NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell in Kentucky will be the first division to receive the new Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) and those deliveries could potentially begin in late 2028 or early 2029, senior leaders said Wednesday.
Gen. James Mingus, the Army vice chief of staff, first confirmed the initial fielding plans to the 101st in remarks at the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual conference here, and said the decision was “based on their mission profile and theater demands.”
“And as an 82nd [Airborne Division] guy myself, you know I wasn’t in the room when that decision was being made,” Mingus said. “But seriously, this decision makes sense, the 101st is a formation built to deploy rapidly and operate in austere conditions.”
“The 101st flies into real world contested environments, across wide terrain, often without the luxury of fixed support infrastructure. They need speed, endurance and flexibility,” Mingus added.
Bell’s [TXT] V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft was named the winner of the FLRAA competition in December 2022, beating out a Sikorsky [LMT] and Boeing [BA] team’s Defiant X coaxial rigid rotor helicopter offering for the program to find a platform that will eventually replace a sizeable portion of the Black Hawk fleet (Defense Daily, Dec. 5, 2022).
The Army’s initial FLRAA deal to Bell is worth up to $1.3 billion but could total $7 billion if all options are picked up.
Last August, the Army approved the Milestone B decision to move FLRAA into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase, to include picking up the next contract option that will cover the build of six prototype aircraft (Defense Daily, Aug. 2 2024).
“FLRAA is not a replacement in the conventional sense. It’s a leap ahead technology and capability. It’s the first full expression of what vertical lift should be in the next era of warfare,” Mingus said. “It delivers operational reach that alters how we close with the enemy. It brings the right combination of speed, payload, and survivability we’ve never had in one aircraft.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the service’s chief of staff, told lawmakers last week the Army wants to accelerate the FLRAA program and speed up its timeline by two years (Defense Daily, May 7).
Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, the Army aviation branch chief, said the service is “in the throes” of working with Bell on how to accomplish the acceleration, noting the Army expects the first FLRAA prototype to likely fly in 2027 and could look to begin fielding to the 101st by late 2028 or early 2029.
“Part of the Army Transformation Initiative is the Army said, hey, we’re all in on FLRAA. We’re going to work with the Bell Textron team to accelerate this. So we are in the throes of the negotiation right now to figure out how we’re going to field the first Engineering Manufacturing and Design [phase] aircraft and then, on the heels of that, continue right into low-rate production so we get some aircraft out in the hands of aviation warfighters in the 101st to get this thing off and running,” Gill said.