Joint Multi-Role On 5 June 2013, Bell announced that its
V-280 Valor design had been selected by the Army for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Technology Demonstrator (TD) phase. The Army classified the offering as a Category I proposal, meaning it is a well-conceived, scientifically or technically sound proposal pertinent to program goals and objectives with applicability to Army mission needs, offered by a responsible contractor with the competent scientific and technical staff supporting resources required to achieve results. The Boeing-Sikorsky team, pitching the high-speed compound helicopter design based on the X2 prototype, also reported they were invited to negotiate a technology investment agreement for the JMR-TD Phase I program. JMR-TD contracts were expected to be awarded in September 2013, with flights scheduled for 2017. EADS withdrew from the program before designs had been selected, and Piasecki Aircraft was not chosen to continue in the effort. On 6 August 2013, Lockheed Martin said it will offer a new mission equipment package to meet the requirements for the JMR/FVL program. Lockheed Martin will incorporate future airborne capability environment software standards into the aircraft's cockpit and mission systems to use their avionics, weapons, and sensors like the
F-35 helmet. Boeing and other companies are expected to offer rival sets of avionics. On 9 September 2013, Bell announced Lockheed would be teaming with them on the V-280. On 2 October 2013, the U.S. Army awarded technology investment agreements (IIA) to AVX Aircraft, Bell Helicopters, Karem Aircraft and Sikorsky Aircraft under the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator Phase I program. There are two general types of proposals: tiltrotors with rotors that serve as both rotors and conventional propellers, and compound helicopters that use vertical rotors and separate rear-mounted propellers. AVX and Sikorsky are offering compound designs with two counter-rotating rotors to provide vertical lift. For forward movement, AVX uses two ducted fans and Sikorsky uses a single propeller on the back. Bell is offering the V-280 Valor tiltrotor. Karem Aircraft is offering a tiltrotor with optimum-speed rotors, allowing the aircraft to speed or slow the propellers depending on speed or efficiency demands. Similar technology was used on the
A160 Hummingbird. JMR-TD is to develop and demonstrate an operationally representative mix of capabilities, technologies, and interfaces to investigate realistic design trades and enabling technologies. Each of the four teams received $6.5 million from the Army for this phase of the program. On 21 October 2013, defense executives bidding for the program stated that the Army plans to downselect to two companies in 2014, who will then develop prototypes for flight tests in 2017. JMR-TD phase I is focused on creating a medium utility rotorcraft airframe, while phase II will develop mission systems and software although integration with airframes is not planned and thus will not be flying. Specifications are for a design capable of performing both medium utility and attack missions, with a cruising speed, and of hovering at in temperatures. After the flight tests and technology development, JMR will end and a
Request for Proposals (RFP) will be issued open to all companies to begin the projected $100 billion FVL effort. Demonstrators developed under JMR will be "
X-planes" to demonstrate some key technologies, but they won't have production-representative engines or real mission systems architecture; JMR will show off technologies to enable Army rotary-wing aviation to make the next leap in speed, lift, protection, and interoperability under FVL for the 2030s. The program is intentionally slow-paced partly due to the challenges seen in the
Joint Strike Fighter program The Sikorsky-Boeing team submitted the SB-1 Defiant design and risk report to the Army in mid-June for JMR. The Army is looking at five criteria to downselect JMR-TD entries: how much the design advances the services' science and technology goals; whether the design meets performance specifications; how well the demonstrator validates specifications; whether the competitor has kept to their schedule; and whether the company has the skills and competency to carry out a flight demonstration. Even with the prospect of sequestration returning in FY 2016, the JMR program will likely be spared from cuts or cancellation due to the Army's support of research and development programs. The demonstrator aircraft will have a lifespan of 200 flight hours, and the Army's budget is $240 million. In July 2014 the Army decided which two competitors would proceed to Phase One, but will hold program discussions with all four parties to determine a reasonable path forward before announcing the winners, which is expected to occur in late August or early September 2014. Earlier in July, the Army selected the Boeing-Sikorsky team to develop the Joint Common Architecture (JCA) standard "digital backbone" through which mission systems will be integrated into the FVL system's design.
