Joint Multi-Role Rotorcraft Program Moving Forward.

AuthorTadjdeh, Yasmin

The Army is pursuing plans to develop a family of future vertical lift aircraft that will be able to perform a variety of mission sets. Key to that effort is a technology maturation program which has Bell and a Sikorsky-Boeing team designing new aircraft.

"We're looking at basically going beyond the helicopter capabilities that we have today," said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville. "We want increased range. We want increased speed. We want increased lethality."

While the United States' helicopter inventory includes some of the most powerful rotorcraft in the world, including the Apache, Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters, the service is now looking for a revolutionary step forward as it begins to think about the future of aviation, he said during remarks at the National Defense Industrial Association's Army Science and Technology Conference in Washington, D.C.

The service has noted that it is interested in creating a family of systems that include a variety of aircraft sizes--from small to ultra-large--that can perform multiple missions from scout to attack to lift.

However, while the service wants cutting-edge technologies, it doesn't want to break the bank when it comes time to write the check for them, McConville said.

"Quite frankly, we're being very demanding as we talk to industry--cost matters," he said. The service wants the aircraft to be delivered at a similar price tag to what it's paying for aircraft today.

"As a kid, my parents bought a black-and-white TV and it cost so much money," he said. "Now we're getting a brand new smart TV with all this stuff on it" for the same price.

"We're telling industry, 'If you can't do it, let us know,'" he said. "We don't have the resources to spend an extraordinary amount for future vertical lift."

For years, the Army has been pursuing a technology maturation program called the joint multi-role demonstrator, McConville noted.

Under JMR, "industry is providing demonstrations to allow us... to break the physics barriers that we have with conventional helicopters," he said.

Bell has been flying its V-280 Valor aircraft since December 2017. A Sikorsky-Boeing team is developing the SB-1 Defiant, which company executives have said will fly by the end of this year.

Thomas Russell, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology, said the JMR program--which also encompasses efforts with other vendors to examine tiltrotor design and aircraft body shapes--is making...

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