Worked at Bell during the V280. The 280 was fully completed with all its flight testing before the DefiantX even had its first flight. Valor is much faster more versatile and proven battle technology from the V-22. DefiantX has NONE of this. Bell will be the better choice.
Sikorsky, which is owned by Lockheed Martin, is protesting a contract being awarded to an aircraft that is being made by Bell AND Lockheed Martin? Well, okay then.
That’s poor phrasing but you know what I mean.
More money in it for Lockheed if the DefiantX is chosen.
Follow the money. It is all about the money.
Both aircraft look like a maintenance nightmare, and if the Bell V-280 sounds as loud as the Osprey, we will never “sneak up” on our enemies…
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Looks like the US military still hasn’t learned from the past how awarding a single do-all aircraft is a poor choice, like the F-35. It seems like the army should have really requested two different aircraft, one for long-distance high-speed flight, and one for shorter-distance fast-speed flight. Less chance for a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none situation, and less chance that some vital flaw would affect a fleet-wide grounding (as has happened with, for example, the F-35).
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To inject a bit of humor here … I think it was picked just because -if you squint- the Bell looks a bit like the Colonial Marines Dropship from the film “Aliens”.
As a helicopter and fixed wing pilot… I find the co-axial safer. If I’m going to get shot up, I want to make it to the ground safely.
I bet you weren’t a fan of the F-111 either, Gary? 
Precisely, Don. Elsewhere on Avweb, the article on the Navy awarding a full production contract to Sikorsky for the CH-53K, LM has the F-35 and the F-16 plus other contracts yet LM chooses to challenge this one. Preservation of the military industrial production base is important, too. Boeing protested the award of the KC-45 tamker three times to Northrop/Airbus and what did the ‘gummint’ ultimately get, the KC-46 which is still (sic) plagued with problems. Meanwhile, the MRTT tanker is working just fine for other Governments. Step aside, Sikorsky !!
All this is dumb. Why not just build a bunch of Blackhawks? Numbers mean more then the newest shiny thing. We could purchase 4 blackhawks for one of either one of these things. Proven aircraft. We didn’t win WWII because we had the best equipment for the most part. We won because we had the most.
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Why not? Because it’s not the newest shiny thing, and you don’t get promoted by purchasing more of a boring-but-proven vehicle during peacetime.