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December 6, 2022

Sikorsky loses out on Army bid for long-range assault craft

Photo | Lockheed Martin Sikorsky's prototype Defiant X Future Long Range Assault Aircraft flew a test mission in March 2022.
By Liese Klein

Stratford-based Sikorsky lost out on a $1.3 billion bid to supply the U.S. Army with long range assault aircraft to Texas’s Bell Textron, the Army announced Monday.

Bell Textro’s V-280 Valor tilt-rotor aircraft are intended to eventually replace the Army’s Sikorsky-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter fleet. 

Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of the Army’s Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional team, said, “This down-select represents a strategic pivot for Army Aviation to the transformational speed and range our Army needs to dominate future battlefields.”

Sikorsky, a division of Lockheed Martin, developed the Defiant-X helicopter as part of its bid for the Army contract. Several test flights of the stacked-rotor assault craft were publicly test-flown in the months prior to key meetings on the Army contract. 

“We remain confident Defiant X is the transformational aircraft the U.S. Army requires to accomplish its complex missions today and well into the future. We will evaluate our next steps after reviewing feedback from the Army,” Sikorsky said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Gov. Ned Lamont said, “The state will continue to work closely with Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky to secure future opportunities for the people of Connecticut to make the most advanced aircraft in the skies.”

Versions of the Black Hawk continue to sell: In August Sikorsky won approval from the U.S. State Department to sell $1.95 billion worth of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Australia in a government-to-government transaction.

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.

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