In early October, the American helicopter company Bell Helicopter showed the concept of the Bell 360 Invictus high-speed reconnaissance and attack helicopter, which is being developed specifically for the US Army's FARA (Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft) program. Recall, it involves the creation of a replacement for the decommissioned light multipurpose helicopter Bell OH-58 Kiowa, which made its first flight back in 1962. The FARA program is part of a larger FVL (Future Vertical Lift) tender, which is designed to replace many old rotary-wing aircraft: not only the light Kiowa, but also the Apache strike, the UH-60 medium multipurpose and even the heavy Boeing CH-47 Chinook … Roughly speaking, the new machines will replace almost all the helicopters currently used by the US Army.
The Bell 360 Invictus came as no surprise. Earlier, Bell Helicopter announced that it wants to take part in FARA, offering a rotary-wing aircraft created on the basis of the average civilian multi-purpose helicopter Bell 525 Relentless, and the creators argued that the development will undergo minimal improvements. The Relentless first flew in 2015. The speed of the helicopter can reach 340 kilometers per hour.
Whatever the creators say, the novelty is very different from the basic version: at least judging by the concept shown. According to the data presented, Bell 360 Invictus will be able to move at a cruising speed of up to 330 kilometers per hour and will receive a wing that creates up to 50 percent lift when flying at cruising speed. The combat radius is declared at 135 miles with a 90-minute loitering. They want to equip the tail stabilizer with movable aerodynamic surfaces. The machine will receive one promising General Electric T901 turboshaft engine with a capacity of 3000 hp, created under the Improved Turbine Engine Program.
The helicopter will be armed with a 20 mm cannon, missiles, bombs and containers with various weapons. Of course, this is most likely not about conventional unguided aircraft missiles and free-fall bombs. The images show us the AGM-114 Hellfire, but the most likely option is the latest AGM-179 JAGM air-to-surface guided missiles, designed to replace the AGM-114.
At the first stage, the range of the new missile will be about eight kilometers, but in the future it will be increased: it is assumed that in the JAGM Increment 3 configuration, the missile will be able to hit a target located at a distance of sixteen kilometers. The missile has a combined guidance system: a semi-active laser homing head and an active radar seeker.
As shown in the images, the helicopter will be able to carry at least four air-to-surface missiles in the weapon bays and eight more rockets externally mounted under the wing.
Comanche or Kiowa?
According to a number of experts, the concept was based on stealth: the "chopped" shapes and the similarity with the famous RAH-66 Comanche speak in favor of this. The logic behind the solution is simple: the helicopter will be harder to detect, which means it will be more difficult to shoot down. Just one example: according to data from open sources, when irradiated from the front, the effective scattering area of the RAH-66 was 250 times less than that of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior.
However, on the official Bell Helicopter website, the emphasis is not on stealth, but on speed. In turn, The Drive generally says that Invictus is not "invisible" and draws an analogy with the Chinese CAIC WZ-10: also remotely similar to the "Comanche", but not being stealth. At least in the usual sense of the term.
It must be assumed that this is not without reason: the value of radar signature for a helicopter is ambiguous. What is permissible in the case of multifunctional combat aircraft (by default, a very expensive machine) may turn out to be too expensive, technically difficult and, in general, not very necessary when it comes to a light reconnaissance helicopter. Especially if many of its functions can take cheap UAVs at any time.
At the same time, the use of stealth technology will require huge additional costs. The development of the RAH-66 Comanche and the construction of two prototypes cost the American taxpayer a fantastic $ 8 billion. The program became one of the most expensive failures in the history of the American military-industrial complex: it was closed in 2004 and never returned.
Cheaper and faster
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What is the bottom line? It is safe to say that Bell Helicopter wants to make a faster, than Apache, and at the same time, a “traditional” helicopter, which would be cheaper than its direct competitors, which are based on complex, expensive and risky aerodynamic configurations. But a beautiful concept can remain so forever.
The main disadvantage for the Bell 360 Invictus project is the huge progress achieved by the competitor in the person of Sikorsky with its S-97 Raider, which also claims to win in FARA. If Invictus exists only as images on the official website, then Raider made its first flight back in May 2015. And now he has a huge number of tests of various difficulty levels on his account. So, in one of the videos, you can watch the Raider in hover mode, a helicopter flying at low speed and low altitude, as well as high-speed flight at high altitude.
An innovative aerodynamic design with a coaxial main rotor and a pusher rotor in the tail section allows a maximum speed of approximately 440 km / h, and a cruising speed of 400. As you can see, significantly higher than the Bell 360 Invictus can develop. The difference is more than 100 kilometers per hour!
Comparison of flight performance data with other ideas proposed in the framework of FARA is also not in favor of Invictus. For example, a concept from AVX Aircraft Company and L3 Technologies involves the creation of a helicopter with a coaxial rotor and two propellers on the sides of the fuselage, which theoretically could provide the car with a flight speed of more than 400 kilometers per hour. And the version from Karem Aircraft - another participant in Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft - will most likely be a high-speed tiltrotor.
Taking into account the US Army's aim to obtain a high-speed helicopter, competitors look preferable to the "slow-speed" Bell 360 Invictus, although purely formally, the helicopter meets all the requirements of the American military.
Bell Helicopter approached the issue of crew accommodation in a rather unconventional way, using a tandem scheme typical of attack helicopters, but not typical of light reconnaissance aircraft such as the Bell OH-58 Kiowa. Competitors are more conservative: both the S-97 Raider and the aircraft from AVX Aircraft Company / L3 Technologies have a side-by-side crew layout.
Perhaps, this is how Bell Helicopter decided to show the "shock" character of their machine. There is logic in this. The Americans will sooner or later have to change the Apaches for something else. Or at least some of them. It should also be remembered that tandem attack helicopters are used everywhere. So here Bell 360 Invictus can fit well into the global market.
