DENVER — After recently awarding options for the next steps in its competitive development effort, a lead official has affirmed the Army is looking to 2026 for initial procurement of its Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) capability.
Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the Army’s program executive officer for aviation, said last week the upcoming flight testing with
Textron Systems [TXT] and Griffon Aerospace’s prototype offerings will inform the Army’s push to “aggressively” get after FTUAS procurement plans.
“We’re still in competition there, but we’ll have both those aircraft built and we’ll have them out in the field here getting tested later this year is what we anticipate. We’ll get that feedback in, incorporate it into any final design updates or test updates and then move forward with the program starting out in ‘26 with procurement. We’re posturing ourselves appropriately there to aggressively get after procurement with the resources that we’re provided,” Phillips said during remarks at the Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit here last Friday.
The Army said last September it had chosen Textron and Griffon Aerospace to move forward in the prototyping effort to develop an enduring FTUAS capability (Defense Daily, Sept. 26 2023).
Textron is offering its Aerosonde Mk. 4.8 Hybrid Quad UAS and Griffon Aerospace is pitching its Valiant drone platform for the FTUAS program.
Last week, the Army awarded Textron and Griffon Aerospace the third and fourth contract options for the FTUAS prototyping effort following a critical design review with the two firms’ offerings (Defense Daily, April 25).
Option 3 is set to cover flight demonstrations and further open system architecture verification testing, while Option 4 will include delivery of production representative prototypes or further testing and operational demonstrations that will culminate in a production readiness review.
The Army has said FTUAS aims to replace the legacy Shadow drone, also built by Textron, with a “vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), runway-independent, reduced acoustic signature aircraft that can be transported organically while providing commanders with ‘on the move’ reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition capabilities.
Phillips called FTUAS a “revolutionary capability,” noting its designed to fill the role for a “brigade-level reconnaissance asset.”
“As we divest of Shadows, we’ve learned so many lessons there that we’re building into this [FTUAS] program. What I believe is that it’s not just [about] the vertical takeoff and landing or the Chinook transportability, but also that we’re going to have a modular open system built into that from the ground up…to bring on new sensors, to bring on new software and to do that to stay ahead of the threats on the battlefield,” Phillips said.
Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of Army aviation, told attendees at the same conference last week he expects that demand for FTUAS is “going to be off the charts” (Defense Daily, April 26).
“That’s my prediction for [FTUAS], with the Shadow cancellation and the demand by divisions to have that tactical UAS capability in their formations,” Rugen said. “There’s no amount of money that will accelerate that left. But what we, in the [Pentagon], are doing is putting more units into the fielding process and that’s our version of acceleration.”
The Army’s FY ’25 budget request includes $149.1 million for FTUAS procurement.
As part of the Army’s recently announced aviation rebalancing, which included canceling development of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, the service detailed plans to retire its fleet of Shadow and Raven drones (Defense Daily, Feb. 8).