Why Did The US Army Cancel Sikorsky’s Raider X Helicopter?

While they could not generate as a lot hype as the most recent glossy, fixed-wing fighters or bombers, helicopters are an enormous a part of America’s army arsenal, particularly for the U.S. Army. Many of the helicopters within the Army aren’t too dissimilar from people who served within the ’80s and ’90s, with the venerable Black Hawk nonetheless one of the vital generally flown choppers within the fleet. 

Though the Black Hawk platform has been closely upgraded over time, it is nonetheless based mostly on a helicopter design that first entered service again within the late Nineteen Seventies. It’s a lot the identical with the legendary AH-64 Apache assault helicopter, which first flew greater than 50 years in the past. It’s not shocking, then, that the Army has sought to modernize its fleet, with some makes an attempt extra profitable than others.

One helicopter that might have introduced the Army’s fleet into the long run was the Sikorsky Raider X — a high-tech, armed scout helicopter being developed as a part of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program. The program was introduced in 2018, with the Raider X serving as Sikorsky’s entry. Though Sikorsky made vital progress on the Raider X, it was shelved when the Army cancelled the FARA program in 2024. Instead of a next-gen chopper, the Army switched its focus to drones and powerplant upgrades for its current helicopter fashions.

Before speaking concerning the high-tech Sikorsky Raider X, we’ve to return to considered one of America’s extra established army choppers, the Army’s OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. The Kiowa Warrior was an armed scout helicopter developed within the Eighties, based mostly on the even older, Sixties-era OH-58A Kiowa. More a dual-purpose plane than a dedicated attack chopper, the Kiowa Warrior served in quite a few conflicts, together with Iraq and Afghanistan, and was retired from service in 2016.

The FARA program, initiated in 2018, sought to develop a brand new, state-of-the-art, armed recon chopper to exchange the Kiowa Warrior. The two plane that made it to the second part have been the Bell 360 Invictus and the Sikorsky Raider X. Announced in 2019, Raider X was based mostly on the Sikorsky S-97 Raider and constructed round Lockheed Martin’s X2 rotor system. The Raider X was designed to excel at low-level, low-speed reconnaissance, however Sikorsky additionally touted the X2 platform’s capacity to climb as excessive as 9,000 toes and attain speeds over 250 knots. 

The Raider X additionally deliberate to supply plug-and-play compatibility with a number of already-existing weapons and pc techniques, bettering its adaptability. By fall 2022, Lockheed Martin reported that the Raider X prototype was 92% full and nicely on the best way to start flight testing.

Even although the Raider X was nicely on its solution to completion, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the struggle that adopted prompted a change in U.S. Army coverage. The unrest gave U.S. Army leaders a take a look at the altering face of aerial reconnaissance and assault warfare, with unmanned drones doing lots of the jobs previously performed by helicopters just like the Kiowa Warrior. This actuality, together with ongoing finances considerations, led to the termination of the FARA program in February 2024.

This pivot additionally meant that the GE T901 engine, developed as a part of the Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program and meant for the FARA helicopters, would as an alternative be retrofitted to current Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. The Apache, for its half, had already taken on among the Kiowa Warrior’s reconnaissance roles whereas the Army waited on a correct substitute. 

While the bold Raider X does not seem like it will enter service with the United States Army, X2-based Sikorsky choppers may nonetheless discover future roles as next-gen helicopters for different NATO international locations. Ultimately, time will inform what’s in retailer for the S-97 Raider and Raider X and their place in the long line of military helicopters Sikorsky has produced over time.