By Dan Parsons | April 1, 2021
Estimated reading time 7 minutes, 33 seconds.
Two teams vying to build the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) are advancing to the second competitive demonstration phase of an ongoing effort to develop a suitable replacement for the UH-60 Black Hawk by 2030.
Both Bell and a Sikorsky-Boeing team will enter Phase II of competitive demonstration and risk reduction (CD&RR) for FLRAA through two “other transaction authority” project agreements, awarded by the Army’s Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium on March 30.
The U.S. Army plans to choose either the Bell V-280 Valor (top) or a refined version of the SB>1 Defiant, called Defiant X, for FLRAA in 2022. Bell/Sikorsky-Boeing Photos
Source: Bell
Bell says it ought to be able to quickly add new sensors to the V-280 because of the aircraft’s open systems architecture. As part of demonstrations in February, the V-280 transmitted information including flight data, such as airspeed, altitude and attitude, to a ground station, it says.
“[The Tactical Common Datalink] is another operational capability being demonstrated on the platform because of its relevance to commanders as a method of supporting cross-domain fires,” the company says. “By employing on-board sensors and [the Tactical Common Datalink] the V-280 showed it would be able to provide targeting information to enhance the lethality of precision long-range weapons.”