Future Vertical Lift: Have Plan, Need Money Leaders within - and outside - the Future Vertical Lift initiative stress the need to find funding sources in tough economic times, while pushing ahead with design and implementation plans for the next generation of rotorcraft.
By Andrew Parker, Editor-in-Chief
Rendering of a AVX Aircraft Joint Multi-Role (now Future Vertical Lift) aircraft dropping troops into the battlefield. AVX
During the AHS Forum in May, U.S. Army Aviation and other helicopter industry leadership from the science and technology (S&T) community noted that the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative is on track, but emphasized the need to secure funding sources in order for the program to succeed, despite the global economic situation and financial shortfalls in the U.S. A collaborative effort involving a number of parties, including Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the U.S. Coast Guard, NASA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC), FVL will design, develop and deliver the next generation of DoD vertical lift aircraft, according to Lt. Col. David Bristol, U.S. Army Aviation PEO for Future Vertical Lift activities. Bristol explained that the military, the U.S. Congress, DoD and the industry have defined the need for FVL, adding that interest and support from Congress is building since the program was launched in 2008. "It really focuses on capabilities-based assessment as a foundation for looking at Future Vertical Lift as far as performance shortfalls," he said.
One of the primary goals of the FVL initiative is to provide options for decision makers, and keep design and operating costs affordable. The "FVL Vision" calls for a joint aircraft from inception with common systems and subsystems across the fleet. A higher-speed aircraft with more range, payload and endurance, the FVL fleet will be safer and less expensive to operate, according to Bristol. He also highlighted some of the mission types that FVL will undertake, including counter-terrorism and irregular warfare as the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan; deterring and defeating aggression in support of ground-based troops; and conducting humanitarian, disaster relief and other rescue missions.
Bristol described an "FVL Strategic Plan" where all the services are "looking at a family of Future Vertical Lift platforms - the light, the medium, the heavy and the ultra. And we're looking for commonality as we examine the gaps, in line with our capabilities assessment."
Aeroflightdynamics Directorate (AFDD) Bell OH-58F drag study. AFDD
He explained why the program needs to move forward, noting that the "current fleet has done an excellent job," but saying that "DoD does not have a follow-up program of record to replace the current fleet. [We're] looking at production lines stopping from 2022, with the end of the [current fleet's] useful lives at around 2035. So this strategic plan's also going to address some of the capability gaps we have."
Those gaps include speed, range and weight. "When we look at, for instance, airspeed - aside from the V-22, airspeed limitations because of technology are at around 160 knots, 4,000 feet at 95 degrees at mission gross weight, and our fleet can't reach out - they don't have the legs that future needs will require. Those are some of the things we need to address."
Bristol's comments came after a presentation from U.S. Army Aviation PEO Maj. Gen. Tim Crosby, who called for a "marriage" of the S&T community and military program management is needed (for more see "Married with Children" on page 4 and "Q&A with Tim Crosby" on page 54).
Crosby points out the Aviation Modernization Plan during AHS. Photo by Andrew Parker
"We can ill-afford to be pursuing things that don't either support the Future Vertical Lift or where we need to go in modernizing the platforms that we have," he said. That partnership is "the kind of communication and collaboration we're going to need in budget-tight environments. ... We've got to collaborate, we've got to coordinate, we've got to discuss."
Crosby pointed out the importance of keeping an eye on the future. "This is the number one priority, and sometimes it's easy to focus on the right now, the current budget year, and thinking to yourself that you're supporting that soldier. That's the easy way out. But if I don't think about long range, if every one of us in this room don't think about the long-range support for that solider, we'll feel real good about ourselves today, but in a few years we'll look back and say we screwed up and it's our fault."
If everyone accepts the short-term answer today, "then we have no one to blame but ourselves down the road when our kids are out there trying to fight these battles for us, if we don't stand our ground and have a vision. And that vision's got to translate into execution," Crosby said.
FVL: Target 2030
The FVL initiative seeks increased efficiency in the following areas, while focusing on affordability in design and operating costs:
• Speed
• Range
• Payload
• Endurance
• Reliability
• Survivability
• Situational Awareness
• Common Systems (Open Architecture)
DoD Stresses Need for Previously Unseen Cooperation if Future Vertical Lift Ambition is to Take Off
By Andrew Drwiega, Military Editor
The question concerning the development of a new generation of Future Vertical Lift (FVL) rotorcraft for 2030 and beyond is a simple one. How radical and how rapid can the development of a new class of aircraft be, given the poor state of research and development funding and the unlikely change in those circumstances over the next few years - exactly the time when the ground-breaking R&D needs to happen?
