“We don't want to do all the development, we want to do the procurement. We want to buy it for the long term, so that that's where we're going back to the manufacturers and having negotiations about, how do we best position the development so that it's not all on the government," Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, PAE of Maneuver Air, said.
After the president’s FY27 budget request zeroed out funding for the new engine, GE said more money is needed to finish qualification testing.
The challenge for Western democratic institutions is not a lack of capability — it is a structural one.
“Especially from an X2 standpoint, the largest procurement out there is really NGRC. And that recapitalization of the helicopter fleet in Europe is the largest thing we see today at least in the next five or 10 years,” said Sikorsky boss Rich Benton.
GE executive Mark Rettig said the company’s recent foray into hypersonic technology has opened a new range of opportunities for the engine maker.
“Just like the Black Hawk, the Apache is going to be around for a while. Is it going to need an improved engine or can we just continue to modify the one that it has?” said Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus.
Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division will be the first to receive FLRAA, said Gen. James Mingus.
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“We're ceasing investment and procurement into those two programs as part of the army transformation initiative so we can free up those resources and reinvest them,” an Army spokesperson told Breaking Defense today.
The Army has received its first two ITEP engines, and a re-engined Black Hawk will fly in late FY25/early FY26.
Special operators had planned for FARA to take the role of the AH-6, but the program’s cancellation “changed our equation,” a SOCOM official said.
Sikorsky is using remaining FARA dollars to test out the new T901 engine in anticipation of integrating it on a UH-60 M Black Hawk later this year.
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.
The analysis of alternatives is needed for the program’s milestone B decision, and could help quell some lawmakers’ concerns about the Army’s acquisition strategy.
“Both engines are on-track to be delivered by the government to the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competitive prototype vendors by the end of October 2023,” the Army wrote in a press release today.
“In an effort… to push schedule, we did not have any slack in our schedule and that’s no way to manage developmental programs,” said the Program Executive Officer for Aviation, Maj. Gen. Robert Barrie.