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Old 19th Mar 2021, 19:12
  #248 (permalink)  
Commando Cody
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: USA
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Originally Posted by CTR
I didn’t think it was going to be another competition of flight demonstrators. Isn’t the next competition phase just a proposal?
The phase they''ve been in for the past year is the Competitive Demonstration and Risk Reduction, for which Bell got $84 million and Sikorsky got $97 million, which will “include initial conceptual designs, requirements feasibility and trade studies using model based systems engineering", In other words, they are spending almost as much time analyzing the data they got from the JMR-TD phase (in which SB>! barely flew) as the entire length of that first phase! "Ultimately, this information and industry feedback are vital to understanding the performance, cost, affordability, schedule risks and trades needed to successfully execute the FLRAA program". This will, “will inform the refinement of the capability requirements, system performance specification and identify risk areas.” Translation: "We're going to push lots of paper so we don't get protested too much". Not sure if there will be any required flying during this phase. Frankly, though, unless they can get some serious flying in, even at their own expense, I don't see how the selection could go to Sikorsky-Boeing

After this phase comes the actual request for Best and Final Offers and selection scheduled (for now) in 2022. Then there will be more design reviews, and reviews, until delivery of the prototype of the winning design in 2025, and delivery to the first Army unit in 2030. No I don't know why the Army wants it to take so long.
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