Sikorsky was dealt a blow Thursday as the U.S. Army announced it was scrapping plans for an armed scout helicopter that the Stratford-based manufacturer and its parent company Lockheed Martin hoped to produce.
The decision comes a year after Sikorsky lost out on the chance to build a new utility helicopter for the military branch. Sikorsky’s president previously stated the chance to build the utility helicopter — a replacement for the Black Hawk — and the scout helicopter that could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance as “existential” for the company’s future viability. Building a new fleet of scout helicopters could have brought billions of dollars in Connecticut’s direction.
In a statement Thursday evening, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin maintained the company’s “X2” helicopter design offers unparalleled speed, range and agilityh, and that it is “confident” in the design for both U.S. and international needs.
“To provide the U.S. military and its allies a decisive advantage to deter conflict now and in the future, there must be a transformational improvement in rotorcraft systems capabilities — and a strong engineering workforce that can strengthen the nation’s leading edge in rotorcraft innovation,” the Sikorsky statement read. “We are disappointed in this decision and will await a U.S. Army debrief to better understand its choice.”
In a joint statement, Connecticut’s Congressional delegation said they want a…
