SOURCE: SPUTNIK
The US Army has weighed in on the host of helicopter designs submitted by defense firms for the service’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative and picked a total of four designs for its two helicopter needs. The firms will now build and test their entries against each other. The Army has picked two of the five helicopter designs submitted to the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competition: the RAIDER X, built by Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky, and the 360 Invictus, designed by Bell, which is owned by Textron Systems.
The same two firms are also competing with separate designs for the other FVL program, the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), which the Army picked last month. Bell’s FLRAA entry is the V-280 Valor and Sikorsky’s is the SB-1 Defiant.
The two design bureaus will now proceed to the second phase of the program, in which they will actually design, build and test their prototypes. Testing is expected by the end of 2022, and the Army will make its decision by the end of 2023 and hopefully have the aircraft in service by 2030.
Together, the programs will yield several new helicopter designs that will replace the gaps in capability created by the retirement of the AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk, OH-58 Kiowa Warrior and MH-6 Little Bird helicopters.
Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA)
“Our focus is on delivering capability for our Soldiers at the speed of relevance,” Gen. John M. Murray, Army Futures Command commanding general, said in a Wednesday news release. “We’re doing that here – providing opportunities for our industry partners to design, test, and build capability alongside our Soldiers to ensure that we win on a future battlefield.”
Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said in a statement that FARA is “the Army’s number one aviation modernization priority and is integral to effectively penetrate and disintegrate adversaries’ Integrated Air Defense Systems. It will enable combatant commanders with greater tactical, operational and strategic capabilities through significantly increased speed, range, endurance, survivability and lethality.”
The two FARA entries are starkly different. The helicopters are expected to be nimble and deadly, but also useful in transporting light loads.
Sikorsky’s RAIDER X is a coaxial design – that is, it has two sets of vertical rotors – giving it powerful lift capabilities, and there’s a propeller on the rear of the helicopter to push it along at a zippy 287 mph. The design is based on Lockheed’s S-97 Raider demonstrator aircraft and will be painted with a radar-absorbent coating somewhat similar to the paint used on Lockheed’s stealth aircraft, the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets.
Bell’s Invictus 360 offers a more traditional design, but with short blades to fit between buildings and a supplemental power unit for an extra boost. Bell has boasted the chopper will be able to be flown remotely as well, and it has an estimated top speed of 207 mph, meeting the Army’s requested specifications.
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