Sikorsky VH-92 Patriot

The Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin VH-92 Patriot is an American helicopter under development to replace the United States Marine Corps' Marine One U.S. presidential transport fleet. It is a militarized variant of the Sikorsky S-92 and is larger than the current Marine One helicopters.

Design and development
Sikorsky entered the VH-92 variant of the S-92 into the VXX competition for U.S. presidential helicopter Marine One (replacing the Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King and VH-60N White Hawk), but lost to the Lockheed Martin VH-71 Kestrel. However, the competition was restarted in 2010 due to ballooning VH-71 development costs, allowing Sikorsky to resubmit the VH-92 in April 2010. By mid-2013, all other aircraft manufacturers had dropped out of the contest, leaving only Sikorsky.

On 7 May 2014, it was announced that the VH-92 had won the restarted VXX competition. In May 2014, Sikorsky was awarded a US$1.24 billion contract to produce the VH-92, which is outfitted with an executive interior and military mission support systems, including triple electrical power and redundant flight controls. Six of the variant, designated VH-92A, were ordered by the U.S. Navy for delivery in 2017. Production of a further 17 aircraft was planned to begin in 2020. The total FY2015 program cost is $4.718 billion for 23 helicopters, at an average cost of $205M per aircraft. In July 2016, the design passed its Critical Design Review, clearing it for production.

Operational history


On 28 July 2017, the first VH-92A performed its maiden flight at Sikorsky's Stratford, Connecticut facility. On 22 September 2018, a VH-92 was flown to the White House for take-off and landing tests at spots used for Marine One.

In late November 2021, Pentagon officials noted the aircraft was "failing to meet the reliability, availability or maintainability threshold requirements" and that it had damaged landing zones with its exhaust and fuel leaks during test flights. The VH-92 had not yet entered service carrying VIPs.

On 28 December 2021, the VH-92 achieved its Initial Operational Capability (IOC) milestone. However, the aircraft, named "Patriot" in 2022, will not be able to carry the president or vice president due to issues with its encrypted communications systems.

Variants

 * VH-92A Patriot: 21 planned
 * CH-92A: 2 planned for training

Operators

 * United States Marine Corps (23 on order)
 * United States Marine Corps (23 on order)