As Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin mull whether to seek a reversal in federal court of a massive Army contract to rival Bell, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Friday in Hartford that Congress could apply pressure as well by limiting funding for the procurement of the Bell aircraft if it deems it to be the wrong choice from a fiscal perspective.

Sikorsky took a major hit Thursday after the Government Accountability Office declined to overturn a U.S. Army decision last December to award Bell a contract estimated at an initial $7.1 billion to produce the V-280 Valor. The Bell tilt-rotor would take on missions performed today by the Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter, which has been in the Army fleet for more than a half-century.

With Sikorsky having produced more than 5,000 Black Hawk helicopters and variants, it is a major loss for Lockheed Martin and Connecticut where Sikorsky is among the five largest employers with roughly 8,000 workers at last report. Late last year, an Army official estimated at $70 billion or more the value of the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program, and possible derivative aircraft for other military branches.

For the time being, Sikorsky's Stratford plant has steady work in the next decade and beyond making Army Black Hawks and variant helicopters for the U.S. Air Force and Navy, and the new CH-53K King Stallion helicopter for the Marine Corps.

But Lockheed Martin had counted on the Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant-X to pick up the slack from there, with a possible added boost if Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin land an Army contract for a new armed scout helicopter.

Speaking Friday on the steps of the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford, Blumenthal said there was precedent for Congress using its purse strings to influence the Department of Defense during prior administrations to reconsider major decisions on strategic or tactical weapons programs. While Blumenthal said there is a need for "robust" defense spending in the current age, he suggested that spending needs to go to systems that provide the best bang for the buck.

"We have an oversight responsibility," said Blumenthal. "We go through the defense budget literally line by line. The National Defense Authorization Act is approved by Congress only after a really exacting process. And make no mistake — defense budgets are going to have to be subject to even higher level of scrutiny."

While acknowledging the possibility of Sikorsky winning the armed scout helicopter contract, Blumenthal said that if Sikorsky disputes the methodology for the V-280 Valor procurement, it should pursue a claim in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The armed scout helicopter program has been pushed back a year to 2024 as GE Aviation develops the engine that will be installed on either the Sikorsky or Bell model the Army picks. Bell has proposed a traditional helicopter design for that program, with Sikorsky sticking with a coaxial rotor model similar to the Defiant-X it proposed as the Black Hawk replacement in partnership with Boeing.

Blumenthal told CT Insider keeping the Stratford workforce intact is a significant strategic consideration as well for the U.S. military and its allies. While Bell has a solid commercial helicopter business — it built more than 150 last year — Sikorsky is dependent on government sales.

"The trained workforce that is at Sikorsky right now, frankly, are the best helicopter makers in the world, and it's potentially endangering that defense industrial base by going with Bell," Blumenthal said. "This decision on the future of vertical-lift aircraft has ramifications across the globe — not just to our NATO allies, but to partners who depend on American helicopter manufacturing, whether it's in the Middle East or the Far East."

In a written statement Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont referenced "additional competitions coming down the road" for Sikorsky.

While the Army deliberated on the V-280 Valor versus the Defiant-X, NATO has a similar competition under way for a new helicopter or tilt-rotor fleet, which would be smaller than the Army's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program won by Bell, but still significant. Sikorsky and Bell have signaled interest with their respective aircraft for the NATO program, as have European manufacturers Leonardo and Airbus.

Defiant-X features dual sets of rigid rotor blades that spin in opposite directions, providing vastly improved maneuverability compared to traditional helicopters like the Black Hawk. Sikorsky and Boeing have played up those capabilities for both the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program won by Bell, and the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program for the Army scout helicopter, with Sikorsky calling that prototype Raider-X.

Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky have yet to indicate whether they will pursue a challenge of the Army FLRAA decision in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the last avenue to get a second chance at the program. Sikorsky has an existing case in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alleging the U.S. government underpaid it for research and development expenses by applying a cost-accounting standard improperly.

In their GAO protest, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky claimed the Army did not properly factor factor the higher cost of the Bell V-280 Valor in the selection. GAO asserted that Sikorsky fell short on "architectural detail" the Army required, without providing immediate specifics.

Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky have yet to indicate whether they will pursue a last remaining option — a lawsuit challenging the Bell award in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Sikorsky has an existing case in the court against the U.S. government, claiming it was underpaid for research and development costs it incurred over 10 years through 2017, with Sikorsky having prevailed in a U.S. Court of Federal Claims lawsuit filed in 2012 after the government levied an extra $64 million charge on a dispute over accounting assumptions.

Cost-accounting rules are at the center of the more recent dispute as well, with court documents redacting the specific amounts Sikorsky claims it should have received. Programs covered in the lawsuit include the Black Hawk, the CH-53K and the new Jolly Green II rescue helicopter Sikorsky is now building in Stratford for the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as the "Future Vertical Lift" effort that produced the Defiant-X prototype.

Sikorsky landed the Jolly Green II contract after a successful GAO protest from 15 years ago that allowed to wrest away the program from Boeing, which had proposed a modernized version of its tandem-rotor Chinook helicopter that is still used by the Army today.