The U.S. Army is soliciting white papers from industry to identify novel structures technology platforms that could improve the endurance, speed, operational availability and payload capacity of the service branch’s Future Vertical Lift platforms and fleet of rotorcraft, including UH-60, AH-64 and CH-47 helicopters.
Army Contracting Command is interested in structures technologies in the areas of design for composites, joining methods, composite manufacturing, structural health and damage assessment, database frameworks and artificial intelligence for rotorcraft structures and structural energy storage devices, according to a notice published Wednesday.
The service also wants information on platforms at Technology Readiness Levels 2 and 3 and could meet several tech objectives of the Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center’s Technology Development Directorate – Aviation Technology.
These tech objectives include durability and damage tolerance, structural efficiency, stress and load prediction, structural operational availability and airframe crashworthiness.
Responses to the request for information are due May 12.