Errymath: Ka-52

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<span style="font-size: large;"><span>New</span> <span>V-280</span> <span>Valor</span> <span>Tiltrotor</span> <span>May</span> <span>Replace</span> <span>Entire</span> <span>US</span> <span>Army</span> <span>Helicopter</span> <span>Fleet</span></span></h1>
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<span class="b-article__lead">In
 an effort to further its Future Vertical Lift program, the Pentagon has
 begun construction of a new tiltrotor aircraft with the potential of 
completely replacing the US Army’s helicopter fleet.</span><br />
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The
 V-22 Osprey has had a number of setbacks. It has earned a reputation 
for being unsafe after a series of fatal crashes, most recently <a href="http://sputniknews.com/us/20150518/1022253845.html" target="_blank">last month</a>.
 Its price tag has also ballooned far past the original $2.5 billion 
estimate. By 2008, $27 billion had been spent on production, 
with another $27 billion still to go.<br />
But the utility of a tiltrotor has pushed the Pentagon ever forward 
in its development program. The promise of an aircraft that can take 
off and land with the ease of a helicopter, but still reach the speeds 
of a plane, has proven too alluring to the Defense Department.<br />
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<img alt="An MV-22B Osprey aircraft flies in view of Lake Washington." height="346" itemprop="associatedMedia" src="http://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/102361/15/1023611502.jpg" title="An MV-22B Osprey aircraft flies in view of Lake Washington." width="640" /> <br />
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<img alt="CV-22 Osprey Along the Coast" height="340" src="http://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/102190/71/1021907182.jpg" title="CV-22 Osprey Along the Coast" width="640" /></div>
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                ©
            Flickr/  Tony Boyer. V-22 Osprey<br />
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But the V-22’s size has left it out of favor with the US Army, the 
only military branch to opt out of the Osprey orders. The Army could, 
instead, build its own tiltrotor. Known as the V-280 Valor, it’s meant 
to be smaller and more versatile, and the prototype is now being 
constructed by Bell Helicopter.<br />
Spearheaded by the Army as part of its Joint Multi-Role Technology 
Demonstrator (JMRTD) project, the Defense Department has set aside $100 
million for V-280’s development. If the prototype works out, more money 
would be funneled in, and the Valor could replace the Army’s UH-60 Black
 Hawks and AH-64 Apaches.<br />
However, the Valor will still be facing competition. As part 
of JMRTD, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Boeing are developing a compound 
helicopter known as the SB>1 Defiant. While still in the design 
phase, the Defiant has also received $100 million to see which prototype
 will be more effective in promoting the Future Vertical Lift 
initiative.<br />
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"The tech demo is the key to understanding what the next generation 
of military rotorcraft could be for the rest of the century," American 
Helicopter Society Executive Director Michael Hirschberg told Breaking 
Defense.<br />
It’s possible that neither aircraft will meet the Army’s standards, 
but given that its helicopter fleet is aging beyond repair, it will have
 to come to some kind of decision.<br />
"We’re kind of in a period of vulnerability right now," said Maj. 
Gen. Michael Lundy, head of the Army’s aviation branch, according 
to Breaking Defense.<br />
Both the Valor and Defiant prototypes are slated to be flight-ready 
by 2017, but even assuming one of the concepts meets muster, it would 
still be years before the defense companies could have operational 
models ready to replace the Army’s current helicopter fleet. Some 
estimates suggest the Army won’t be able to obtain a full brigade’s 
worth of new aircraft until as late as 2037.<br />
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Because of this, the CH-47 Chinook, which first entered service during the Vietnam War, won’t be retired until 2065.<br />
"It’s going to be a 100-year aircraft because we don’t have a replacement," Lundy said.<br />
So the Army desperately needs one of its new aircraft gambles to pay 
off. Hopefully development will run more smoothly than the Osprey’s, 
otherwise that battle-weary Chinook could be forced to fly a bit 
longer. </div>
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