As a former Blackhawk mechanic, I think Defiant is the better platform. It looks more survivable than the tilt rotor. The should purposely crash both craft under the same conditions to test structural integrity and survivability. Just a thought…

Never underestimate Boeings ability to lose a contract.

OK----. The Defiant X is restricted to 236 knots due to its extreme Vibrations above that speed due to rotor interferences. Vibrations that does not completely go away at lower speeds that result in Maintenance problems. Problems the Tilt-rotor Valiant does not have as it rutteenly exceeds 330 knots! Same problems Russia's new Composit Rotor Attack chopper has...

Inferior range and speed to the V280

When your first test flight results in a total crash and you end up behind schedule by more than 3 years, you are not a good platform you are just a bloated company coasting on past success.

I mean, I like the Defiant X, but why is this video coming out now when the tilt-rotor V280 was already selected to replace the Blackhawk? It'd be better to move on and focus on the scout version of the X2 platform, at this point.

I'm an aircraft engineer. That thing, without a doubt, is going to be a nightmare in terms of maintenance, I can already tell. I guess that'll be the major difference between the two.

My understanding is that the Valient won because the military wants the extra range and speed for the Pacific theater

A big difference I haven't seen talked about is the usable performance at max speed. Maximum speed in helicopters is hell on earth. The vibrations will just continue to get more violent the faster you go and if you push into retreating blade stall territory you can have violent unexpected control inputs as well as you can reach trans-sonic advancing blade tip speeds which will give you even more unexpected violent vibrations and loss of rotor effectiveness. Tiltrotors are happy as a clam at max speed.

From what I have heard there was serious problems with the Defiant X transmission leading to crashes in testing. Cant run that risk compared to the Valor X program which ran more or less smoothly.

The big thing people are forgetting is that the Valor did much better in the demonstrations. It met or exceeded every goal set for the demonstration. It met every schedule Bell promised. Defaint was constantly late, kept failing to meet promised goals when Sikorsky said they would and had problems during the tests. Examples: Valor met the Army's schedule for first flight, Defiant was 15 months late and then soon had to be grounded for more work, slowing the whole program. Defiant came close, but never actually achieved its promised speed, Valor exceed its (higher) promised speed by 9%,, meaning it was 23% faster than Defiant. The first Army pilot flew the V-280 less than two months after its first flight, Defiant didn't do that until 2 1/2 years after its [delayed] first flight. Valor flew far more hours than Defiant.

Maintenance in combat. Is a really big deal for the Military. Love the Defiant X -Sikorsky unfortunately slept on this fact, it’s unfortunate. I work with both projects thru supply chain quality. Hope BAE/SiK figure something out. I believe both platforms serve specific purpose multiple role combat insertions.

Why didn’t they already loose the contract? Their competitor beat them in ever metric that is going to matter for the next 50 years with possible theater of operations.

The TLDR as to why the Defiant lost,

Surely being similar to the UH60 is a good thing. One of the most successful choppers of all time.

Hard to imagine going coaxial tandem just to put a rotor back on the tail.

I really like this design and how it functions. I can even see it being useful in the private sector such as medical, business, search and rescue, Etc.

This one very rare occasion when I say the army should have chosen a mix buy of both contenders I usually have a favorite 🤔

I'm sure they'll still develop great version of this that we'll see a decade after entering service. But that cabin looks a bit too small to carry a fully geared team, gotta fix that too with some extra 50cm to each side or something like that.

I actually think the Army made the right choice for once with the Valor.