Could Surveillance Drones Save the Army Chopper? Concept Tested With Sikorsky’s Black Hawk

Apr. 22—As Sikorsky pivots to a bid to win a new scout helicopter contract from the U.S. Army, the Stratford manufacturer could get a much-needed lift if surveillance drones that could be launched in droves from those very helicopters — and at sufficiently safe distances to help pilots steer clear of any "Black Hawk Down" scenarios — prove successful.

Collins Aerospace is the lead contractor for the Pentagon's experimental "Air Launched Effects" drone program. The Raytheon Technologies subsidiary was a corporate sibling of Sikorsky at United Technologies before Lockheed Martin acquired the Stratford helicopter manufacturer in 2015, five years in advance of UTC merging with Raytheon.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., Collins remains a major Connecticut employer today in the Hartford area under Raytheon, which has its headquarters outside Boston.

Tube-launched from helicopters as they approach enemy territory, winged ALE drones are designed to scout flight routes, pin down the locations of any combatants and equipment, and neutralize them to lessen the odds of helicopters being shot down.

The Collins Aerospace systems aboard ALE drones include artificial intelligence capabilities to differentiate military threats from civilian structures and vehicles, signal-jamming systems and other unspecified "lethal and non-lethal effects" to clear flight paths for helicopters. With fuselages developed by the Area-I subsidiary of Alduril Industries, ALE drones weigh less than 30 pounds and have a range of 275 miles.

The U.S. military and other nations have been developing "area-denial" capabilities using a mix of technologies to better detect and thwart enemy aircraft and drones. The emerging strategy puts helicopters at particular risk when approaching landing zones in combat theaters to drop off troops and supplies, with a number of helicopters having been shot down in the Ukraine- Russia conflict by both adversaries.

Collins Aerospace renderings depict helicopters releasing four drones simultaneously for advanced scouting on the flight path. The Army has already tested launching the drones from Sikorsky Black Hawks at its Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

This week, Sikorsky conceded it will not build a long-term replacement for the Black Hawk under the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program after ending its protest of the FLRAA contract to Bell and its V-280 Valor tilt-rotor design.

"On FLRAA, we're obviously disappointed — we believed that our offering was the best technology to support the multi-mission requirements at the best value," said Jay Malave, chief financial officer of Lockheed Martin, speaking Tuesday on a conference call.

Malave added that as part of a $100 million restructuring at the end of last year at its Rotary and Mission Systems division, about half that amount reflected job cuts at Sikorsky without specifying how many people were affected.

The Black Hawk has plenty of runway left in the Army, with budget documents last month showing that Sikorsky delivered nearly 1,200 of its modernized Black Hawks to the Army through last October, with the Army wanting a total fleet of more than 2,100 in all. Some of those aircraft represent older Black Hawks that are being overhauled for the latest systems Sikorsky offers to keep them battle-worthy.

And foreign militaries remain interested in Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said this week, highlighting a commitment by Australia. Sikorsky plans to try to interest a European consortium in its Defiant X helicopter that lost out to the Bell V-280 Valor.

But lower Black Hawk production contributed to a $75 million decline in net revenue for Sikorsky in the first quarter. Sikorsky remains busy ramping up production of the new CH-53K cargo helicopter for the U.S. Marine Corps on the heels of completing a new fleet of White House helicopters. A new rescue helicopter for the U.S. Air Force is also being assembled in Stratford.

"While we've got production — particularly the Black Hawk — stepping down slightly in 2023, it actually steps up again in 2024," Malave said Tuesday. "Then we have significant growth on the CH-53K program in '24, where we are expecting to double our deliveries. And so we're dealing with just a one-year type of trough, I would say."

Still, the Army intends the V-280 Valor to supplant the Black Hawk as the Army's all-purpose workhorse in the long run. Sikorsky remains in the running to build an armed scout helicopter under the Army's Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft program. For FARA, Sikorsky is again offering a helicopter with stacked sets of blades that spin in opposite directions, with its Raider X prototype promising far better maneuverability than the Black Hawk and other traditional helicopters.

Bell hopes to sell the Army on its Invictus helicopter, which has a traditional design with single overhead and rear rotor sets. The program has been pushed back to next year as GE Aviation works through unspecified issues with an engine the Army wants installed on whichever helicopter it chooses.

In a 2020 report to Congress on future weapons needs, the Army labeled the scout helicopter its No. 3 "modernization priority" — and its top need for aviation units, ahead of the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft contract won by Bell, given a half century or more service it expects out of Black Hawks being built in Stratford and Bridgeport today.

The Army has been leaning on Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters for the scout missions it envisions the FARA helicopter taking on, but wants "sweeping improvements," in its words, when it comes to agility, survivability and offensive punch.

Even as the Army moves ahead with ALE drones, it is pursuing a larger drone that can take off like a helicopter, under the Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System program.

Like FARA, FLRAA and ALE, the big drone is part of the Department of Defense's "Future Vertical Lift" vision. In February, the Army named five contractors to design prototypes for the FTUAS drone program, including Bell's Rhode Island-based parent Textron Systems, whose Aerosonde Hybrid Quad takes off like a helicopter.

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