“Te army has two capability gaps,” says Tim Malia, director of Future
Vertical Lift Light at Sikorsky. “One is how will they do the attack/recon mission against future threats. Te other is how will they do long-range assaults. Tey both come up in the Future Vertical Lift program, but I don’t see them competing against each other [for congressional funding]. Tey’re complementary.” Accordingly, while Sikorsky officials downplay the connection or
potential connection between the two FVL program competitions—the scout/attack (FARA) aircraft and the long-range assault/utility (Black Hawk replacement) aircraft—the company clearly views this as an opportunity to use one technology package, the X2 compound helicopter technology, to win two major procurement competitions.
Advancing Helicopter Technology Sikorsky believes its experience, first with the X2 demonstrator and more recently with the Raider, gives it a huge head start. Each of the factors that the army has asked competitors in the FVL competitions to address with the aircraft they will enter already were being addressed by the S-97 Raider—before the army issued those requirements. Speed, fuel efficiency, maneuverability, noise signature, and physical
size are all key elements in the army’s decision criteria for its new scout/ attack FARA vertical-lift aircraft, along with, of course, purchase price and operating costs. Commonality, or the lack thereof, with other army
aircraft also eventually could factor into the FARA decision. Hence Sikorsky leaders’ quiet eagerness to win that fly-off as a means of boosting the SB>1 Defiant’s chances of winning the Black Hawk replacement aircraft competition later on. “Speed is increasingly important in the modern battlefield,” Malia
says. “Te enemy’s ability to keep us based further away from the fight by their use of regular weapons—think mortars—means our warfighters have to transit farther distances to get to the fight. So the aircraft has to have the range to go that far. And its speed becomes more relevant in order to make up the time lost by having to cover more ground to reach the fight. “Te second element of speed is when your guys get into a rapid-
response situation and ground troops are being threatened by the enemy. You’ve got that ‘golden hour’—or less, usually a lot less—to get there and protect those troops. “And the third element of speed is survivability. It’s just harder to hit
something that’s moving fast,” he says. “And our X2 technology meets the speed requirement very well, whether we’re talking about the scout/ attack mission or the long-range assault mission.” Chris Van Buiten, vice president of innovations at Sikorsky, says the
company long has recognized that speed and range, the helicopter’s natural limiting factors, eventually would have to be addressed by manufacturers.
Attend safety, operations, and maintenance presentations from high-level air medical industry professionals and the FAA. Industry leaders, managers, operators, pilots, and mechanics are encouraged to attend.
May 8–9, 2019 • Hilton Crystal City
at Washington Reagan National Airport Arlington, VA
Register and book housing at
rotor.org/amsc
HAI discounted hotel rate of $279/night ends April 7
32 ROTOR WINTER 2019
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