While Bell Textron’s V-280 Valor beat out the Defiant X in the US Army’s FLRAA competition as the future replacement for the UH-60 Blackhawk, rival companies are not ready to call it a day just yet and are challenging the decision.
See also: US Army’s Blackhawk successor will be the Bell V-280 Valor
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, yesterday filed a formal protest asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the U.S. Army’s decision on the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) contract, which was won by Bell Textron’s V-280 Valor.
Boeing supports the protest filed by its Team DEFIANT partner, also asking the GAO to review the Army’s decision.
Boeing expresses itself as follows in its press release:
“Based on a thorough review of the information and feedback provided by the Army, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky, on behalf of Team DEFIANT, is challenging the FLRAA decision. The data and discussions lead us to believe the proposals were not consistently evaluated to deliver the best value in the interest of the Army, our Soldiers and American taxpayers. The critical importance of the FLRAA mission to the Army and our nation requires the most capable, affordable and lowest-risk solution. We remain confident DEFIANT X is the transformational aircraft the Army requires to accomplish its complex missions today and well into the future.”.
The decision comes as no surprise, as on the same day the U.S. Army announced that its choice had fallen on Bell’s V-280, press personnel from Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems contacted us with the following joint statement:
«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.». – Team DEFIANT.
It will take some time for the Blackhawk replacement to be defined. It is even possible that this struggle could end up in court, given the importance of the FLRAA program to the future of the helicopter industry globally.
