Bell Wins Army Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft Development Contract

Textron’s (NYSE: TXT) Bell subsidiary has won a potential $1.3 billion contract from the U.S. Army to build its V-280 Valor tiltrotor for the service branch’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program.

The Army said Monday FLRAA will replace the branch’s UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and the initial contract will cover the delivery of virtual prototypes to support design, integration, development test and training activities.

Bell Textron will further develop the weapon systems design and provide manufacturing, sustainment, digital enterprise, flight testing, airworthiness qualification and systems integration support under the contract.

“The thoughtful and disciplined execution of the FLRAA program strategy will deliver the transformational capabilities we need to support the Joint force, strengthen deterrence and win in multi-domain operations,” said Doug Bush, assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology at the Army.

Joseph Giunta, senior contracting official for Army Contracting Command-Redstone Arsenal, noted the service will initially obligate $232 million over 19 months.

The V-280 Valor comes with an open systems architecture and underwent more than years of test flights to validate its operational and technical capabilities for the long-range assault mission.

Breaking Defense reported the initial award is valued at approximately $232 million and that the program could reach up to $70 billion if the aircraft transitions into the production phase.

In September 2019, the Army issued a solicitation for the FLRAA program’s competitive demonstration and risk reduction phase.

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