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As Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. continues testing a new helicopter prototype, the Department of Defense is weighing the creation of a massive effort to develop futuristic choppers, akin to the Joint Strike Fighter program of the 1990s.
For the first time late last month in upstate New York, Sikorsky tested a “pusher” propeller mounted on the tail of its X2 helicopter prototype, and positioned like a turbo prop on an airplane to help the chopper achieve speeds up to a third faster than conventional helicopters.
The success and appeal of the X2 could have major implications for Fairfield County”™s largest employer, which has more than 8,000 workers in Stratford and nearby facilities; and for Sikorsky parent United Technologies Corp., which has benefited from Sikorsky”™s stellar performance the past two years even as other UTC divisions have faltered in the current economy.
With President Barack Obama outlining a timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq, Sikorsky could see future sales impacted as the need for replacement helicopters and parts is diminished. The company”™s most significant development program at present is the CH-53K helicopter it is designing for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Enter the fledgling Congressional Rotorcraft Caucus, whose members include U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro who represents the Bridgeport area. Formed last summer, the caucus has formally asked the Pentagon to address a strategic plan for the future rotorcraft needs of the nation, and wedged initial funding for the project into the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act for the current fiscal year.
The Pentagon has responded with the proposed Future Vertical Lift initiative, modeled on a similar capabilities-based assessment process in the 1990s to find a replacement for the aging F-16 Falcon fighter jet, which led to the development of the Joint Strike Fighter.
James “Raleigh” Durham, director of Joint Advanced Concepts Directorate at the Department of Defense, is leading the early planning and has given updates the past few months at events sponsored by the American Helicopter Society, whose chairman is Sikorsky President Jeff Pino.
While Future Vertical Lift will assess the nation”™s rotorcraft needs for 2020 and beyond, policymakers expect a paper this August on how to improve the survivability of helicopters in combat. In a 2007 study, the Defense Science Board determined that helicopters are being lost during the global war on terror ”“ whether due to enemy fire or mechanical mishap ”“ at a higher rate than they were downed during the Vietnam War, despite innovations in Sikorsky”™s mainstay Black Hawk utility helicopter designed to improve its survivability.
Just as challenging is the survivability of Department of Defense development programs for rotorcraft, Durham said. A half-dozen government helicopter programs have breached the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, which requires the Pentagon to report to Congress any development program that has exceeded 15 percent of its original cost estimate, including Sikorsky”™s MH-60R Seahawk helicopter.
The Pentagon canceled the Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter program last year, after 24 years of development. And it took the Bell Helicopter division of Textron Inc. more than a quarter of a century to get its MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft into regular service.
Last October, the military held a formal retirement ceremony for the Sikorsky Pave Low helicopter used for special operations since the Vietnam War, with the Osprey tabbed as its replacement for some missions.
According to Durham, the Pentagon has no classified projects under way at present with respect to new helicopters that, like the Osprey, combine the maneuverability of a helicopter with the speed of an airplane. Sikorsky is developing the X2 with its own money; Pennsylvania-based Piasecki is experimenting with a similar design with federal funding.
Even as Sikorsky and the Pentagon envision new generations of helicopters to ferry troops into combat, policymakers also see the need for semi-autonomous helicopters that can be steered by ground controllers.
