Originally Posted by
SplineDrive
Plenty of us expect that the final FARA production proposal will allow twin ITE configurations, which will enable more powerful aircraft with greater growth potential... and definitely butt up against upgraded Apache capabilities. So regardless of how well (or not) Raider-X's competitive prototype flies, Sikorsky would once again be looking at scaling up an aircraft from demonstrator to production and having to answer questions about X-2 scalability. The S-97 is NOT an 80% scale model of a twin ITE FARA. I suspect it's closer to a 50% scale by gross weight.
If Army changes the requirements to allow two engines, the whole program collapses. Boeing, Karem and AVX will come back and say, "Well, if we had been allowed to use two engines, our designs would have been more competitive, so we're heading over to GAO to protest the awards to Bell and Sikorsky.. .and they'd win.
Going to two engines would add weight, increase fuel consumption possibly reduce range, etc. Still, Army is going to have to compromise somewhere for either of these designs to meet all the specs.
USMC found themselves in a similar situation with their MUX program when the prospective bidders came back and said that at this time, a vehicle that could meet all the requirement couldn't be built and so USMC canceled the program.