Speaking to reporters, senior army uniformed officers and civilian personnel said the timeline has slipped for selecting a winner of the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition. FLRAA is the army’s programme to develop and aircraft that will replace its UH-60s.
“We are in a quiet period for FLRAA”, says Rodney Davis, the army’s acting deputy programme executive officer (PEO) for aviation.
The army previously planned to select the winner of the FLRAA contract in September.
“We’re working through a very event-driven, but rigorous process to get that decision,” Davis says.
As to when a decision on the Black Hawk’s replacement will be completed, service leaders are not revealing details.
“We are working through that, and expect we’ll have a good decision in relatively short order,” says Davis. “But we’re not talking about exact dates at this point.”
Bell Textron Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $1,361,723,332 hybrid (cost, cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed price and fixed-price incentive) contract for development of the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft weapon system. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, with an estimated completion date of April 5, 2031. Fiscal 2022 and 2023 research, development, test and evaluation, Army funds in the amount of $232,208,330 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-23-C-0001). (Awarded Dec. 5, 2022)
Bell Receives T901 Improved Turbine Engine for Bell 360 Invictus (23. Oktober 2023)
Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, announced today the Army has officially delivered GE Aerospace’s T901 Improved Turbine Engine to Bell for its submission for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program. With the engine’s arrival, Bell is prepared to complete the build for the Bell 360 Invictus competitive prototype and move forward to the next stages of the FARA competition.
“The ITEP delivery is a major milestone for FARA and the Bell 360 Invictus competitive prototype,” said Jayme Gonzalez, program manager, FARA. “Now that we have received the engine, we are ready to begin working toward ground runs and other necessary preparations before first flight later next year.”
Bell and Team Invictus have been focused on preparing our FARA support infrastructure, supply chain and manufacturing hub to ensure alignment as we move forward on the path toward first flight. With the T901 now in hand, the Bell team is prepared to instrument and install the engine and functionally prepare the aircraft for ground test operations.
Once the aircraft has been functionally tested with the T901 installed, the next steps for the Bell 360 include completing the Test Readiness Review and a restrained ground run. These tests are key to enabling the safe, rapid, and efficient execution of the flight test program.
Sikorsky’s RAIDER X® Team Begins Installation Process of U.S. Army’s Improved Turbine Engine (24. Oktober 2023)
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company (NYSE: LMT) is beginning the installation process of the U.S. Army’s new Improved Turbine Engine (ITEP) on its RAIDER X® aircraft designed for the Future Attack Reconnaissance (FARA) program. The U.S. Army and Sikorsky engineers reviewed the engine after its arrival at the company’s West Palm Beach facility and then transferred it to the engine integration test lab next to the RAIDER X assembly area on Oct 20.
RAIDER X is currently 98% complete. After installing additional instrumentation, Sikorsky will begin engine installation immediately. Following that, final system tests and check-outs will be accomplished. Those will be followed by engine turn on and drive system check out with the ITEP in the aircraft. After successful system checks, we will conduct flight acceptance testing and proceed to first flight.
First flight of RAIDER X is expected in late 2024, when the engine and aircraft are approved for flight by the Army.
In addition to RAIDER X, the Army intends to transition the ITEP engine to the UH-60 Black Hawk fleet.
