Originally Posted by
The Sultan
Here it is:
https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2019...380.1545920007
This has X2 all over it and barely mentions the S-97. So this is basically Sikorsky saying forget the 97 with its high drag/low max speed, brutal vibration, and rotors that might chew themselves up in an abrupt maneuver and return to the promise of the (one step above a toy) X-2 for the FARA. Since the picture looks like a 97 but bigger, how is it not going to be even worse in all aspects?
That’s needlessly harsh... if they didn’t want us to think of S-97 Raider, their FARA CP wouldn’t be named Raider-X with a video full of Raider flight clips. That said, it’s still too many rotors and unnecessarily complex and expensive to meet the mission requirements. It is notable they never actually stated an MCP cruise speed and amount of payload at range and time on station. Just lots of promises of future growth potential... like it maybe needs a bigger engine now.