The Sikorsky Raider X prototype, the company’s offering for the US Army’s Future Attack Recon Aircraft (FARA), is more than 85% complete.
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, is making significant progress on RAIDER X, making progress 50% faster in manufacturing and assembly than legacy programs and resulting in a transformative aircraft, Cost savings.
As noted by the company, RAIDER X, which Sikorsky has started powering, has completed nearly 50% of the required System Acceptance Testing process.
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Sikorsky X2™ technology underpins the X2 RAIDER design. X2’s complex coaxial technology provides unprecedented growth potential and margin for increased speed, combat radius and payload. This allows for a wider variety of aircraft configurations for specific mission requirements.
Sikorsky President Paul Lemmo said: “Our transformative X-RAIDER X will bring many benefits to the Army including the lowest schedule risk and the highest level of technical proficiency compared to FARA’s competitors. “. “With X2 Technology, RAIDER X has the ability to grow, unlike a single main rotor configuration. We’re looking to the future, and we’re committed to helping the Army stop threats and protect liberties well in the 21st.st century.”
In addition, construction of Sikorsky’s second FARA fuselage is now complete. The fuselage is being integrated into Sikorsky’s structural testing program and will be used to validate the airframe’s airframe flight and ground load capabilities. These tests support the RAIDER X CP flight safety program and provide data to optimize and accelerate the design of the full weapon system.
“We took an innovative approach with our second CP fuselage,” said Sikorsky FARA Chief Engineer Pete Germanowski. “The second fuselage not only increased the efficiency of the construction and testing of our first CP aircraft, but also gave us the option of building it as a second CP aircraft, giving us the added advantage of being able to fly. more flexibility and less risk.”
RAIDER X features mission and avionics systems based on Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) that provide “plug-and-play” options for computers, sensors, survivability, and weapons . X2 complex coaxial technology provides unprecedented growth potential and margin for increased speed, combat radius and payload. This allows for a wider variety of aircraft configurations for specific mission requirements.
“FARA’s mission requires operational agility, and RAIDER X provides the operational flexibility the Army needs, including speed where it is needed,” said Jay Macklin, Sikorsky Business Development Manager. equipment, large multi-function weapons bays and unprecedented acceleration and deceleration,” said Jay Macklin, Sikorsky’s director of business development. “RAIDER X is the most agile, lethal and survivable aircraft, designed to dominate vertical lift against evolving threats of the future.”
The FARA weapon system is designed to restore offensive reconnaissance dominance with sweeping improvements in lethality, agility, accessibility, survivability and durability to deliver capabilities and flexibility for future commanders. FARA will minimize enemy long-range capabilities through increased reach allowing combat and operational commanders from a relative reserve while inflicting deadly effects outside of sensing range/ opponent’s weapon. FARA must operate in complex and dense urban, mountainous, desert, jungle, and maritime environments.
