As the name suggests, the primary mission of the FLRAA long-range aircraft attacks carrying both troops and cargo internally and externally was tossed downwards. Draft art released by Lockheed Martin and Boeing of the Defiant X shows the helicopters carrying cargo containers and the 155 mm M777 towed tow bar as an example.
“One of the key words here is versatility,” Heather McBryan, Boeing’s director of sales and marketing for Future Vertical Lift, said at a rally ahead of today’s official announcement. ‘Although the FLRAA mission is more than just flying fast, and although we know that the tempo mission is the air attack mission, this aircraft will be asked to do a lot of other things daily and our design and capability really offer the extreme leverage for such types of missions. ”
The Army is also looking at the winning FLRAA design as a replacement for at least some of the specially configured MH-60L / M helicopters assigned to the 160th Special Operational Aviation Regiment (SOAR). Requirements outlined for the service in 2018 also included the discussion of a possible setup for the U.S. Marine Corps.
It is understood that there is already foreign interest in the FLRAA competition, also within NATO, which is very meaningful, given how many countries worldwide use UH-60s or other similar helicopters, which in many cases also need to be increasingly replaced. . NATO is also now looking at a potential intra-European design to meet these requirements.
The army’s current goal is to issue a formal request on 30 September for proposals for the FLRAA program before the end of the 2021 financial year on 20 September and to select a winner in the following 2022 financial year. The hope is that the first examples will be operational by 2030.
It remains to be seen exactly what Bell’s offer will look like, but just as Defiant X is based on the SB> 1 Defiant, the proposal will probably be obtained directly from the tilt rotor V-280 Valor and based on his own experience in the demonstration effort. of JMR technology.