FVL: Army’s High-Speed Helicopters Hurtle Ahead
Bell and Sikorsky have started building their competing prototypes for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) ahead of a Final Design Review in November. The vital digital architecture is still in development.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on October 16, 2020 at 4:10 PM
WASHINGTON: Despite disruptions due to COVID-19, development of the Future Vertical Lift family of manned and unmanned aircraft remains on track, Army officials tell me.
“COVID continues to throw us curveballs; so far we’ve been able to hit them,†said Brig. Gen. Walter Rugen, the FVL director at Army Futures Command. “Sometimes we’re hitting singles and bunting and doing a lot of hard work to score runs.â€
Rugen and his acquisition corps counterpart – Brig. Gen. Robert Barrie, the Program Executive Officer for Aviation – oversee the simultaneous development of two different manned aircraft, two types of drones, a host of supporting systems from engines to guns, and a shared Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) meant to ensure all these technologies are compatible and interconnected. (A third type of drone, the Advanced UAS, remains in the concept stage). The two men updated me recently on FVL progress, since the normal briefings at this week’s AUSA conference were largely curtailed by COVID.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/10/fvl-armys-high-speed-helicopters-hurtle-ahead/
