Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
Hmm, memory foggy, for some reason I had remembered that #3 got airborne, but if it didn't it didn't. Had not realized that LRIP phase had not begun when the CNX decision was made, thanks for correcting my somewhat faulty memory. I wonder how similar to the A-12 (Navy replacement for A-6 that died thanks to a variety of program problems) the Comanche was in terms of tech risk, over promising and under delivering. Probably good case studies for graduate level acquisition courses ...
Lets, or, let's hope they can weaponize the V-280 Valor effectively enough.
In the nearly nine years following rollout, they only managed to finish one more airframe; they were a long way from even considering LRIP. In the case of the A-12 it should be remembered that the team that might actually know how to build such an aircraft walked away from the competition. They decided that the only thing worse than losing the competition was winning it.
Part, but by no means all, of Comanche's problems came when they dumbed down the original specifications so as to insure that no one would offer a Tilt-Rotor. In doing so, they put in weight and power constraints that made a Tilt-Rotor non-competitive, The maximum allowable weight and power allowed made something other than a conventional helicopter non-feasible especially when they changed to give no extra credit for significantly exceeding requirements. Ironically, the weight and power specs had to be relaxed for Comanche anyway. Of course any type of airframe they did build, regardless of technology, likely still would have had many of the systems and avionics problems and deficiencies (like a gun that couldn't hit a target) Comanche had.
Bell has shown a number of concepts and models of heavily armed Valors. It would just take someone (USMC?) to say, "Go ahead, and here's money". Keep in mind that Valor is a much larger craft designed for a different mission. A Tilt-Rotor gunship also has a major oft overlooked advantage over a helicopter. While it's really complicated to do so on a helicopter, it's trivial to fit off-the shelf-ejection seats to a Tilt-Rotor.