Jane Edwards
Paul Lemmo, president of Sikorsky, told Defense News in an interview published Monday about his near-term priorities as head of the Lockheed Martin subsidiary and one of those is transitioning the Combat Rescue Helicopter and CH-53K programs into the production phase.
“Both of them are going into [initial operational test and evaluation] IOT&E and we’re in low-rate production, transitioning to full rate. So No. 1 is getting those done and into production and making sure we’re delivering for our customers,” he said of CH-53K and CRH programs.
Lemmo said the future vertical lift program and the continuation of the company’s digital transformation efforts are his other two priorities.
He noted that the company has made investments in its offerings for the U.S. Army’s future attack reconnaissance aircraft and future long-range assault aircraft programs, which he expects to get full support under the fiscal year 2022 budget.
Sikorsky teamed up with Boeing to develop the SB-1 Defiant demonstrator under a competitive risk reduction and capabilities development initiative for the Army’s FLRAA program. The subsidiary is also offering Raider X for the service’s FARA program.
Lemmo said the company has conducted a lot of prototyping work, used digital tools and performed more testing through model-based engineering to help minimize risk for the FLRAA program with its demonstrator.
“Collectively across our X2 technology, we have over 200 flight hours. When you include all the ground testing we’ve done, I think it’s over 700 hours. Sikorsky’s approach to developing new aircraft is to have a propulsion system test bed on the ground and run many, many hours on the transmissions and all the avionics components,” he added.
When asked about Sikorsky’s FARA prototype, Lemmo said the company completed construction work on the fuselage and plans to fly the Raider X aircraft in late 2022.
If you’re interested to know more about the Army’s modernization efforts, then check out Potomac Officers Club’s 6th Annual Army Forum coming up on Aug. 12. To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the POC Events page.
