Washington - The US Army has awarded contracts to Bell and Sikorsky Boeing, which means that the next generation of assault helicopters for the US Army has largely been confirmed and can continue to enter the second phase of competitive development and risk reduction, as the service prepares to begin its formal program to purchase future long-range assault aircraft or FLRAA until 2030. According to data from March 30th, the Bell and Sikorsky Boeing teams have respectively received awards from the Aerospace and Missile Technology Federation, and will conduct a preliminary analysis of the requirements of the Special Operations Command, including medical evacuation and the ability to allow aircraft to be exported to other countries. This is a statement from the United States Army.

At the beginning of the official FLRAA record keeping program in 2022, the Army will select a winner between two teams to manufacture the prototype. A year ago, a Competitive Demonstration and Risk Reduction (CDRR) phase was established to transition technology from Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstration (JMR-TD) to the design of FLRAA weapon systems. The army signed contracts with these two teams a year ago to continue analyzing and refining the requirements, conceptual design, and procurement methods required for the successful implementation of the FLRAA program. During the transition from JMR-TD to CDRR, Bell piloted the V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft, while the Sikorsky Boeing team piloted the SB-1 Defiant coaxial demonstrator. Due to issues with manufacturing its rotor blades, Defiant encountered more difficulties when landing, and thus began the JMR-TD phase more than a year later, taking off for the first time in March 2019. The first flight of V-280 was in December. 2017. Bell said in a statement on March 31 that through a "rigorous flight testing program, " the aircraft flew for over 200 hours in more than 160 separate test flights, "providing key data to validate Bell's digital model and performance.

According to Lockheed Martin's statement on March 31, Defiant recorded 31 flights, accumulating 26 hours in the air, but also recorded 1500 hours in its system integration laboratory and 148 hours in its propulsion test bench. Lockheed Martin owns Sikorsky Corporation. The Army statement stated that CDRR will enable the winner to complete the preliminary design review of the aircraft and weapon systems within less than a year after the planned contract is awarded, "thereby advancing progress to earlier decisions" for engineering design and manufacturing. Development of manufacturing industry.