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Speed, Maneuverability, Survivability and Sustainability are the Hallmarks of Sikorsky’s X2 Technology

on June 08, 2020 at 4:20 PM

The Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 DEFIANT during a recent flight test

Breaking Defense: Speed is at the essence of the Army’s Future Vertical Lift helicopters. Please describe how the X2 technology helps you meet the Army’s high-speed requirements for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) for armed reconnaissance missions, as well as the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) transport program to carry light forces and equipment farther and faster than the Black Hawk helicopters it is scheduled to replace.

Jay Macklin, Future Vertical Lift Business Development Director, Sikorsky Lockheed Martin

Macklin: Speed is clearly part of the overall Army focus with Future Vertical Lift. And, yes, from the outset, X2 Technology included a focus on speed, showing how we can double the speed of traditional single main rotor helicopters that are in service today. We’ve proven that with the original technology demonstrator, with RAIDER and with DEFIANT. It is important to note that our mission isn’t just to get to the X (mission area) faster though… we must execute the full mission within a high threat environment and have the MDO survivability features to return home too. Future Vertical Lift is a holistic solution to a rapidly evolving near peer threat. Speed provides ability to base further away and still get to the fight when needed, speed coupled with increased maneuverability makes us more survivable on the battlefield, and speed gets our warfighters home quicker. Critical to harnessing the speed is the ability to operate at very high speeds at very low altitudes maintaining a high degree of control while evading enemy radars. We must hide the aircraft within the environment, taking advantage of manmade and natural obscuration. So enabling speed in that environment means having onboard algorithms and software that flies the aircraft at speed at treetop level which requires providing assistance to the pilot to allow him or her to focus on the mission and not the machine. We call this supervised autonomy; Enabling the aircraft to operate at its full capability while allowing the crew to focus on mission execution.

Supporting the speed is a comprehensive mission system, designed in parallel with the aircraft, which includes communications gear, sensors, data fusion and internal weapons storage volumes to execute the mission and provide the reach, lethality and survivability critical to the mission. Our Modular Open System Architecture will allow that mission system to morph over time to remain ahead of our threats. The mission system also must be interoperable with other assets on the battlefield, Army assets, other service assets and international ally’s assets. All these things must work in concert with one another to achieve our customer’s mission success. What we offer is a highly integrated weapon system with decades of growth potential. We are aren’t offering an end-of-road capability. We see our RAIDER X for FARA as an investment for the future that is well under the Army’s price targets.

Breaking Defense: What role does X2 technology play in survivability?

Macklin: Survivability is so important to every single mission we fly. It makes no sense to send an aircraft, crew and passengers into harm’s way unless we know that we have given them the ability to achieve the objective and get home safely. Survivability is a complex chain with many links. Many of these link to the onboard mission system and the connectivity to offboard sources. X2 Technology plays a role in several of the links. X2 helps us avoid detection by flying faster and lower than other aircraft configurations. The maneuverability of the aircraft with X2 is so much better than single main rotor helicopters as X2 handles very responsively, much like a sports car hugging corners on a racetrack, X2 and our flight control system hugs terrain at speeds previously unimagined. X2 has the ability to operate at a reduced acoustic signature to avoid detection from human threats with shoulder launched rockets or delaying detection so long that automated systems cannot be brought online fast enough to achieve a lock on our aircraft. X2 coupled with onboard flight controls provide an opportunity to break lock with a targeting system through intelligent signature management and rapid maneuverability. X2 can perform a brake turn away from a threat in a fraction of the distance that a single main rotor (SMR) helicopter can, drastically reducing our exposure time and escape the threat faster. These are critical elements of survivability that a SMR simply cannot accomplish. Avoiding detection from radar, avoiding human detection and being able to break target locks when necessary are all assisted by X2 and our comprehensive survivability software and hardware suite all working together. That is one of the many values that Lockheed Martin provides to the Army, we provide this level of integration on a number of DoD platforms across all services and bring the experience of a world leader in advanced military technology in MDO environments.

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, has offered its Raider X for the Army’s Future Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA)

Breaking Defense: Let’s move on to sustainment as it relates to Sikorsky’s FARA and FLRAA helicopters. What do they offer the Army in terms of maintainability and sustainment?

Macklin: FARA and FLRAA gave us the ability to build a new helicopter that from the outset is focused on reduced maintenance burdens. This has been exciting! We’ve challenged the team to ask the question “What would it take to make our new helicopters be more like our cars and in many cases even better, where the reliability is increased, maintenance is much easier, and the vehicle is much smarter… actually telling the crew and maintainers well in advance when it sees that something is degrading and pro-actively addressing concerns before they become issues. Switching away from time phased maintenance and into predictive and condition-based maintenance is a game changer. Our aircraft leverage sensor technology that is embedded all over the aircraft and systems to self-monitor and predict future maintenance requirements. The aircraft layout allows ready access to maintenance areas when the needs to arise.

We are fully leveraging the digital transformation and model-based design and maintenance which allows us to Maintain before we Build… using virtual reality to influence our design early in the design process, improving the product for the warfighters. These design enhancements will contribute to the reduction in O&S costs resulting in total cost of ownership savings. We know that we will have to operate in austere environments, with limited crews and limited sustainment for extended periods of time, and our engineering team has risen to this challenge and implemented these next generation technologies to reduce our operating and maintenance costs by over half.

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