Rotary Winged Aircraft - The US Army is starting next year, and some of the biggest names in defense manufacturing are working hard to win it.

The Army issued a "request for bids," better known in procurement circles as a "request for proposals," last year as the first step in the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMRTD) program, and the competition boils down to two efforts: the V-280" Valor " by Bell Helicopter and the SB-1 "Defiant" by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin. The two designs take very different approaches to meeting JMRTD's performance requirements, which include the ability to reach speeds of 230 knots and fly within a combat radius of approximately 275 miles. The Valor is a tiltrotor aircraft based on Bell's experience and lessons learned from the V-22 "Osprey" and the Defiant is a coaxial rotor that uses two counter-rotating rotors above the fuselage and a stern propeller.

Rotary Winged Aircraft

Rotary Winged Aircraft

The two designs take very different approaches to meeting JMRTD's performance requirements, which include the ability to reach speeds of 230 knots and fly within a combat radius of approximately 275 miles. The Valor is a tiltrotor aircraft based on Bell's experience and lessons learned from the V-22 "Osprey" and the Defiant is a coaxial rotor that uses two counter-rotating rotors above the fuselage and a stern propeller.

Helicopter Assembly And Rigging

"We recognize that there is still a fairly significant filter to the turbulent history of tiltrotors," said Robert Hastings, Bell's vice president of communications and government affairs. "But today, the Marines would say it's a transformation. Younger pilots who have never had to break their bad habits from other aircraft are flying the V-22 in ways we never imagined."

Hastings, who flew Cobras and Blackhawks for the Army and also served as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs during Robert Gates' tenure at the Pentagon, recounted a conversation he had with a V-22 squadron commander at a recent Singapore air show. The master told him he had osprey in Australia, Okinawa and the Philippines at the time, as well as on display.

"He was a lieutenant colonel with an operational sphere of influence equal to that of an admiral a generation ago," Hastings said. "To quote General Davis, deputy commandant of the Marines for Aviation: The V-22 has not only changed the way we operate; changed the way the enemy worries about us."

But while Hastings is eager to list the V-22's successes in recent national conflicts, including how the CV variant has been used by the Air Force Special Operations Command, he is quick to point out that the V-280 is what he called "clean sheet" design."

Military: Rotary Wing

Hastings explained that digital design, along with more precise machining, allows parts to "slide nicely into place" instead of having to be ground and otherwise manipulated by technicians along the assembly line as they had to do when creating the Osprey. With these kinds of improvements, Bell aims to make the V-280 cost half the V-22's $71 million unit cost.

Bell partnered with Lockheed-Martin to provide the Valor with a state-of-the-art cockpit suite, based on what engineers and test pilots learned from developing the F-35. While there is no plan for the helmet's visor insignia (which was a challenge to develop during F-35 testing), Hastings said the cockpit's "open architecture" could allow V-280 pilots to do so in the future. The cockpit also houses a wide array of sensors and mission packages designed to give the Valor great combat capabilities.

Bell calls its JMRTD tiltrotor candidate the "third generation". (The V-22 is the second generation.) The V-280 differs from its predecessor in many ways: it is much lighter because it is built entirely of carbon-based materials. It has a straight wing instead of the Osprey's forward-swept wing. It has a side door instead of a rear ramp.

Rotary Winged Aircraft

Hastings also pointed out that — with the addition of an internal fuel cell in the cabin area — the Valor can fly 2,100 miles, giving the Army a self-deployment capability it's never had before.

Rotary Wing Aircraft Helicopter Stock Photo 1291589269

"Imagine a future where the 82nd Airborne is about to be deployed and an airborne division commander says to his airborne unit commander, 'Let's meet in the Horn of Africa in three days,'" Hastings said. "It doesn't have to worry that a third of its strategic lift is blocked by these helicopters."

The JMRTD retirement program will run for two years, and at the end of the program, the Army will select one of two aircraft to replace its force of 2,000 Blackhawks and 800 Apaches. (And Hastings pointed out that the utility and combat variants of the Valor share 85 percent of the features below the propeller — another cost-saving feature, he said.) The Army wants the new planes to be combat-ready by 2029.

"We think helicopters will be around forever," Hastings said, "but we think helicopters have already gone as far as they can be extended. We think tiltrotors have advanced a lot in terms of what you can do with them.

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The Evolving Role Of Rotary Wing Platforms In The Integratable Carrier Air Wing

English: Members of the 2nd Squadron of the RAF Regiment and the US Marine Corps board a US Osprey aircraft at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

A joint UK-US-Afghan operation south of Bastion Airfield involving No. 2 Squadron RAF found and destroyed a large cache of Taliban IED-making equipment ready for use in attacks on Afghan and ISAF forces.

Operation Dishata Pasha (Pashtu meaning back foot) was launched at dawn on Monday (February 6) with detachments from the RAF Regiment under the command of Sqn Ldr Jules Weekes (33), the officer in 2 Sqn, RAF Regiment. The force also included fighters from the Afghan Army's 3rd Brigade and Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.

Rotary Winged Aircraft

The forces deployed by the US Osprey aircraft, with its unique rotorcraft capability, and the operation led to the discovery and destruction of a suspected insurgent IED cache near Bastion Airfield in Helmand Province. The armed forces also acquired a wealth of intelligence, despite coming under fire several times.

Bae Demonstrates Firenet Transceiver Capability For Rotary Wing Aircraft

The operation took place in the Dasht (or desert) south of Bastion Airfield, which is guarded by No. 2 Squadron, operating as part of No. 3 RAF Security Wing. A sparse landscape of rolling fields and thickets dotted with compounds, Dasht is increasingly used as a port area by Taliban forces that have come under pressure elsewhere from successful coalition operations.

Images can be downloaded in high resolution and made available at http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk for reuse under the Open Government License (OGL).

== } == {{information |description={{en|Members of the 2nd Squadron of the RAF Regiment and the US Marine Corps board a US Osprey aircraft at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. Coalition troops deployed as part of Operation Backfoot, a joint operation to…

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Battle Brewing To Build The U.s. Army's Next Rotary Wing Aircraft

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