DARPA picks Bell Textron to build runway-independent X-Plane
Bell will now proceed in DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program, which has eliminated Aurora Flight Sciences from the running.
Tunisian air force inks first North African deal to procure dozen Bell 412 helicopters
“The SUBARU Bell 412EPX has been gaining momentum as an international military platform, we’re thrilled to bring it to the Middle East and Africa region with the Tunisian Air Force,” Bell Textron's Tim Evans said.
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Turning R&D into reality to meet the challenges of the modern battlefield
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
Bell to manufacture FLRAA fuselage after dumping Spirit AeroSystems ahead of Boeing acquisition
Sources first indicated this summer that Bell would drop Spirit AeroSystems as a supplier due to Boeing’s upcoming acquisition of the embattled aerostructures company.
Bell launches campaign to sell Aussies V-280 Valor tiltrotor
A top Bell executive is spending this week's Land Forces conference meeting with top Australian Army officials to start pitching the V-280 Valor.
V-22 Ospreys barred from full mission capability until ‘mid-2025’: NAVAIR boss
“I’ll assure you folks that we’re not going to let this matter drop,” House Oversight subcommittee chairman Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc., told families of victims who attended a congressional hearing today on the safety of the V-22 Osprey.
Lawmakers press Army aviation leadership on FARA cancelation
UH-60M Blackhawks from Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and CH-47F Block II Chinooks from Boeing would have ended production in 2030 if the Army kept FARA going, a top service official testified.
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Data overload threatens decisionmakers as autonomy expands
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
Army delivers first ITEP engines to Bell, Sikorsky for FARA helos
The simultaneous delivery to the two competitors comes after an approximately year-long delay for the new engine and paves the way for a flight test next year.
Sikorsky-Boeing’s FLRAA bid was much cheaper, but couldn’t offset ‘unacceptable’ design metric: GAO
The Army reasoned “Sikorsky’s proposal provided something similar to a drawing of what the house looked like on the outside…. Such a picture did not provide the functional detail that the Army required showing what the space would look like on the inside,” according to the Government Accountability Office.
Aussies stick with Black Hawks in 40-helo, $1.7B deal to replace Airbus Taipans
The decision to buy more Black Hawks was particularly interesting as the country is in the midst of a Defense Strategic Review assessing the full panoply of force structure and spending decisions.
Sikorsky-Boeing protest Army’s FLRAA award to Bell Textron
GAO has up to 100 days to rule in a bid protest, but the congressional watchdog agency strives to resolve cases as quickly as possible.
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GPS: Still the gold standard in global navigation
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
Bell Textron’s Valor wins Army’s FLRAA competition to replace Black Hawk
The award is worth up to $1.3 billion, but a follow-on production contract could put the program in the range of $70 billion over its lifetime.
Royal Jordanian Air Force inks deal to procure 10 Bell 505 trainer helicopters
The helos are part of an ongoing modernization push by the Middle Eastern kingdom.
Army ‘encouraged’ by IVAS test despite ‘challenges,’ FLRAA decision may come in October
"I think there's further work to do to improve the system. But we saw a lot of positive things as a test," the Army's top acquisition official said of IVAS, before separately noting a potential delay in a major future helicopter program contract.
Sikorsky: FARA prototype 90% complete, learning from S-97 Raider’s flying data
“If we didn't have an S-97, we'd have to wait another year-plus to be able to fly those data points and to inform our production design,” said Sikorsky's chief engineer for the company's Raider-X FARA offering.