Originally Posted by
The Sultan
CC
The FARA radius of action is only 125 miles so the tactical benefits of the Raider going 10% faster than the 360 are insignificant and not worth the complexity of an ABC over a conventional helicopter.
Sultan (or other learned respondents)...
Thanks for the input on speed requirements.
Can you weigh in on the FARA life cycle cost requirements?
I have never seen a calculation, but I imagine LCC increase exponentially with speed. You raise the point that increased speed means little when applied over a short radius of action. So if you stack these two factors together, it indicates that the speed requirement is very costly... (nothing new here). Taking your point one step further, will the FARA increased speed requirement compared to conventional helicopters be similarly insignificant, i.e. will any operational benefit be realized given the complexities and uncertainties of the real world?
Increased speed incurs weight and/or fatigue life penalties, higher maintenance, lower Time Between Overhaul and others that don't come to mind immediately. Compared to current generation aircraft, these penalties will be somewhat ameliorated by health and usage monitoring and prediction.
Fuel consumption will also be increased, and this also presents at least a geometric if not exponential increased cost versus speed as you track it backwards in the supply chain (fuel burn by various modes of transportation from source to user). The fuel burn penalty due to speed is only there when you go fast, but the attendant fuel consumption due to increased weight is always present.
Fuel cost is one thing, but availability in a critical time of need is more important.
And of course none of the above touches on development and production cost deltas derived solely from speed.
Thanks,
DS