One of the most important combat helicopters in history, the Sikorski UH-60 Black Hawk, its days are numbered. The US Army, the main of the model, selected yesterday (05) the Bell V-280 Valor as its replacement.
The tiltrotor aircraft, the same type as the Bell V-22 Osprey, won the contract for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) project. Launching in 2019, the program seeks a replacement for the UH-60 Black Hawk, the U.S. flagship utility helicopter, which has more than 2300 units in service since 1979.
The Black Hawk itself replaced the UH-1 Iroquois/Huey and became one of the flagship aircraft of the United States. Over the years it has received a series of updates and modifications to operate in different fields, becoming notorious for characteristics such as resistance, robustness and reliability, in addition to its wide deployment in almost all conflict scenarios where the US participated.
Still, everything has an end and the Black Hawk will eventually have one, with the US Army already having a replacement in mind. Bell's V-280 outperformed the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant, whose basic design came from the Sikorsky X-2 program.
According to The War Zone, the initial contract of US$ 232 million does not cover any aircraft but the final design of the V-280, obtained through five years of testing with the prototype. The final contract, this one including aircraft, amounts to US$ 1,2 billion, rising to US$ 7 billion for the start of production, according to Major General Robert Barrie, executive officer of the Army's aviation program.
Barrie declined to elaborate on the Army's reasons for selecting the V-280, saying the decision came down to a "better value proposition." According to the official, “best value is understood in the truest sense that it was a comprehensive analysis of a variety of factors. Nobody really drove that decision. So if you look broadly at a very high level, the factors are variables and performance, cost and schedule have all been considered.”
Sikorsky-Boeing still has a few days to request a meeting with Army officials and understand the reasons behind the selection of the V-280 Valor. If they wish, companies can still appeal the decision, which would then be evaluated by the Government ability Office (GAO).
“We remain confident that the Defiant X is the transformational aircraft the US Army needs to fulfill its complex missions today and in the future. We will evaluate our next steps after reviewing from the Army,” the companies said.
The V-280 made its first flight in 2017 and has since accumulated more than 200 hours of testing, meeting ambitious targets set by US Army evaluation teams. While Valor completed flights in 2021, the SB-1 project, still in testing, ran into development problems in the transmission and rotor blades, made of composite materials.
Valor should start replacing the UH-60 Black Hawk in mid-2030. The aircraft can reach 520 km/h and carry 14 fully equipped troops.
