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Future Helicopters

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Lockheed, Sikorsky, and Boeing all in together developing the next generation of vertical lift?

Doesn’t leave much room for competition…
 
Lockheed, Sikorsky, and Boeing all in together developing the next generation of vertical lift?

Doesn’t leave much room for competition…
Lockheed acquired Sikorsky - they are still "integrating" RMS into one team.
Bell/Boeing is the other competitor.
 
Lockheed, Sikorsky, and Boeing all in together developing the next generation of vertical lift?

Doesn’t leave much room for competition…
So aside from Bell Textron with the V-280 Valor, who else should be considered? Kaman? They sub to Bell, Boeing and Lockheed/Sikorsky.

What other manufacturers are there out there upon which the US can absolutely guarantee its supply chain?
 
So aside from Bell Textron with the V-280 Valor, who else should be considered? Kaman? They sub to Bell, Boeing and Lockheed/Sikorsky.

What other manufacturers are there out there upon which the US can absolutely guarantee its supply chain?
This, perhaps, from Europe:


 
Do you think the US considers a foreign manufacturer a reliable defense supply chain partner?
 
Do you think the US considers a foreign manufacturer a reliable defense supply chain partner?
Probably not, though the UH-72 Lakota shows it is not outside of the realm of possible. I was more thinking for Canada this could be an option.
 
UH-72 is not a combat aircraft for deployed ops, it is a domestic Guard utility and training capability upon which no active duty US soldier would have to depend on in operations.
 
Speed, Range, Less Cost / Blade Hr, more efficient engine.

Speed is life in many situations.

Off hand the V280, with its engine package looks to me a bit like an early DASH-8 that is swapping some cargo capacity for vertical lift.


MTOW is 15,600 kg for the Dash 8-100 vs 14,000 kg for the V280
Pax is 38 for the Dash 8 vs 14 for the V280
Range is 1889 km for the Dash 8 vs 1480 to 3900 km for the V280.
Speed is 500 km/h for the Dash 8 vs 520 km/h for the V280.

If the price of the V280 (exclusive of all the military doodads) were comparable to the Dash 8 I reckon it would be a fair trade.

On the other hand


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How much is that Vertical Take off and Land worth compared to an equivalent number of modern DHC-5 with the same military doodads?
 
Probably not, though the UH-72 Lakota shows it is not outside of the realm of possible. I was more thinking for Canada this could be an option.
As @Good2Golf pointed out it's a training domestic bird - , the scout role of the OH-58D was basically replaced operationally by UAV's.

The Coast Guard has the Europcopter MH-65 Dauphin for domestic roles where the Blackhawk isn't needed as well.

But given that Bell/Boeing have the V-280 flying and LM/Sik have the Defiant X - as well as both have flying Scout/Attack helicopters for that portion as well.
 
How much is that Vertical Take off and Land worth compared to an equivalent number of modern DHC-5 with the same military doodads?
While I have never tried to extract a building under fire onto a fixed wing craft --- I'm not sure that it would work very well ;)
 
While I have never tried to extract a building under fire onto a fixed wing craft --- I'm not sure that it would work very well ;)

I have confidence. I am sure you could figure something out. :p


On the other hand. You might be right and a few of them could come in handy. But in a battle for dollars. How many do you really need? And how much of the role could be handled by Chinooks and Buffalos - or even Hercs? I am leaving the Kingfisher out of the discussion for the moment.
 
Oh, and by the way, you could probably reduce the power requirements necessary if you left the building behind while you were being extracted. :D
 
I have confidence. I am sure you could figure something out. :p


On the other hand. You might be right and a few of them could come in handy. But in a battle for dollars. How many do you really need? And how much of the role could be handled by Chinooks and Buffalos - or even Hercs? I am leaving the Kingfisher out of the discussion for the moment.
It's been used with people - but it's not exactly a very practical method.

I love the Hook - but it's not a great platform for tight spaces, and it's fairly big - so if you are running a 6-14 man team it's a little over kill.
I am of the believer with aerial platforms for air assault that more is more -- meaning - it is often better to bring more AC than less -- it gives the enemy more to shoot at ;).

This is a Blackhawk (or Griffon for those of you rotary challenged :cool: ) replacement - it's not a Hook replacement.

Fixed wing planes can't hover -- and often you need that ability.
Rotary and Fixed Wing craft have different roles - and you need both.
 
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