Ukraine fighting offers lessons for Sikorsky
Pentagon assessments could have ramifications for Defiant-X project
The Defiant-X prototype Sikorsky is building is a striking departure from standard design, with a stacked set of rotor blades for nimble agility and a tail assembly built for speed.
Will the newfangled helicopter look radically different in a few years, whether to the casual bystander or a seasoned pilot? That could be one outcome for a crash course Pentagon planners are getting as they analyze the success of Ukraine soldiers in downing Russian helicopters.
Lessons from Ukraine could affect future U.S. helicopter purchases and, by extension, Sikorsky and parent Lockheed Martin.
Alongside Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky are vying with Textron subsidiary Bell to replace the Black Hawk helicopter used by the U.S. Army, and similar multi-mission helicopters like the Seahawk. The manufacturers expect the Pentagon to issue a decision by July — with major consequences for the Pentagon’s “Future Vertical Lift” goal for an all-purpose platform that can be adapted to other classes of aircraft.
And overshadowing all of it is the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both sides claiming to have downed dozens of helicopters, using weapons ranging from small arms to the newest missiles in the NATO arsenal.
The Sikorsky team designed Defiant-X to tackle the broad range of missions the Black Hawk performs today. Defiant-X will have twin rotor sets that spin in opposite directions to provide vastly improved maneuverability compared to standard helicopters.
Textron and Bell are putting forward the Valor-280, which uses tilt-rotor technology to take off like a helicopter, then fly forward like an airplane.
“If we’re not selected it will be a big deal — for sure,” said Paul Lemmo, president of Sikorsky, speaking Wednesday during a media tour of Sikorsky’s progress in modernizing its Stratford factory for Defiant-X and future helicopters.
“We have some other programs here, but we’d certainly be smaller than we are today down the line as Black Hawk goes out of production . ... The stakes are high for all companies involved.”
Era of ‘A2/AD’
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added an extra dimension for the Department of Defense to consider, given the success
Ukraine soldiers have had shooting down Russian helicopters. That success has come despite Ukraine lacking the sophistication of “A2/AD” capabilities, the military acronym referencing the ability to thwart enemy aircraft incursions across an entire combat theater.
Lemmo acknowledged the Pentagon’s assessments could have ramifications for future helicopter designs. He said Defiant-X is designed to be able to hug any landscape at very low altitudes and high speeds, making it far less vulnerable to ground fire.
The exact nature of the information Sikorsky is receiving, or will receive, from the Pentagon about the war in Ukraine remains confidential.
“Obviously, a lot of that I can’t talk to, but what I would say generally is I’m not sure that the Russian helicopters have the kind of systems on them that the U.S. helicopters [have] in terms of self-defense,” Lemmo said Wednesday.
“We’ll look to the Army and other services to give us feedback — what we know is what we’ve seen on TV, so we’ll need to get probably a classified debriefing and really understand. And I’m sure some of that will manifest itself in new requirements.”
There is plenty of precedent for adjusting equipment requirements based on hard lessons from the front lines. One prominent example was the experience of U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan, who had to jury-rig protective armor and change tactics for vehicles getting hit repeatedly by explosives hidden along roadsides.
More recently, the U.S. Air Force scaled back its planned purchase of Sikorsky helicopters designed to rescue pilots shot down in hostile territory. On a tour of the Stratford plant on Wednesday, a Sikorsky executive called the HH-60W Jolly Green II the most advanced combat helicopter ever produced by Sikorsky, with a range of defensive measures to survive enemy fire.
In its latest budget request for the 2023 fiscal year, however, the Department of Defense revealed the U.S. Air Force is now scaling back its planned purchase of HH-60W helicopters, as reported by military trade publication Breaking Defense. From initial plans for more than 110 Jolly Green IIs, the Air Force now plans to field just 75 in all.
Breaking Defense cited Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall saying the decision was the result of updated assessments of the military capabilities of Russia and China.
“We were surprised to learn that news,” Lemmo said Wednesday. “I think there’s still a lot of discussion going on.”
‘Cost of inaction’
All eyes are now on the Future Vertical Lift program as the Pentagon decides which of the SikorskyBoeing or Bell aircraft is best suited for the array of missions that confront commanders in war and, by extension, peacetime duties like responding to natural disasters or humanitarian crises.
In public comments this week to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth included Future Vertical Lift among the continuing priorities for the Army, along with missile defenses, a new ground combat vehicle, aerial drones and several others.
“The Army can’t afford not to invest in FVL — these programs have momentum, are performing well and must be seen through,” stated Mike Hirschberg, executive director of the Vertical Flight Society
trade group, in a written commentary posted in February.
“The United States is in a constant state of competition with its peer and near-peer competitors, regardless of current budgets, and the cost of inaction is high.”
It is a decision with significant implications for the Connecticut economy as well, with Sikorsky at last report employing more than 8,100 people in Stratford, a satellite factory in Bridgeport, where it builds Black Hawk fuselages; a Trumbull helicopter maintenance unit; and engineering offices in Shelton.
In April, the Connecticut General Assembly signed off on Gov. Ned Lamont’s deal for Lockheed Martin to get $50 million in assistance from the state of Connecticut if it wins the contract, in exchange for Sikorsky’s headquarters plant to stay in Stratford for the next 20 years while maintaining employment levels.
The award would rise to $75 million if Sikorsky gets picked a few years from now to produce a new armed scout helicopter for the Army, with Bell also vying for that deal.
“We’re extremely pleased with that,” Lemmo said Wednesday. “It’s going to help us remain competitive.”
With its stacked set of counterrotating blades and a rear-mounted “pusher” prop, the Defiant-X is an engineering marvel that Sikorsky has been working on for a number of years. An early prototype won Sikorsky the Collier Trophy a decade ago, awarded annually for the top achievement in aviation and aerospace.
As one example, Mike Ambrose, vice president of enterprise business transformation, demonstrated how the helicopter’s rotor configuration allows it to inch toward a target or landing zone low and with all weapons trained on it — then back out speedily with suppressing fire if the need arises.
In a Black Hawk, Ambrose said, the pilot’s best option for escape would be to accelerate into a banking curve, exposing it to a sustained burst of fire from below.
John McGonagle knows as much as anybody about that kind of a scenario in his role as chief pilot at Sikorsky, and before that as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“From the pilot’s perspective, now you’ve just lost your visual cues,” McGonagle said. “With this machine, you get a perfect profile every time.”