Have had one foot in Defiant for the last six months (with other foot still in a VH program).
Interesting aircraft, was looking forward to further development work on it, but probably too close for an accurate self-survey - nice take on unsuitability to ship duty.
The beauty of the old Black Hawk airframe is how versatile it was, easily transitioning to ship-board duty, gunship, even firefighting. We may never see an airframe quite like it.
Sikorsky will still be OK with the loss, but Bell would have been devastated without that contract win - so good for the Bell folks (and their families).
Have been in aviation for 42 years, there's plenty to go around.
Sikorsky may continue to build Blackhawks and Seahawks for quite some time, just in smaller numbers. The Army wanted a faster, longer range replacement for the Blackhawk in a specific role, the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, but the Army (or Navy) may not necessarily replace ALL of their Blackhawks with V-280s.
There is a bigger umbrella program by the Army called Future Vertical Lift that hopes to develop a family of aircraft to replace the Blackhawk, the Chinook, the Apache, and the Iroquois. This FLRAA contract is just one part of that larger FVL program.