the biggest aircraft development contracts likely to be awarded by
america's military in this decade won't be coming from the air force or navy
they'll be coming from the army which after tinkering for decades with a helicopter
fleet designed in the 1970s or earlier has decided to make a clean break with the past
to counter great power competitors the army must operate in highly contested or complex airspace
and degraded environments against adversaries with advanced integrated air defense systems
the army is depending on the development of two
new vertical lift aircraft weapon systems to help meet this threat
it might select an advanced tilt rotor offered by bell textron designated the v280 valor
or it might select the coaxial lift compound rotor
helicopter offered by a sikorsky boeing team designated defiandex
either way the service is likely to get the gains it is seeking in speed range agility and endurance
bell designed two modern clean sheet aircraft and evolved them into agile low-risk solutions
for the future long-range assault aircraft and future attack reconnaissance aircraft programs
both weapon systems give the us army the proven unmatched speed agility and
reach it requires to support the joint force in joint all domain operations
bell's future vertical lift aircraft will not only help
the u.s army modernize it will also grow and strengthen the u.s industrial base
bell v 280 valor purpose built to revolutionize the reach and effectiveness of each mission
while offering unmatched maneuverability reduced downtime and elevated mission safety
with over twice the speed and range as current weapon systems the bell v2 80 valor is the proven
long-range maneuver solution flying more than 300 knots and achieving more than 200 flight hours
companion to the bellevue 280 valor the bell 360 invictus is the attack
reconnaissance leader for the u.s army's future vertical lift program
together these weapon systems deliver mission critical lethality reach and sustainability
the bell 360 invictus is revolutionizing attack
reconnaissance capabilities to enhance the ground maneuver commander's mission
the aircraft leverage is a common open architecture digital backbone comparable
to bell v280 valor to give the us army an always ready advantage with an unbeatable fleet the new
mission equipment won't just be used on the black hawk successor it will also be used on a successor
to the kiowa scout helicopter that is being separately developed by sikorsky and bell teams
today the threat has shifted to near pier nations meaning russia and china
so the army no longer can put off replacing its cold war helicopters
some helicopters such as kiowa and black hawk will be replaced sooner while others
such as the apache tank killer will be replaced later but eventually all
of the army's current helicopters will be supplanted by a new generation of rotorcraft
waiting so long to modernize creates serious operational concerns in eastern europe
where russian air defenses have proliferated and the western
pacific where distances limit the utility of existing helicopters
however there is a silver lining to the delay the
army can now exploit breakthroughs like digital engineering and rapid software
development to fashion new rotorcraft that were not available a decade ago
it is leveraging these breakthroughs to design and manufacture aircraft that will
be cheaper to build and operate than legacy rotorcraft despite the big gains in performance
the differences between the osprey and the valor
the valor has two engines but unlike its larger ancestor the osprey those
engines don't physically move when the rotors they power change position
giving it a simplicity bonus over the v22 only the rotors swivel
with the bell v280 valor two engines push power to a gearbox system
those two engines theoretically could be located anywhere on the aircraft
even when they're both operating normally the flight control computers determine how
much power is taken from each engine to feed the system of gearboxes and driver
shafts both engines power both rotors and if one engine fails both rotors still spin
so
you