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Boeing/Sikorsky and Bell to shape future U.S. military helicopter

By Vertical Mag | August 13, 2014

Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 8 seconds.

What will the future helicopter look like for the U.S. military? The list of serious contenders for the first part of the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) program (medium variant) has been narrowed to two — Bell’s V-280 Valor third-generation tiltrotor and the SB>1 Defiant from partners Boeing and Sikorsky, which is based off the compound design of Sikorsky’s X2 technology demonstrator (and subsequent S-97 Raider military variant).
The U.S. Army is moving forward with the first phase of the JMR technology demonstrator (TD), a precursor to Future Vertical Lift (FVL). The contract could lead to the purchase of up to 4,000 next-generation helicopters that will replace Boeing AH-64 Apache and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk fleets starting in the 2030s. Both teams will produce flying demonstrators over the next three years, with flight testing and design analysis set to take place during the second half of 2017. 
While two other upstarts — AVX Aircraft Company of Benbrook, Texas, and Lake Forest, Calif.-based Karem Aircraft — didn’t get the thumbs up, it doesn’t mean they are out of the picture. According to the Army, JMR-TD is part of a Technology Investment Agreements contract that runs through 2019, so AVX and Karem will continue to develop FVL variants, while elements of the technology developed could still be incorporated into the final selection. The military will harvest the science and technology research from all four vendors through 2019, and then hold a competitive acquisition process for the new FVL, noted Dan Bailey, program director for the JMR-TD/FVL program at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center, during a panel in early July.
Lockheed Martin is a tier one supplier for the V-280 program, providing the mission systems, with other partners announced to date to include Astronics Advanced Electric Systems for power distribution, Eaton for hydraulics, Meggitt for the fuel system and Moog, which is designing the flight control system.
What remains to be seen is how sequestration and defense spending cutbacks by the U.S. government will impact the timeline of the JMR/FVL program. While U.S. Army Aviation leaders have insisted in recent months that funding is set aside for the program and potential delays are built into the estimates, military aircraft programs — especially large-scale developments involving new designs — are notorious for taking longer than originally projected.

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