Nichols Martin
The partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin‘s Sikorsky subsidiary has submitted a proposal for the U.S. Army’s development program that seeks to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter with a new assault aircraft.
The Sikorsky-Boeing team has entered the service branch’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft competition with the partnership’s Defiant X helicopter bid, Lockheed said Tuesday.
Defiant X is designed to maneuver and survive in any environment while producing the same footprint as the existing Black Hawk helicopter.
“The Sikorsky-Boeing team continues to conduct flight tests and expand SB>1 Defiant’s flight envelope. This test data is correlating the Defiant X virtual models and was included in our proposal to the U.S. Army,” according to the companies.
The Sikorsky-Boeing team intends for Defiant X to support the Army’s modernization priority and future aviation.
A joint statement from Paul Lemmo, president of Sikorsky; and Mark Cherry, vice president and general manager for vertical lift at Boeing’s defense, space and security business, noted that the team’s pursuit of the FLRAA program builds on a 75-year partnership with the Army to sustain Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache helicopters.