The concept of FVL (ex-Joint Multi Role, or JMR) revolves around the development of four classes of rotorcraft: light, medium, heavy and ultra-heavy. The proposal is for the family of platforms to be taken up across the services to reduce the cost of ownership over the long term. The decision has already been made to focus on the medium requirement, for that is where the largest market is - beginning with replacements for all the Sikorsky Black Hawks and Bell UH-1Ys of the U.S. Marine Corps.
U.S. Government investment in rotorcraft R&D has been widely acknowledged as lacking over the past couple of decades. On June 4, the Senate Armed Services committee reported in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2013:
"One area of the defense industrial base that has not seen significant new innovations is rotorcraft. Over the last decade, rotorcraft have been crucial in our war fighting operations. The committee believes that among the various defense industrial base sectors, the preservation of integrated platform design teams and the use of agile prototyping is most needed in this sector. The committee observes that it has been over two decades since the last completely new DoD rotorcraft, the V-22 Osprey, was developed."
The committee further went on to state that the their findings revealed that the DoD believes and understands "that increasing prototyping of advanced technology capabilities is a potential approach to be able to keep the technical expertise of the defense industrial base exercised in a reduced budgetary environment."
However, one of the most worrying statements in the committee's report was the continuing lack of engagement with industry by the services. It specifically cites that in spite of link between the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics - or USD (AT&L) - and the civil industry-led Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC), not enough headway is being made (the VLC comprises manufacturers, academia, suppliers and others involved in the rotorcraft industry).
As the report defines: "The VLC is an open and competitive forum that leverages all sectors of the vertical lift community to encourage teaming of innovative small business and non-traditional contractors with major defense firms and academia. The VLC is contracted with the DoD through the establishment of an Other Transaction Authority (OTA). The OTA allows the formation of competitive teams to rapidly develop and flight demonstrate innovative vertical lift technologies that address capability gaps identified in the DoD FVL Strategic Plan such as performance, survivability, and affordability. The committee understands the DoD is completing an overdue report on the VLC that was called for by the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives last year that was due April 1, 2012."
The report also draws attention to the fact that it is only the U.S. Army that is currently putting funds, albeit limited, behind the FVL initiative and that it has called for industry to participate in technology demonstration flights, which are not likely to happen until the late summer or fall. The committee voices concern that the lack of further funding will, in effect, lead to a fait accompli regarding the result of the technology demonstrator in that it could lead the way into the program of record.
Seemingly in parallel, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched its own X-Plane Rotorcraft program in fiscal year 2013 with a budget of $9.6 million. The intention is to develop revolutionary vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) system that will result in a "full-scale flight demonstration of key technologies."
The goals of this development include some already being worked on by industry OEMs: "to include flight speeds of greater than 250 knots, enhanced high/hot hover performance, improved edgewise rotor cruise performance, prop-rotor cruise efficiencies approaching propellers, hover-power loading at a minimum of 11 pounds thrust per horsepower, and a 20 percent improvement in empty weight fraction."
DARPA states that it will be following four technology courses: performance, safety and survivability, supportability and availability, and collaboration and autonomy.
"The successful VTOL X-Plane would demonstrate the potential and mission utility of new technologies, and be a significant step toward closing current capability gaps in this class of air vehicles." All branches of the military are planned to be included.
The National Defense Authorization Act for FY2013 report hints at concern that already meager resources are being divided among programs working unconnected but in parallel and urges DARPA "to structure its X-Plane Rotorcraft program to develop specific performance steps beyond the Army's desired attributes for platforms under the JMR program. DARPA should also consider expanding its X-Plane Rotorcraft program to provide for at least two competing teams. In addition, the committee urges DARPA to "investigate how advances that it is making in advanced manufacturing can be applicable to the rotorcraft sector."
While it is strongly suggested that USD (AT&L) and DARPA develop a rotorcraft strategy to extract the most from the research being undertaken, there is also a suggestion that the Army's foundation technology demonstration could be expanded with the challenge of "significant reductions in cost and time to flight" being the priorities. Competitive prize awards should also be offered:
"The committee found it disappointing that in a report by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, dated March 2012, 'Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Progress Report,' there was only one example of DoD using this prize authority. The strategy should address how prizes could be potentially used to address some challenge problems, primarily for unmanned rotorcraft, such as: nap-of-earth automated flight, urban operation near buildings, slope landings, automated autorotation or power-off recovery, and automated selection of landing areas."
The potential of unmanned rotorcraft taking an even bigger role in future developments is increasing. However, the overwhelming requirement seems to be for the greater engagement of all of the services toward finding a FVL platform. That must be matched with a cohesive effort, a common direction and the sharing of information if true progress is to be made and a new, revolutionary platform is to emerge during the early 2030s.