Textron

Sikorsky Offers S-97 For Armed Aerial Scout Without Flying

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AUSA: Visitors to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.’s display at this year’s Association of the United States Army meetings in Washington can hardly miss an eye-popping marketing video the company is showing. Running on a huge flat screen hung at the entrance to the company’s spot on the show floor, the video uses simulation imagery of XBox quality to show how Sikorsky’s conceptual S-97 Raider – a compound helicopter based on the X2 Technology Demonstrator the company flew in 2010-2011 – would perform Armed Aerial Scout missions for the Army.

It’s a great show. Zooming through canyons at what looks like the S-97′s projected cruising speed of 220 knots – an impossibility for ordinary helicopters – a Raider in a formation of five uses a video downlink from a Predator drone to take out a group of heavily armed insurgents with laser-guided rockets, firing before the enemy can hear the helicopters coming. Then, at the request of ground troops, another Raider uses its mini-gun to kill six insurgents hiding in a tree line. Keep reading →

Published October 23, 2012 at 3:15 PM

Rise Of Robot Boats: How The Navy Might Hunt Sea Mines

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LAS VEGAS: “Keeping the sailor out of the minefield,” the Navy’s new mantra for mine warfare, means sending the robots in. As part of an annual exercise in July called “Trident Warrior,” the fleet experimented with an unmanned ship developed by Textron subsidiary AAI and known blandly as the Common Unmanned Surface Vessel (CUSV).

The video, provided by AAI, shows two CUSVs — the only two in existence — streaking out to sea during Trident Warrior to hunt simulated naval mines. The two boats look identical, but the “common” part of the CUSV name refers to the design’s ability to serve as a common carrier for a host of mission-specific payloads. They slot into a bay in the stern. Keep reading →

Published August 13, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Textron Wins Navy Hovercraft Contract To Replace Aging LCAC

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After repeated delays, an industry team led by Textron Inc. has won a $212.7 million contract for the next-generation hovercraft transport to carry Marine forces from ship to shore, the Navy announced at 5:01 today. Keep reading →

Published July 6, 2012 at 6:00 PM

Marines Push Quietly, But Hard, For Navy to Replace C-2s With V-22s

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WASHINGTON: Landing a V-22 Osprey helicopter-style on the sprawling flight deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush was a snap, says Marine Corps test pilot Capt. Dan McKinney.

With Lt. Col. David Weinstein, McKinney did it a dozen times on March 20 – six landings in daylight, six at night. After their first two touchdowns, sailors perched in the carrier’s superstructure to watch the helicopter-airplane hybrid Osprey’s first-ever carrier qualification landings, conducted off the coast of North Carolina, started giving the pilots “a lot of thumbs-up.” Keep reading →

Published April 6, 2012 at 3:50 PM

Army Eyes Bigger, Tougher Shadow Drone

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Washington: The Army is looking hard at a new version of its Shadow aerial drone that can fly much longer and carry more.

The Shadow M2, being built by Textron Systems, features a fuselage that is five times bigger than the current version. Keep reading →

Published October 14, 2011 at 2:40 PM

New Humvee Upgrade Rides Great Until… Then Great Ride Continues

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Mt. Airy, N.C. – Behind the cornfields and gravel pits in the hills of this small North Carolina town sits an off-road test track.

The two-mile trail, owned by defense firm Granite Tactical Systems, is where I put the company’s upgraded Humvee through its paces this week. Keep reading →

Published August 25, 2011 at 1:30 PM