Key Points
- The army has chosen Sikorsky-Boeing and Bell teams to build helicopter demonstrators for the JMR programme
- Flight demonstrations are expected in 2017 as a precursor to FVL, which would field aircraft by the mid-2030s
The US Army has selected a Sikorsky-Boeing team and Bell Helicopter to build rotorcraft for the Pentagon's Joint Multi-Role - Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) programme.
"The complementary capabilities of each team member have delivered a design that will provide the best future vertical lift solution to the US Army, and the flexibility of our design makes it suited for naval applications as well," Sikorsky President Mick Maurer said of the Sikorsky-Boeing offering in a 12 August statement.
The Sikorsky-Boeing team submitted the SB-1 Defiant, a medium-lift helicopter configured in Sikorsky's X2 coaxial design. The Defiant features counter-rotating rigid main rotor blades for vertical and forward flight, a pusher propeller for high-speed acceleration and deceleration, and an advanced fly-by-wire flight control system.
Sikorsky has demonstrated its coaxial rotor system with its X2 demonstrator, which has achieved speeds of more than 260 kt in flight. The company is also developing the S-97 Raider with the same propulsion system, and has previously said it plans to demonstrate the S-97 to the army next year for potential use in special operations and armed scout missions.