The US Army’s Future Vertical Lift programme has taken a major step forward as Bell's Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) entered the next major phase of development.

The service has approved the FLRAA Milestone B Acquisition Decision Memorandum on 2nd August.

The decision came after the successful FLRAA Preliminary Design Review in April and a meeting of the Army Systems Acquisition Review Council (ASARC) in June. After reviewing FLRAA affordability, technological viability, threat projections and security, engineering, manufacturing, sustainment and cost risks, ASARC confirmed that all sources of programme risk have been adequately addressed for this phase of the programme.

Milestone B allows the Army to exercise contract options and continues development of the aircraft as it now enters the engineering and manufacturing development phase.

"This achievement marks a historic moment for both the US Army and Bell,” said Ryan Ehinger, Bell’s senior vice president and programme director, FLRAA programme. “Now that the program has Milestone B approval, the course is set for delivering transformational capability to the warfighter. The FLRAA team remains laser-focused on working in tandem with the US Army to execute the next phase of Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD).”

The Milestone B decision is a part of the Major Capability Acquisition process and comes after years of the Bell team working alongside the US Army and Bell’s FLRAA teammates to break down requirements, reduce risk and inform the weapon system acquisition. This includes the execution of the Preliminary Design Review, ensuring integration and effectiveness of the aircraft’s design including weapon system design, sustainment and system integrations that are integral to the US Army’s special mission requirements.

Following the US Army’s FLRAA contract award in December 2022, Bell established several new state-of-the-art facilities and established several new innovative manufacturing processes to drive cost, schedule and performance to support the program’s execution. As Bell and the FLRAA team enter into the EMD phase, Bell’s focus will be on continued design maturation and prototyping.

The US Army’s new long-range assault aircraft will fly twice as far and twice as fast as the current fleet. By utilising mature tiltrotor technology coupled with an innovative digital engineering approach and an open architecture, it will be the most reliable, affordable and high-performing long-range assault aircraft in the world.

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