The Navy has completed a study assessing potential procurement paths for its effort to replace its Sikorsky [LMT] MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters with a future vertical lift (FVL) platform, and may look to initiate the program in 2025.
Rear Adm. Andrew Loiselle, director of the Navy’s Air Warfare Division, said the Analysis of Alternatives study for the FVL Maritime Strike effort has been delivered to the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office for analysis.
“Once they are done with that sufficiency assessment then we will absolutely move onto selecting a preferred alternative for the Navy and all of the costing and acquisition documentation necessary to reach a Milestone A likely in about the [2025] timeframe,” Loiselle said during a House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
The Navy issued an FVL Maritime Strike request for information in January 2021 to begin analyzing options for replacing its MH-60R/S fleet, with a goal to have a new helicopter achieve initial operational capability in the mid-2030s (Defense Daily, Jan. 29 2021).
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) asked Loiselle for the update on Maritime Strike and whether the Navy was leveraging anything from the Army’s ongoing FVL initiatives, to include the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) and Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA).
“The MH-60 fleet is getting older and all those service life extensions are underway. Some of us are worried about developing a replacement,” Bacon said. “Where you can [work with the Army], it makes sense. Granted, I know you have different requirements but hopefully there can be some leveraging of all their experience.”
Loiselle said the Navy is “about five years” behind the Army on its FVL effort, adding that it aligns with the expected service life expiration for its MH-60R/S fleet, while most of the insights informing Maritime Strike are focused on the mission systems aspect.
“Because [the Army’s] FLRAA aircraft is too large for our destroyer decks and FARA is going to be too small for our needs. So I don’t see a direct correlation [with] our requirements to theirs. However, that does not mean we will not have numerous opportunities to learn,” Loiselle said.
The Army has selected Bell’s [TXT] V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft design for FLRAA, the program to find an eventual UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter replacement.
Bell is also competing against Sikorsky for the Army’s FARA program to find a new scout attack helicopter, with plans to fly the first prototypes next year.