Originally Posted by
SplineDrive
https://www.defensedaily.com/engine-...ly-fy-26/army/
The Army is currently going through an Analysis of Alternatives that won't be complete for months. Will definitely be interesting to see what alternatives are being analyzed.
The X-2 power demands are more typically set by target max cruise speed and then hover and hover agility is a fall out of that, so the opposite of a tilt rotor. You're right that, in FARA's case, the competitive prototypes were heavily influenced to have a single ITE engine which will cap the max cruise speed of both aircraft. Bell's Invictus get's a little wiggle room with its SPU approach.
If the AoA process determines that a twin best suits the Army's needs, the final proposal requirements will reflect that and both competitive prototypes will feed data into the design of the new, larger FARA... assuming the aircraft fly before important decisions get made on those aircraft. Not sure how the Army will handle protests/lawsuits if the final requirements are substantially different than those of the earlier FARA phase that birthed the competitive prototypes.
When I was talking how Bell's power requirement was derived I was referring to V-280's because Defiant-X was cited. In the absence of the stringent hot and high requirement I don't know that they'd need that much power
I believe the RFP specifically mandated that designs had to be based on a single ITEP engine. If that hadn't been in there, I doubt that all five FARA contenders would have picked the same propulsion package. The speed requirement was 180 knots with a 200-205 knot dash. RFP also capped maximum weight as ≤14,000 lbs with a 40' rotor. I'm saying that if Army now said, "Weeell, engine selection and how many is now open", that would be such a major change they'd have to go back out and re-solicit since the losers could say they could have designed something different and they would be better than what won. That may or may not be true, but it would be a valid enough claim that it would stop the program.