Project Number:
N00019-23-9-0011
Member:
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.
Award Amount:
$3,785,639.81
Description:
The United States Navy (USN) Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Maritime Strike (MS) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Family of Systems (FoS) programs are preparing to develop a host of potential material solutions to fill capability gaps and provide improved capabilities to the warfighter. The USMC is restructuring due to force design and has identified a need for a VTOL FoS to meet the emerging threats of the next 25-30 years. This FoS will include weaponized and attack aircraft. Similarly, the USN is exploring options to gain capability beyond that of the current MH-60 and MQ-8 aircraft, utilizing a broader range of weapons.
With the release of Force Design 2030, the USMC is taking a comprehensive, interdependent, and cooperative approach across the VTOL FoS portfolio to address its future assault support capability needs. To achieve the desired speed and range requirements of this next generation of vertical lift aircraft, the design trade space presents unexplored configurations for weapons carriage and employment. The Analysis of Alternatives for both USMC and USN initiatives are considering aircraft alternatives that present unique configurations and challenges for effective weapons employment such as: internal weapon/store carriage, tilting rotors, tilting wings, swiveling tail rotors, and tail sitting aircraft. These novel and futuristic configurations and challenges present unexplored risks in the design trade space and require further consideration to understand the future program impact.
The Government is seeking vendor models of their proposed Weapons and Stores or Air Vehicle Weapons Carriage designs using applicable design tools (CAD, etc.), in addition to documenting their design in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) model for compatibility and business case analysis. The VTOL team will provide a MBSE model with operational context as Government-Furnished Information to selectees upon request. Vendors will be expected to integrate this model with their MBSE solutions.