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Jeff Head said:

It represents a critical advancement in naval technology and is a lethal vessel. It is the type of thing with its AGS, PVL, New Radars, advanced stealth, new Sonars, Integrated Power System, etc. that makes it very difficult for any adversary. And, it is ready and designed for the naval lasers and naval rail guns already field testing and coming online in the next 5-10 years.

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FORBIN said:

They have a best rate of fire that AGS ? ( 10 rds/mn )

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FORBIN said:

And Zumwalt have a " AEGIS " capability ?

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Sikorsky and Boeing Unveil 'Defiant' JMR
Oct. 21, 2013 - 02:48PM | By AARON MEHTA

Boeing and Sikorsky unveiled their bid for the US Army's Joint Multi-Role helicopter program on Monday, calling it the 'Defiant.' (Aaron Mehta/Staff)

WASHINGTON — At Monday’s Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference here, Sikorsky and Boeing unveiled the official name for their Joint Multi-Role (JMR) helicopter technology demonstrator: Defiant.

The companies arrived at the name as a mission statement, according to Boeing’s Leanne Caret, general manager of vertical lift.

“You’ll see from the name ‘Defiant’ we’re looking for the future, to do it different from the way we’ve done it in the past… recognizing we need to defy conventional business norms,” Caret said.

Samir Mehta, president of Sikorsky Military Systems, touted the collaboration between the two companies.

“We’re extremely proud of the fact that we’ve already uncovered key technologies and improvements to existing technologies that neither company could have captured on its own, so the collaboration is bearing fruit already,” Mehta said. “We’re in it for the long term. That hasn’t changed.”

The JMR helicopter program will replace Apaches and Black Hawks by the mid-2030s.

On Oct. 2, the Army announced it was investing $217 million in the first phase of its ambitious JMR program, calling this first development stage the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative.

Four teams, including the newly-minted Team Defiant, each won $6.5 million awards to begin work on the initial technology demonstration. Other competitors include Bell Helicopter/Textron and newcomers AVX Aircraft Co. and Karem Aircraft.

In late fiscal 2014, the Army will select two competitors who will then build platforms that will be readied for flight tests.

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ATEC Completes Testing of HPW3000 Engine
Oct. 21, 2013 - 02:42PM | By AARON MEHTA | Comments

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Soldiers screw in the last bolt in an Apache helicopter engine compartment in Afghanistan.
Soldiers screw in the last bolt in an Apache helicopter engine compartment in Afghanistan. (Army)
FILED UNDER
ShowScout
AUSA
WASHINGTON — The Advanced Turbine Engine Company has completed testing of its first H PW3000 engine for the US Army’s Improved Turbine Engine program, which will replace engines on the Army’s Black Hawk and Apache fleets.

The HPW3000 is a 3,000 horsepower turboshaft engine designed for increased fuel efficiency.

ATEC, a joint venture between Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney, announced the milestone Monday at the Association of the United States Army annual conference in Washington, D.C.

“The first engine ran very well,” Jerry Wheeler, vice president of ATEC, said in a company news release. “It has given us high confidence that the Army’s expectations are achievable, and that the HPW3000 will be able to meet or exceed [the program’s] goals.

“We ran our first HPW3000 engine over the course of the summer for durability testing and we’ve experienced great results,” Wheeler continued. “We are now evaluating these results, and we will be conducting performance and sand ingestion tests on a second engine to further validate the hardware.” ■

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

Mission specs for the Defiant
Crew complement: ~50
Speed: Warp 9.5
Armament: 4 phaser cannons, at least 3 phaser emitters, at least 4 forward torpedo (photon and quantum torpedo) launchers, at least 2 aft torpedo launchers
Defenses: Deflector shields, ablative armor, cloaking device... Wait a minute.... Wrong Defiant TE!

here is however something related to the Sikorsky Boeing Defiant.

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Iraq war veteran's SpongeBob gravestone removed
Oct. 21, 2013 - 06:58PM | 0 Comments

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Kimberly Walker's gravestone in the likeness of popular cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants was removed from Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, despite the family getting prior approval for the gravestone.
Kimberly Walker's gravestone in the likeness of popular cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants was removed from Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, despite the family getting prior approval for the gravestone. (Kara Walker / AP)

By Amanda Lee Myers
The Associated Press
FILED UNDER
News
CINCINNATI — An Iraq war veteran’s towering SpongeBob SquarePants headstone has been removed from her final resting place because officials at the historic Cincinnati cemetery deemed it inappropriate for their traditional grounds.

The headstone of Kimberly Walker, 28, was made in the likeness of her favorite cartoon character and erected at Spring Grove Cemetery on Oct. 10, almost eight months after she was found slain in a Colorado hotel room.

Despite getting the cemetery’s prior approval of the headstone’s design — a smiling SpongeBob in an Army uniform, with Walker’s name and rank — her family said Monday that cemetery staff called them the day after it was installed to say it would have to come down.

The 7-foot headstone, along with a near-exact duplicate erected for Walker’s living twin sister, have been removed and will not be allowed back up, cemetery President Gary Freytag said Monday.

“We’ve decided that they aren’t appropriate for our historic cemetery and they can’t be displayed here,” Freytag said, adding that the employee who approved the headstones made an inexplicable error in judgment, given the cemetery’s traditional, stately appearance.

He acknowledged that the cemetery is at fault and that staff members would be meeting with Walker’s family on Tuesday to try to find a solution, which could include a more traditional gravestone bearing small likeness of the character.

Freytag also said Spring Grove is prepared to reimburse the family for each headstone, which cost a combined $26,000, and pay for new ones.

“I feel terrible that it got to this point but I’m hoping we can come out at the other end of the tunnel with a solution,” he said.

Walker was an Army corporal assigned to the 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion and served two yearlong tours Iraq in 2006 and 2010 as a petroleum supply specialist, her family said.

Walker was found dead in a hotel room in Colorado Springs on Valentine’s Day this year, strangled and beaten to death. Her boyfriend, an Army sergeant stationed nearby, was arrested and charged with her killing.

Walker’s twin sister, Kara Walker, said the family is beyond distraught. A lot of thought went into the gravestones, which she said were chosen because her sister loved SpongeBob, even outfitting her entire bedroom with the cartoon character’s decorations.

“It is frustrating that you entrust a cemetery to have your best interest at heart and accommodate you and your family at a hard time ... and because they don’t like it they’re going to take it down,” said Kara Walker, 29, an information technician for the U.S. Navy stationed in Naples, Italy.

“My sister served our country and most people try to accommodate veterans and try to take care of them,” she said. “For them not to accommodate and respect what my sister sacrificed, not only for my family, but for everyone else in this country, really bothers me.”

She said the only way the cemetery can make it up to the family, which she said pre-paid for six plots for $29,000, is to put the headstones back.

“They already brought enough grief and pain to the family,” she said. “We want what we paid for and what I know my sister would have wanted.”

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

http://www.aviationweek.com/Portals/AWeek/Ares/GrahamW/Sirkosky%20JMR%20X2.jpgannouncement.

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Boeing/Sirkosky Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator Helicopter, Defiant
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