Air Force Decides To Reinvent Helicopters

A new type of military airlifter is rising to the top of the U.S. Air Force’s list of modernization priorities: small, autonomous, electric-powered aircraft capable of short takeoffs and landings—and numbering in the hundreds.

Air Force Material Command (AFMC) is in the market research phase for the Next-Generation Intratheater Airlift (NGIA) concept. A five-year prototyping program could begin as early as fiscal 2026, leading to the start in the early 2030s of an engineering and manufacturing development phase for the first newly designed U.S. military air transport since the early 1990s debut of the Boeing C-17

“The Department of the Air Force’s goal is to enhance existing airlift capability and capacity with an intratheater platform that can fight through damaged infrastructure on responsive timelines,” the AFMC said in a request for information released on Sept. 24. Responses from the industry are due Nov. 1.

Although unclassified, the NGIA proposal is early enough in the acquisition process that Air Force officials are reluctant to elaborate on the concept. An AFMC spokesperson referred questions to the Air Force Futures organization on the headquarters staff. A spokesperson for Air Force Futures declined to answer questions, saying the NGIA concept is still in its infancy. . . . 

The Last Tactical Leg proposal envisions an autonomous, hybrid-electric short- or vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. This proposed airlifter would deliver small, urgently needed supplies from logistics hubs to forward bases, even with battle-damaged runways on both ends.

The market survey for the NGIA calls for industry “to achieve extremely short- or vertical-takeoff-and-landing capability with smaller payload weight.” . . .

Manassas, Virginia-based Electra.aero, for example, is developing a nine-passenger or 2,500-lb. cargo transport for the commercial market but also is working with the Air Force to incorporate military requirements.

From here.

Funny how this sounds almost exactly like an aircraft with the capabilities of the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter (apart from the hybrid-electric and autonomous flight parts - and the Army is well under way in making the UH-60 autonomous) that entered service in the Army in 1979. And, the Army is also, by the way, developing an autonomous successor to its CH-53K heavy lift helicopter, as well as smaller drone cargo helicopters, and the "U.S. Marine Corps, which has been completely restructuring itself around new expeditionary and distributed concepts operations in recent years, is pushing to acquire three different tiers of VTOL cargo drones." 

The Army invented and invested in this capability, of course, because as the article notes in more generous language, the Air Force abandoned its obligation to provide this service to the Army, and rid itself of its ample fleet of small, short takeoff and landing fixed wing C-7 and C-47 transport planes when the Vietnam War ended.

This same Air Force is also discontinuing the A-10 close air support attack fighter without a replacement, as fast as Congress will let it, because it doesn't trust the idea of having fixed wing aircraft within range of anti-aircraft weapons, even though the Army is carrying out essentially the same close air support mission with much more vulnerable AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The Air Force does still have the AC-130 (a C-130 cargo plane outfitted with a howitzer that it shoots out a side door) to assist ground troops, but, only at night. Officially, the A-10 replacement is the F-35A, a supersonic stealth fighter that drops bombs and missiles from altitudes too high to be within range of anti-aircraft weapons. But this fig leaf of an argument isn't credible. (U.S. Special Forces are also buying a small fleet of light, lightly armed "armed overwatch" OA-1K aircraft for counterterrorism operations in "permissive environments.")

Apparently, however, a small, basically unarmed and unarmored military transport plane isn't nearly as vulnerable as the highly robust, armored, and heavily armed A-10.

Presumably, in a reflection of the odd dividing line between Army Aviation and Air Force Aviation, the NGIA will be primarily a fixed wing aircraft, rather than a true helicopter. But if it is to have vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, and a fixed wing, there are basically only two options: either some variant on the MV-22 Osprey with a tilt rotor, or some variant on the F-35B which can shift its thrust downward for vertical landings. And, no one has ever even prototyped an F-35B type vertical landing design for a transport aircraft.

The NGIA also seems to have a lot in common with an Army program that is just about ready for prime time and seems to fill almost exactly the same niche, right down to the fixed wing with a tilt rotor design.

Textron’s Bell has won the U.S. Army’s competition to build the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, the service’s largest helicopter procurement decision in 40 years.

The deal for the next-generation helicopter is worth up to $1.3 billion and is set to replace roughly 2,000 Black Hawk utility helicopters. FLRAA will not serve as a one-for-one replacement for existing aircraft, but around 2030 it will take over the roles of the Black Hawk, long the workhorse of the Army for getting troops to and around the battlefield.

Ultimately, the Army’s Future Vertical Lift pursuits will also replace around 1,200 Apache attack helicopters among other legacy aircraft through the pursuit of FLRAA, the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft and Air-Launched Effects working in advanced teaming formations.

The service wants FLRAA to be capable of traveling roughly 2,440 nautical miles (or 2,810 miles) without refueling, but also to be agile enough to maneuver troops into dangerous hot spots.

