Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing selects Collins Aerospace seating and Perigon computer for DEFIANT X

Above: The Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing DEFIANT X advanced utility helicopter.
Courtesy Collins Aerospace

Collins will supply the DEFIANT X helicopter with armoured pilot and co-pilot, cabin crew and troop seats. Each Collins seating product will be lightweight, ergonomically designed for comfort and rigorously tested to meet or exceed the Army’s stringent crashworthiness requirements. Having long provided seating for civil aerospace applications, Collins has missionised its industry-leading commercial technology to create differentiated rotary-wing military seating solutions to drastically improve warfighter comfort and readiness.  

“Our suite of military seating is designed, engineered and manufactured to deliver optimal value to our customers and to best support warfighter safety and comfort,” said Cynthia Muklevicz, vice president of business development for Interiors at Collins Aerospace. “Collins’ rotary-wing military seating solutions offer a generational advancement over current technology in use today that we expect to significantly reduce operator fatigue and improve mission effectiveness and success.”

In addition to seating, Collins will also supply its Perigon computer for DEFIANT X. With a modular open systems approach (MOSA) and the ability to provide 20 times the processing power of Collins’ existing flight control computers, Perigon will enable future flight control and vehicle management capabilities for next-generation aircraft.

“Perigon’s enhanced processing power will allow it to integrate numerous DEFIANT X functions, including flight control, utility management, prognostic health and advanced flight modes such as autonomy,” said Kim Kinsley, vice president and general manager, Environmental and Airframe Control Systems for Collins Aerospace. “By using a single computer to support a multitude of functions, Perigon will help reduce the number of computers onboard the aircraft thus reducing weight, volume and power consumption across the platform while enabling enhanced performance.”