The Army is still planning to select a winner for its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program “this calendar year,” the service’s top acquisition official has confirmed.
While a production award for the UH-60 Black Hawk replacement program had been slated for this fall, Doug Bush, the Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, affirmed a contract will be made in 2022 as the Army is going through its “due diligence” on the decision.
“There’s no problem,” Bush told reporters during a media roundtable on Monday.
A team of Sikorsky [LMT] and Boeing [BA] offering the Defiant X coaxial rigid rotor helicopter and Bell [TXT], bidding its V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft, are the two competitors for the Army’s FLRAA program.
The two competitors both participated in the earlier Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program to inform FLRAA requirements.
Bush said the Army is in the process of “internal reviews” related to quality control around the final decision.
Maj. Gen. Walter Rugen, director of the Army’s Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team, in late August said the service was in its “quiet period” heading toward a final decision, while declining to offer a specific timeline on when an announcement could be made (Defense Daily, Aug. 26).
“What I can assure everyone is that the Army will do this to the utmost standard. And that utmost standard is being heavily worked on every day,” Rugen said at the time.