The engineering and manufacturing development and low-rate production phase could be worth roughly $7 billion. If the “full complement” of aircraft are purchased across the entire life of the fleet, the program could be worth in the range of $70 billion to include potential foreign military sales, the Army’s program executive officer for aviation, Maj. Gen. Rob Barrie, said during a Dec. 5 media roundtable.

Complicating the Army’s vertical lift modernization efforts, the Army is planning to develop and field FARA nearly along the same timeline to perform the scout mission. That duty was left vacant when the Army decided to retire its Kiowa Warrior helicopters in 2013. Since then, the Army has filled that gap with teams of Apache helicopters and Shadow unmanned aircraft systems.

The contract represents a milestone for the service as the Army hasn’t procured two major helicopters since the 1980s and multiple efforts to buy other helicopters over the last several decades ended in failure. . . . 

The FLRAA competition pitted two aircraft head to head: Bell’s V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor aircraft, and Sikorsky and Boeing’s Defiant X, which features coaxial rotor blades. Both aircraft were designed to fit into the same footprint as a Black Hawk. . . . 

In a Dec. 5 statement, Scott Donnelly, Textron’s chief executive, said the company is “honored that the U.S. Army has selected the Bell V-280 Valor as its next-generation assault aircraft. We intend to honor that trust by building a truly remarkable and transformational weapon system to meet the Army’s mission requirements.” . . . 

Before Bell retired its Valor flight demonstrator in June 2021, the V-280 flew more than 214 hours and showed off low-speed agility and long-range cruise capabilities, and reached a maximum 305-knot cruising speed. . . . 

FLRAA prototypes from Bell are due to the service by 2025. The initial contract obligation is $232 million, with a ceiling of $1.3 billion if options beyond the initial contract are exercised.

The initial phase allows the Army to continue preliminary design and then get to the design, development and delivery of virtual prototypes, according to Barrie.

FLRAA is expected to enter the fleet in 2030, around the same time as the Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft is planned for fielding. . . . 

The service plans to field . . . FLRAA around 2030. The two teams building prototypes are aiming to fly them by the end of 2023. Each team’s aircraft are almost entirely complete, and they are waiting for the Army’s new engine to be delivered under the Improved Turbine Engine Program. The ITEP engines went into the testing process ahead of delivering earlier this year after a delay due to the pandemic.

From here. (The FARA program, meanwhile, has been canceled, and the Army is meanwhile upgrading the bid winning FLRAA design.)

The FLRAA meanwhile, looks a lot like a smaller and sleeker MV-22 Osprey.

Once again, the U.S. Department of Defense is vividly demonstrating why breaking up the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force in the way that it did was a bad idea.

DARPA on the other hand, is working on a very different kind of C-130 successor:

Aurora Flight Sciences on Oct. 8 unveiled new details of a notional operational variant of the fan-in-wing concept it is proposing for a high-speed, vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) X-Plane.

The operational version of the Boeing-owned company’s candidate for a DARPA demonstrator program would boast nearly the same wingspan and payload weight of a Lockheed Martin C-130J, yet fly up to 90 kt. faster and be able to take off and land vertically like a helicopter.

The Aurora concept includes two turbofan engines for horizontal thrust and four fans embedded into the blended wing body airframe for vertical lift. This “vision” aircraft concept also features cranked outboard wing sections and no vertical tails.

The concept depends on a successful Aurora bid to develop the demonstrator for DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (Sprint). Bell is working on a competing proposal based on a tiltrotor aircraft featuring stop-fold rotor technology. . . . The agency will . . . decide whether to move forward with building an X-plane and launching a flight test campaign in 2027.

Aurora’s one-third-scaled prototype calls for a tailed, blended wing body design, with the trailing edge of the wing positioned forward of the fuselage tail. The 45-ft. wingspan includes three lift fans. The top of the fuselage includes two auxiliary inlet doors for airflow in vertical mode. A pair of caret-shaped inlets on either side of the forward fuselage ingests air for a single turbofan engine to provide horizontal thrust. The prototype is being designed to carry a 1,000-lb. payload.

DARPA’s goal is to achieve a new standard in high-speed flight for a transport aircraft with VTOL capabilities.

The U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft plans to field a Bell tiltrotor in 2031 with a forward speed of at least 300 kt. The Sprint program aims to increase that top speed by as much as 50%, to 450 kt. By using that speed and vertical lift capability, the operational version of the Sprint prototype could present an attractive option for replacing the Bell Boeing CV-22 and Sikorsky HH-60W fleets. . . .

But the concept must first overcome the obstacles that have plagued development of high-speed, vertical-lift designs, including previous efforts to develop fan-in-wing aircraft, including the Ryan XV-5.

DARPA and program supporters believe that a combination of modern advances in lightweight structures and fly-by-wire flight controls could make such high-speed, runway-independent aircraft viable again. A fan-in-wing design still faces the complexity of achieving a stable hover with a heavy aircraft over unprepared landing sites using multiple lift fans. Aurora’s operational concept calls for a design with a 130-ft. wingspan and a 30,000-lb. payload.

From Aviation Week.