"One of the pitfalls from the past was that we were focusing too much on national requirements instead of Alliance or coalition requirements," said Maj. Gen. Andre Steur, national capability director in the Dutch Defence Ministry.
"[I] don't want to oversell it. We got way more work to do than what wins we made, but those were very encouraging signs," said Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of the Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team.
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"I have a hard time believing we’re going to have 35 Rangers in the back of an aircraft and they’re going to go up and knock on the door of the cockpit and there’s no one in there,” said Gen. James McConville.
In desert experiments, Army races to develop tactics for transferring data — and realizes high-def video can create potentially fatal data bottlenecks.
Project Convergence 21 showed off new, networked, autonomous capabilities to be added to next-gen helicopters.
"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.
Balancing security and access to data are critical to providing users with trustworthy, reliable data for real-time decisions.
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.
“Shadow could never fly in this type of moisture, couldn’t even come close,” Brig. Gen. Walter Rugen said, but all four FTUAS candidates made it through the rain. The formal Army Requirements Oversight Council process begins in weeks.
New drones – launched by helicopters in flight and built by the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office – will reach out “hundreds of kilometers.” Marine F-35s, 82nd Airborne troops, and Special Ops will also participate in exercise EDGE21.
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.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
Over the southwest desert, drones large and small are autonomously avoiding anti-aircraft threats while feeding real-time targeting data over an AI network to troops on the ground.
After decades of building traditional helicopters in traditional ways, contractors must get ready for the Army’s new high-speed Future Vertical Lift aircraft. Small makers of key parts need help.
The Army’s urgently developing new air-launched drones, long-range missiles, and electronic architecture to go on the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft that Bell and Sikorsky are vying to build.
New Future Vertical Lift aircraft are just part of the solution. So are new tactics and technology upgrades for existing helicopters.