Sikorsky President Paul Lemmo said the U.S. Army”™s decision to reject its bid for a Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) contract could be seen as a teachable moment for the Stratford-based company.
According to an Inside Defense report, Lemmo told reporters on a telephone press conference that his company is review feedback from the FLRAA case as it prepares for future contract bids.
“I would say that we are obviously learning from that and moving on, and we”™ll take all the lessons learned to all of the future opportunities that we bid on,” he said.
Sikorsky unsuccessfully protested the Army”™s rejection to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, claiming there were inconsistencies in the evaluation of its Defiant X proposal and the proposal by rival Bell Textron for its V-280 Valor, which the Army chose. Lemmo did not explain why Sikorsky opted not to pursue the Army”™s rejection in a lawsuit, adding that he was buoyed by the Army”™s positive feedback of his company”™s X2 technology, a coaxial rotor system that eliminates the need for a tail rotor. Sikorsky”™s proposal for the Army”™s upcoming Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft contract bidding utilizes the X2 technology.
“As we review all the feedback that we got on the proposal on the FLRAA offering, in particular the X2 technology, I think the good news there is that we have many strengths associated with X2,” Lemmo said. “Specifically, the feedback that we received from the Army let us know that the agility, stability and scalability of our X2 technology can be extremely useful in contested areas.”
