Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin firm, filed a proper protest as we speak asking the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) to evaluation the U.S. Military’s resolution on the Future Lengthy-Vary Assault Plane (FLRAA) contract. Boeing helps the protest filed by Group DEFIANT companion, asking the GAO to evaluation the Military’s resolution. Based mostly on an intensive evaluation of the knowledge and suggestions offered by the Military, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky, on behalf of Group DEFIANT, is difficult the FLRAA resolution. The information and discussions lead us to consider the proposals weren’t constantly evaluated to ship the very best worth within the curiosity of the Military, our Troopers and American taxpayers. The vital significance of the FLRAA mission to the Military and our nation requires essentially the most succesful, reasonably priced and lowest-risk resolution.
The Future Lengthy-Vary Assault Plane (FLRAA) program was initiated by the US Military in 2019 to develop a successor to the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter as a part of the Future Vertical Raise program. The UH-60, developed within the early Seventies, has been in service since June 1979. Just like the UH-60, FLRAA variants would additionally serve United States Particular Operations Command and the US Marine Corps. Below the present Joint Multi-Function Expertise Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program, the Military has been gathering knowledge from flying prototype designs that might fill the FLRAA function. The Military posted a request for info (RFI) in April 2019, which was supposed to establish producers. On December 5, 2022, the Military chosen the Bell Textron V-280 Valor powered by Rolls-Royce engines for the FLRAA contract award.
Commercial
FLRAA is a part of the Future Vertical Raise (FVL) program; in 2016, Main Basic William Gayler declared the primary FVL plane would fill the medium-lift function.[4] The proposed FLRAA program schedule overlaps with the FARA procurement, which can be a part of FVL. FARA would supply a light-lift helicopter for the armed reconnaissance/scout function that was beforehand stuffed by the Bell OH-58 Kiowa till its retirement in 2014. The FVL program is headed by Brigadier Basic Wally Rugen; in accordance with Rugen, primarily based on the information gathered throughout JMR-TD with the Bell V-280 Valor and the Sikorsky–Boeing SB-1 Defiant, the Military was prepared to maneuver on to open competitors for the FLRAA contract. In March 2020, the Military awarded aggressive demonstration contracts to Bell and Sikorsky/Boeing, the FLRAA necessities are met by the Valor and Defiant candidate designs, respectively.
The Sikorsky–Boeing SB-1 Defiant (stylized as “SB>1”; firm designation S-100) is the Sikorsky Plane and Boeing entry for the US Military’s Future Lengthy-Vary Assault Plane program to switch the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. Sikorsky and Boeing state the design is to have a cruise pace of 250 kn (460 km/h), however much less vary on account of utilizing the “previous” T55 engine. A brand new engine, the Future Reasonably priced Turbine Engine (FATE), is to fulfill the radius requirement of 229 nmi (424 km). In comparison with typical helicopters, the counter-rotating coaxial principal rotors and pusher propeller supply a 100-knot (185 km/h) pace enhance, a 60% fight radius extension, and 50% higher efficiency in high-hot hover operations. Sikorsky plans to construct the 30,000-pound-class (14,000 kg) JMR-TD (with a cabin 50% bigger than the Black Hawk) at full scale to take away doubts concerning the scalability of the X-2 expertise.
