Northrop Grumman
The U.S. Army will test two new gun designs for its upcoming armed scout helicopter.
One of the guns is a scaled-down version of the gun used on the Apache helicopter, while the other a more traditional Gatling gun.
The winning gun will go on to arm hundreds of new helicopters set to enter service in the 2030s.
Northrop Grumman is building the first example of what it hopes will arm the U.S. Army’s next-generation scout helicopter. The company will pit its new Sky Viper chain gun against a Gatling gun from General Dynamics.
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The winner will equip the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), a lightly armed recon chopper designed to act as the eyes and ears of the Army.
Sikorsky added 1,000 workers in 2020. The company’s new president promises more jobs this year at the Stratford helicopter manufacturer. Stephen Singer, Hartford Courant
The new president of Sikorsky Aircraft is settling in just after the helicopter manufacturer doubled its pace of hiring in 2020 and he’s promising to keep it up this year.
Paul Lemmo, who took the top job Jan. 4, is leading Sikorsky, a subsidiary of defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp., as it rides a wave of strong, though not rising, military spending in response to threats in Asia. The Stratford manufacturer is designing and building three critical helicopter programs.
Aviation, Missile Center rotorcraft predictions aid readiness, modernization verticalmag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from verticalmag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Pentagon planners are looking to replace Sikorsky’s Black Hawk, middle-aged and slower than the next generation of helicopters [Hartford Courant]
The Black Hawk, the workhorse in wartime and in natural disasters, is facing a challenge familiar to those in middle age as a new and faster helicopter swoops in to take its place.
Its manufacturer, Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of Lockheed Martin Corp., is working with Boeing to develop a utility helicopter that flies at double the speed and twice as far as the Black Hawk. In a competition for a Pentagon contract, they are facing off against Bell, the manufacturer of utility helicopters during the Vietnam War, to design and build the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft.
DEFIANT X - The Fastest and Most Maneuverable Assault Helicopter in History
(27 Jan 2021) Sikorsky and Boeing have unveiled details of what they promise will be the fastest, most maneuverable and most survivable assault helicopter in history.
Named DEFIANT X, the helicopter has been designed for the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft competition (FLRAA).
DEFIANT X is a complete weapon system that builds on the handling qualities and transformational capabilities proven by the team’s technology demonstrator, SB>1 DEFIANT.
On paper, the DEFIANT X flies twice as far and fast as the venerable Black Hawk helicopter it is designed to replace.