt. Themed to the heroes, history, and hardware of the international military scene, the Louisville, Kentucky-based channel experienced difficulty raising capital, despite early success. Discovery filed their trademark application for the name "Military Channel" in 2002 after it was abandoned.

On January 10, 2005 the network was rebranded as the Military Channel. In 2005, the channels' first live programming was aired from Philadelphia at the site of the Army–Navy college football game, two hours before kickoff. FOX broadcaster Chris Myers hosted from a set outside Lincoln Financial Field. AHC is a sponsor of the USO and frequently runs commercials for that organization.

Actor Dennis Haysbert provides voiceover work for AHC promos.

In March 2014, the channel was rebranded as American Heroes Channel, with the intent to "provide more history based, narrative-style documentary programming."

Programming
Many of the channel's shows are war documentaries, the contents of which deal in large part with modern warfare, and in particular the U.S. military from World War II on. Whereas the History, Military History, and H2 channels show similar programming, they tend to show more programs about other time periods and cultures (ancient, Roman, Medieval, Eastern, and other forms of warfare). The Military Channel has a more contemporary subject matter than those competitors, but it occasionally presents historical programming as well.

In addition, the channel also presents feature films with a military theme (usually within the hosted movie series An Officer and a Movie, hosted by Lou Diamond Phillips), as well as individual episode of other shows (such as Belly of the Beast, Build It Bigger, Extreme Machines, Timewatch and Unsolved History), which have military-related content. These are often shows produced for other Discovery Communications-owned channels. Among the programs available on this channel are:


 * Anatomy Of ...
 * At Sea
 * Battle of the Atlantic
 * Battleplan
 * Clash of Wings
 * The Color of War
 * Combat Countdown
 * Combat Tech
 * Combat Zone
 * Commanders at War
 * Edge of War
 * Escape to the Legion
 * Firepower
 * First Command
 * The First World War
 * Future Weapons
 * G.I. Factory
 * Greatest Tank Battles
 * Great Planes
 * The Greatest Ever


 * Heroes of World War II
 * Hitler's Bodyguard
 * Mission Demolition
 * Missions that Changed the War
 * Modern Sniper
 * Narrow Escapes of World War II
 * Navy SEALs: Untold Stories
 * Nazi Collaborators
 * Normandy: The Great Crusade
 * Officer and a Movie
 * Quest for Sunken Warships
 * The Secret War
 * Secrets of World War II
 * Showdown: Air Combat
 * Special Ops Mission
 * Special Forces: Untold Stories
 * Stealth Secrets
 * Surviving the Cut
 * Tank Overhaul


 * Top Sniper
 * Top Ten
 * Toughest Military Jobs
 * Triggers: Weapons That Changed the World
 * 20th Century Battlefields
 * Ultimate Weapons
 * Weapon Masters
 * Weaponology
 * Weaponizers
 * Weapons Races
 * Weapons of World War II
 * Wings of the Luftwaffe
 * Wings Over Vietnam
 * World at War
 * World's Deadliest Aircraft
 * World War I in Colour
 * World War II In HD Colour