Originally Posted by
etudiant
You are of course entirely right, tilt rotors have a big head start.
That is why I think the schedule is a fiction, the Army needs a competitor more than it needs new vertical lift.
Tilt-Rotor has a big head start because it's been successful. What problems that have been encounterd have been due to design choices made in the aircraft themselves or funding (especially the V-22), not due to Tilt-Rotor techology itself. Rigid coaxial/X2 technology have had problems from the start and have been characterized by underperforming (XH-59) and/or being repeatedly late (X2 demonstrator, S-97 and maybe SB-1). For example, either one of the XV-15 demonstrators flew more hours and with more guest pilots than all X2/ABC vehicles combined.
There's still Karem for another Tilt-Rotor to have a competitor.