Originally Posted by
chopper2004
Good thing the Dutch have a robust rotary wing industry to take up the slack for those who just can't fulfill his vision.
Oh, wait, I guess they don't.
I suspect that one of the things that bothers him is how the West's defense industrial base seems to by dying the death of a thousand cuts, and thus choices are necking down. F-35 seems to be a case in point, and IIRC the Dutch are caught in that mess along with a bunch of other NATO allies and the US.
V-280 and modularity answers two critical acquisition exam questions, if it comes off as hoped: common airframe, smaller logistics and spares tail, modularity. You may want to look into the benefits USMC are accruing with AH-1Z and UH-1Y in terms of parts commonality and supportability.
There's been a never ending drive, since Graham Rudman Act of 1986, to address the tail and supportability issues in any new program.
As to the S-97 follow on that is supposed to be bigger, not sure if that will pan out. I don't doubt that sometime soon EC/Airbus Helicopters may present their ideas on the future of vertical lift as competition to the ideas already shown by the current players in the game.
I appreciate his appeal to a broad vision, but temper that with the hard facts of physics and rotary wing flight/vertical lift.