WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is aiming to get two future attack reconnaissance helicopter prototypes
flying by 2023, according to a June 22 draft solicitation.
Posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, the solicitation calls on industry to help refine the Army’s effort to solicit design and development plans for a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Competitive Prototype, or FARA CP ― part of the service’s larger move to procure a
family of Future Vertical Lift aircraft in the early 2030s, if not sooner.
The Army has been talking about procuring an FVL family of helicopters for the better part of a decade and has debated whether to
prioritize the pursuit of a medium lift helicopter to replace UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches. Alternatively, the service was considering buying an armed reconnaissance helicopter to fill the gap left from the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior’s 2014 retirement.
It became clearer in March, at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, that the service would focus on pursuing both a long-range assault helicopter that would fit into the medium-lift category and an armed reconnaissance helicopter that would be considered a light aircraft.
While the Army is in the throes of its
Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration for one medium-lift prototype —
Bell’s V-280 Valor — and is awaiting the first flight of its second prototype —
Sikorsky and Boeing’s SB-1 Defiant — it’s unclear how the service might pursue an armed reconnaissance helicopter.
The draft solicitation shows the service would like to see four to six initial awards made in fiscal 2019 based on conceptual designs and approaches to build prototypes that meet the Army’s desired attributes.
Industry participants would have nine months to develop preliminary designs, according to the draft solicitation.
The Army would then down-select to two companies or teams after an initial design and risk review, it says. This is expected in the third quarter of 2020, the draft solicitation notes.
“The two companies/teams that are selected will proceed to detailed design, build, and test phase,” the document states. A final design and risk review will take place to move forward.
In the third quarter of 2022, the Army would move into a design review that will determine the entrance into a formal acquisition process.
The first flight of the two prototypes would be planned for the first quarter of 2023 and would fly through the fourth quarter, which would involve a test in an operationally relevant environment, or a fly-off.
