Aircraft Based On SB-1 Defiant Transport Helicopter

Lockheed Martin has posted a promotional video on YouTube that includes a glimpse of their new "attack variant" of the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) aircraft proposed by the company in conjunction with Boeing.

The Army has asked for an aircraft that can replace both the UH-60 Black Hawk and the AH-64 Apache gunship. And while the specs do not require that the two aircraft be based on the same airframe, the benefits of such an arrangement are fairly obvious.

The website The Drive reports that the two defense contractors have apparently chosen to develop two aircraft with many common components.

In the video, it is explained that the two aircraft will share engines, drive train, tail rotor, control surfaces, fuel tanks and some avionics. But no specific details of the gunship variant are given, and there is no real-life prototype or mockup shown on the video.

The gunship depicted in the video has a tradition weapons arrangement.

Both variants draw extensively from Sikorsky's X2 high-technology demonstrator aircraft and the S-97 Raider armed scout.

The Army hopes to have begun flight tests of the SB-1 and Bell Helicopter V-280 Valor aircraft by the end of the year for its FVL program.

(Image from Lockheed Martin video)

FMI:  https://youtu.be/yuStvGT1aFA