Combat aircraft

Bell Helicopter’s prototype V-280 Valor performed its fi rst fl ight at the

contractor’s Amarillo, Texas, assembly facility on December 18, 2017. The

Valor has been developed in support of the US Army’s Joint Multi-Role

Technology Demonstration (JMR-TD) program. Bell Helicopter

V-280 VALOR FLIES

PROTOTYPE TILT-ROTOR MOVES AHEAD T

HE PROTOTYPE BELL

Helicopter V-280 Valor

tilt-rotor aircraft  ew

for the  rst time on

December 18 at the

contractor’s production

facility in Amarillo, Texas. During

the short  ight the next-generation

tilt-rotor was  own to a low hover.

The 30,000lb (13,608kg)-class craft

had been undergoing extensive

ground testing since September in

preparation for its maiden  ight.

The Valor, along with the

Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 De ant, is

being developed under the US

Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology

Demonstration (JMR-TD) program.

The co-axial rotor SB-1 is expected

to make its initial  ight at Sikorsky

Aircraft’s development  ight center

in West Palm Beach, Florida, by

mid-2018. The competing designs

will support the US Army’s Future

Vertical Lift (FVL) procurement. The

JMR-TD science and technology

e ort is the precursor to this formal

program, which is intended to

deliver a rotorcraft that can  y twice

as far and at double the speed of

current helicopters. The Army hopes

to begin low-rate production of such

a Black Hawk replacement by 2030.

Tom Kaminski

BOEING UNVEILS

MQ-25A DEMONSTRATOR

BOEING’S ENTRY INTO the US Navy’s

competition for a carrier-based

unmanned air system was unveiled

when the company released a

photograph of the new air vehicle on

December 19. The contractor, along

with Lockheed Martin and General

Atomics, was expected to submit bids

for the MQ-25A Stingray by January 3.

Although Boeing’s entry has not yet

 own, it is completing engine runs

at the company’s St Louis, Missouri,

facility, where it will complete deck

handling demonstrations shortly.

These trials will see the prototype

taxiing via remote control and

moving within the con nes of

a simulated carrier  ight deck.

Additionally, Boeing will validate

that the craft can engage the launch

bar of a catapult. The aircraft will not

 y during the demonstrations and

Boeing has not scheduled a date for

its  rst  ight.

Developed in St Louis by Boeing’s

Phantom Works, the stealthy

prototype is said to feature a fuel-

e cient wing-body-tail design.

The navy’s requirements for the

unmanned air refueling aircraft

include the ability to deliver

15,000lb (6,804kg) of fuel to strike

aircraft operating up to 500nm

(926km) from the carrier. Stealth

requirements are unclear.

The MQ-25 will provide the carrier

air wing (CVW) with an organic

refueling capability that will extend

the reach of naval strike  ghters and

the aircraft carrier. It will also a ord

the CVW an intelligence, surveillance

and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.

The navy issued its  nal MQ-

request for proposals in October and

plans to select a winning contractor

for the engineering, manufacturing

and development (EMD) phase this

summer. The service will initially

purchase four systems.

In an ambitious move, the Navy

plans to  eld the  rst Stingrays by

2020. It recently announced that
      the aircraft carriers USS Dwight D.
      Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS George
      H. W. Bush (CVN 77) will be the  rst to
      operate the unmanned tanker.

Boeing revealed its offering for the US Navy’s competition for a carrier-

based unmanned air system competition on December 19, 2017.

Boeing/Eric Shindelbower

WITH OPERATION ‘INHERENT

Resolve’ (OIR) in Iraq and Syria

showing signs of having been scaled

back as so-called Islamic State (IS)

targets dwindle, there is no sign

of a let-up for US operations in

Afghanistan. The Department of

Defense (DoD) said 2017 ended with

the lowest rate of strikes in Iraq and

Syria since OIR began in 2014, but

this contrasts against the highest

rate of combat missions being  own

in Afghanistan since 2011. A total

of 39,577 bombs were dropped in

OIR during 2017. In December, US

and coalition aircraft dropped 584

weapons, the fewest since August

2014 when the con ict kicked o.

‘Jagged Knife’ is a new push in

Afghanistan that began in November

2017 in a bid to tackle Taliban drug

production. This accounted for 455

overall Afghan-theater strikes in

December, taking the 2017 total in

the country to 4,361 — the highest

since 2011’s 5,411.

AFGHANISTAN MISSION

RAMPS UP AGAIN

An F-16CM assigned to the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron,

deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan, on a ‘Jagged Knife’ mission in late

2017. USAF/SSgt Sean Martin

[NEWS] HEADLINES

06 March 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

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