According to a press release by Boeing, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 DEFIANThelicopter has demonstrated mission-relevant lifting capacity that willdeliver troops and cargo in future combat at twice the range of the currentfleet. The flight, carrying a 5,300-pound Guided Multiple Launch RocketSystem (GMLRS) training load, took place at the Sikorsky DevelopmentFlight Centre in West Palm Beach, Florida.The lifting power demonstrated by SB>1 DEFIANT equates to an infantry squadvehicle or hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition resupply.SB>1 DEFIANT is the technology demonstrator for transformationalcapabilities for the DEFIANT X weapons system, which the Sikorsky-Boeingteam is offering for the US Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft(FLRAA) competition. The external load capacity of DEFIANT X is expected toincrease the Army’s ability to conduct humanitarian assistance and disasterrelief missions at home or abroad.
![The latest model of the Chinook, the CH-47F Block II, is expected to be in service into the 2060s, by which time successive models of the Chinook will have been in service for more than 100 years. [Boeing]](https://euro-sd.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CH-47F-Block-II-Boeing-Kopie-218x150.jpg "Heavy-lift rotorcraft: Where US hegemony meets the tyranny of distance")
