House authorizers want the Army to present potential options and required resources for accelerating the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, one of the service’s most important programs.

The House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee, in its fiscal year 2017 mark released April 19, said it is concerned that current funding levels are inadequate for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) technology demonstrator, a key program that will inform decisions for FVL. JMR includes related research on next-generation rotors, drivetrains, engines, sensors and survivability that all feed into FVL.

The subcommittee says FY ’17 is a critical year for technology development, with first flights of two demonstrator aircraft. Furthermore, wind-tunnel testing and other key milestones will reduce risk for the program of record and inform the FVL analysis of alternatives (AoA), which is expected to occur in the second half of 2017. Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT] and a Sikorsky [LMT]-Boeing [BA] team are participating in JMR.

Artist's rendering of a potential Boeing-Sikorsky future vertical lift platform.
Artist’s rendering of a potential Boeing-Sikorsky future vertical lift platform.

But the subcommittee is concerned, due to the “current resource constrained” environment, that current funding levels are inadequate. Therefore, it wants a briefing to the full HASC by Jan. 31 on the status of both the prototype air vehicle demonstrations and supporting initiatives.

AHS International Executive Director Mike Hirschberg said in an April 21 email that this is the first time Congress has intimated that FVL should be accelerated. The non-profit vertical flight technical society achieved $24 million in congressional “plus-ups” for JMR over the last two fiscal years and is looking to build on that for FY ’17.

The subcommittee also weighed in on another important rotorcraft effort. It wants the defense secretary to provide a briefing to the full committee by Dec. 31 on how the services plan to integrate degraded visual environment (DVE) capabilities into their respective rotorcraft and tilt-rotor aircraft programs. The subcommittee said the services face challenges with operating rotary wing aircraft in austere environmental conditions, including brown-out landings and marginal weather, while operating in difficult terrain.

The subcommittee says nearly 25 percent of rotary wing mishaps are attributed to DVE conditions. The subcommittee also notes that the Army’s Special Operations Command has made DVE a top priority and that the service is looking at leveraging the work the command has performed to accelerate this capability across Army rotorcraft platforms.