The Army will hold five demonstrations this year for the electronic backbone of its future manned aircraft and drones. A forerunner is already entering service.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.How to ensure readiness of next-generation defense technology: Solving the issue of massive heat.
High-performance systems generate tremendous amounts of heat that can compromise missions and make high-tech systems less effective in tactical environments. But there is a solution to this modern-age challenge.
FLRAA will go to select Guard units ahead of most of the regular Army, Gen. McConville said. That’s a far cry from past conflicts over helicopters.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army wants to keep its options open on upgrading its heaviest cargo helicopter. Boeing is worried the window of opportunity — and its factory — will close before the Army makes up its mind.
By Paul McLeary
The Sikorsky-Boeing super-copter has just over an hour of flight time, but the Army says it has all the data it needs to accelerate the program. How?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Bell’s prototype tiltrotor keeps pulling ahead of rivals — but the race to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk is far from over.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Even with faster medevac aircraft, uparmored ambulances, and more medical personnel at the front, will casualties get to life-saving care within the “golden hour”?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army wants a lot out of its Black Hawk replacement, at $43 million apiece — but the Marines and special operators want even more.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
What’s new in naval radars and missiles: Defending the Pacific
Defending U.S. naval forces in the Pacific, Red Sea, and elsewhere require a range of systems from close-in weapons to anti-ballistic missiles.
How can Army accelerate its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft when one leading contender started flight tests just seven days ago?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The thing that delayed Defiant, it turns out, is the same thing that makes it really attractive to the Army.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Now that they’ve completed the initial ground run, the team can finish its work to clear the aircraft for first flight,” said Mike Hirschberg, executive director of the Vertical Flight Society. “Assuming the Defiant team doesn’t find anything noteworthy from its ground testing, it should be up in the air in the next few weeks.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
While Bell’s rival V-280 uses tiltrotor technology, proven in widespread service on the V-22 Osprey since 2007, the Defiant uses Sikorsky’s revolutionary compound helicopter technology, which promises superior agility — but which has only actually flown in two experimental aircraft, the X2 and S-97 Raider, both of which are much smaller than Defiant.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Colin Clark climbs in and out of the V-280 at the Association of the US Army show, from cockpit to troop compartment, and gets a thorough briefing from Bell on what they’ve building, from engineering refined by a decade’s experience with the V-22 Osprey to sensor technology derived from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — except upgraded.
By Colin Clark
“It’s much more like a fighter aircraft than a helicopter,” Sikorsky’s test pilot tells me in the video as he maneuvers gleefully.
“Whoa, warn me next time!” I say after a particularly nifty/nauseating roll.
Sikorsky and Boeing are saying that their aircraft is taking longer than Bell’s because their design is more inventive — harder, riskier, and more time-consuming, yes, but ultimately better. In particular, while the SB>1 looks like it’ll be a little slower than the V-280, going by the companies’ projections for top speed, Sikorsky and Boeing say their machine will be much more maneuverable.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
