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.
By Ashley RoqueGA-ASI’s MQ-9B: The right UAV for persistence, power, and performance
When assessing the state of the art of unmanned aerial systems, it’s critical to be very clear about what various aircraft can and can’t do – and could never do.
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Gray Eagle 25M supports soldiers across multiple domains. It’s precisely what the Army needs.
By General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
“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.
By Andrew Eversden
The question of whether the Defense Department or the primes should own all the data rights to various elements of the FVL program is a simplistic, false choice, says a CSBA senior fellow.
By Barry Rosenberg
“We’re going to be flying in lower flight profiles than we have over the last 20 years in counterinsurgency operations and so, even today, we are changing the way we train Army aviators,” said Maj. Gen. David Francis.
By Andrew Eversden
“I think it’s unanimous from all the soldiers involved that we got this one right,” said the Army’s project manager for the Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial System. Manned aircraft, FARA and FLRAA, are also moving out sharply.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Future inevitability of quantum computers is a security problem today
‘Store Now, Decrypt Later’ attacks must be thwarted now with Zero Trust cybersecurity.
The S-97 Raider is Sikorsky’s proto-prototype for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. It’s competing with the Bell 360 Invictus — but unlike the S-97, the 360 isn’t flying yet.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Despite tightening budgets, the Army’s pushing ahead with its plan to replace the Reagan-era UH-60 Black Hawk with a high-speed Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). It’ll pick between Bell’s V-280 and the Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant-X next year, with the winner entering service in 2030.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army has learned from the Comanche scout chopper debacle, where it spent $9 billion in today’s dollars to get just two prototypes. With Future Vertical Lift, $7 billion will get 18 prototype aircraft, counting both the FARA scout and FLRAA transport.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The companies’ proposed Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) to replace the UH-60 is a sleeker, stealthier version of the prototype SB>1 Defiant now in flight tests. Can it beat Bell’s tiltrotor?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Bell and Sikorsky have started building their competing prototypes for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) ahead of a Final Design Review in November. The vital digital architecture is still in development.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said the two sides would work to identify “how we could co-develop certain capabilities that can help us get the next generation weapons system, but also to be complimentary if necessary for our forces as we deploy.”
By Paul McLeary
Despite COVID-19, the SB>1 Defiant team is testing furiously to catch up with archrival Bell’s V-280 tiltrotor, which has almost 10 times as many flight hours.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
In the competition for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, high agility and low life-cycle costs matter most, a former Marine tiltrotor test pilot argues.
By Scott Trail