Bell Textron has announced that it will build the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) fuselages in Wichita, Kansas. This decision was made public this week.
The company secured the Army’s bid for the FLRAA program in late 2022 after a competitive process, where Bell and a Sikorsky-Boeing team operated technology demonstrators for several years to test aircraft capabilities and mitigate risks for the future program.
Bell will utilize an existing facility adjacent to Textron Aviation Defense and aims to commence operations within the next several months. Supporting work will also be conducted at its advanced manufacturing facilities in Texas, including the Advanced Composite Center in Fort Worth, while final assembly will take place in Amarillo.
As of August 2023, the FLRAA program has transitioned from technology development to the critical engineering and manufacturing development phase. The program is valued at approximately $70 billion over its lifetime, including foreign military sales, and is expected to replace around 2,000 Black Hawk utility helicopters.
The new advanced tiltrotor will not be a direct replacement for existing aircraft but is anticipated to fulfill the roles of the Black Hawk by the year 2030.
The initial unit for the FLRAA program has experienced a one-year delay due to protests from Lockheed Martin, the parent company of Sikorsky, concerning the Army’s selection of Bell’s advanced tiltrotor design, which differs from Sikorsky and Boeing’s coaxial rotor blade design. The Government Accountability Office dismissed Lockheed’s protest in April 2023.
The Army plans to equip the first unit with this capability in fiscal year 2031, with a limited user test expected between FY27 and FY28. The contract awarded to Bell in 2022 includes nine options, and entering the engineering and manufacturing development phase will trigger the first option, requiring Bell to provide detailed aircraft design and build six prototypes.
The first aircraft in the new phase is projected to fly in 2026, with low-rate initial production starting in 2028. Lisa Atherton, Bell’s president and CEO, emphasized the company’s commitment to investing in advanced manufacturing to ensure exceptional performance at a reasonable cost. She also noted Textron’s longstanding relationship with Kansas and Wichita, expressing pride in establishing the new facility there.
The article is authored by Jen Judson, an award-winning journalist specializing in land warfare for Defense News.