Down selection On 11 August 2014, the Army informed the Sikorsky-Boeing and Bell-Lockheed teams that they had chosen the SB-1 Defiant and V-280 Valor to continue with the JMR demonstration program. The aircraft designs show the Army is pursuing both coaxial and tilt-rotor designs, and preferring larger and established contractors over the smaller entries. AVX Aircraft says it is still in negotiations with the Army and believes they can still continue with some level of work on the program. Official word of the downselect was to be announced in late August once negotiations had been finalized. The Army formally announced the selection of the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 and Bell-Lockheed V-280 on 3 October 2014. Both teams will now build technology demonstration aircraft with flight tests starting in 2017. Though AVX and Karem Aircraft were not selected, the Army is still interested in technologies they have offered. In early September 2014, a panel of aviation experts advised personnel from the FVL initiative how to avoid mistakes made by previous acquisition efforts, namely the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The panel had three suggestions: split the program into different manageable pieces; use the expertise of the commercial helicopter industry; and secure early support from the
U.S. Congress. FVL is seeking to develop four separate lift classes, which may even become five if the program includes medium lift aircraft for the Navy and
U.S. Marine Corps, so the sheer diversity of requirements casts doubt that a single program can successfully produce different versions of a given design. One main problem the F-35 program encountered was having a single program to try to meet different needs with variants of one design. It is possible for FVL to avoid this and still meet it primary goals of using common drive trains, engines, and communications across different helicopters in different services; although the Army's Apache and Black Hawk designs are entirely different, the Marines'
UH-1Y Venom utility and
AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters have 85 percent parts commonality despite using different airframes. Money and time could be saved by using available technologies from commercial helicopter manufacturers, which was impossible to do with the high-performance F-35. Even though the JSF has secured international partners and FVL has none, partners would be welcomed once the program officially starts, and pre-acquisition industry-to-industry cooperation was advised before government-to-government agreements occur. Congressional support was also advised to be secured early on, as keeping lawmakers in the dark caused lack of trust and imposition of reporting requirements for funding with the F-35. As Army Aviation purchase budgets has decreased 40% in 3 years, FVL funding could be conflicting with modernization of the current rotorcraft fleet. In January 2015, the Army confirmed that the FVL-medium category would be split into two different versions, one for attack/reconnaissance and one for utility and troop carrying. Though the program seeks component commonality across the fleet, service leaders identified that different sized aircraft are needed for attack and troop-carrying, so the same airframe may not be used for both missions; other services may also tailor their own FVL-medium variants for specific needs. The versions may even use different forms of propulsion (one tiltrotor and one pusher propeller with coaxial blades), but nothing would be certain until the results of the 2018 TD test flights. :
Text split from the Futures command article Future Vertical Lift had planned to use the DoD modular open systems approach (MOSA), an integrated business and technical strategy in FARA, and in FLRAA FLRAA is anticipated to enter service by Fiscal Year 2030. By abstracting its requirements, the Army was able to request prototypes which used new technologies. Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) prototypes are to be built by two teams to replace
Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawks with Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). The tilt-rotor FLRAA demonstrator by Bell is flying unmanned (October 2019); it logged 100 hours of flight testing by April 2019. Both Bell and
Sikorsky-Boeing received contract awards to compete in a risk reduction effort (CDRRE) for FLRAA in March 2020. The risk reduction effort will be a 2-phase, 2-year competition. The competition will transition technologies (powertrain, drivetrain and control laws) from the previous demonstrators (JMR-TDs) of 2018–2019 to requirements, conceptual designs, and acquisition approach for the weapon system. The Army wants flight testing of FLRAA prototypes beginning in 2025, with fielding to the first units in 2030. The
Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) was to be smaller than FLRAA. The Army's requests for proposals (RFPs) for FARA were due in December 2018; A long range precision munition for the Army's aircraft will begin its program of design and development. In the interim, the Army is evaluating the
Spike 18–mile range non-line of sight missile on its
Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. On 5 December 2022, the Army announced that the V-280 Valor was selected by the program. The Sikorsky-Boeing team formally disputed the contract award later that month. In February 2024 the FARA program was cancelled; after expending $2 billion on its development, the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army announced that the $5 billion that had been allocated for FARA's future development for the next five years would be spent on Black Hawks, on the CH-47F Block II Chinook cargo helicopter, on the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), and on research and development for unmanned
aerial reconnaissance capability.
Unmanned UH-60 An unmanned UH-60 Black Hawk flew pilotless in July 2022. An FVL FLRAA (JMR-TD) flew unmanned in 2019. ==See also==