The US Army announced on Feb 8 an “Aviation Investment Rebalance” which included the cancel
lation of the Future Attack and Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program, citing lessons learned from battlefields in Ukraine.
The program, intended to develop a replacement for now retired Vietnam-era scout helicopters, was a priority for Connecticut’s Sikorsky Aircraft after Bell Textron’s tiltrotor V-280 Valor was granted a $1.3 billion contract to replace the UH-60 Blackhawk in Army usage.
The Blackhawk, produced by Sikorsky, is widely used by the armed forces of the United States and other countries. The Lockheed-Martin owned Sikorsky invested significantly in the development of their own replacement, the SB-1 Defiant, which combined two rotors and a rear-mounted “pusher” propeller to achieve higher speeds in level flight than typical for helicopters.
The Raider-X would incorporate much of the technology developed for the Defiant, but the cancellation of the FARA program leaves the future of the project unclear. Existing agreements regarding both the Raider-X and Bell’s more traditional FARA entry the 360 Invictus will see research and development continue through June of this year, but with no guarantee of a contract for production or a return on investment.
The investment rebalance did include some good news for Sikorsky. The Army also announced its intention to end an upgrade program for existing Blackhawks in use by the National Guard and instead purchase brand new airframes as replacements.
