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The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) has backed the Army’s plan to accelerate its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program, including a measure in its version of the next defense policy bill supporting the use of early production contracts.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) led the FLRAA acceleration amendment that was adopted during HASC’s markup of its National Defense Authorization Act last week.
“The Secretary of the Army may enter into contracts, in advance of full-rate production, for the procurement of FLRAA as part of an accelerated low-rate early production effort,” the amendment states.
The amendment stipulates that the potential use of early production awards must support efforts to “expedite delivery of FLRAA operational capability to the warfighter, to maintain momentum and learning continuity between test article completion and full production ramp-up, to stabilize and retain the specialized workforce and industrial base supporting FLRAA, including critical suppliers and production facilities in Texas, Kansas and other states [and] to mitigate cost escalation risks and improve program affordability across the life cycle.”
Army leaders have recently detailed an intent to speed up fielding of the Bell [TXT]-built FLRAA by two years, with an aim to now deliver the first aircraft to the 101st Airborne Division by late 2028 or early 2029 (Defense Daily, May 14).
Bell’s 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).
Bell has said it is “confident” it can meet the Army’s accelerated timeline for FLRAA, as it works toward delivering the first prototype in 2027 (Defense Daily, May 19).
Final assembly of the V-280 aircraft for FLRAA will occur in Amarillo, Texas, which is in Jackson’s district.
Jackson’s amendment directs the Army secretary to brief Congress within 180 days of the NDAA’s passage detailing the timeline for FLRAA procurement and plans for an early production effort, “the status of industrial base readiness and supply chain coordination,” and the estimated long-term cost savings with accelerating the production timeline.
The Army included $1.25 billion for continued FLRAA development in its FY ‘26 budget request, which is the same amount it received in the current fiscal year.
“The [FY ‘26 request] is trying to ensure that we can help develop prototypes [and] help facilitization costs associated with bringing that critical capability into the force,” Maj. Gen. Thomas O’Connor, the Army’s director of force development, said during an Association of the United States Army discussion on Thursday.
Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees fully authorized the Army’s $1.25 billion request in their respective version of the NDAA, while the House’s recently-passed defense appropriations bill includes a cut and funds the program at only $938.5 million for FY ‘26 (Defense Daily, June 9).
