US Army looks for ‘efficiencies’ to protect FARA production timeline
Bell's 360 Invictus FARA Competitive Prototype during assembly at the company's Amarillo, Texas facility. (Photo: Bell)
The US Army has spoken of how it expects to manage the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft effort, after a delay in engine development had a knock-on effect on aircraft prototype flight tests.
After failing in an attempt to accelerate engine development activities by a year, the US Army is currently examining ‘all options’ to work out if new ‘efficiencies’ can support the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) programme beyond Milestone B.
The T901-GE-900 engine from General Electric (GE) will be fitted on two FARA prototypes for a fly-off phase that would determine which aircraft enters production, but issues related to the manufacturer’s supplier base ‘negated realization of a necessary 12-month engine development acceleration in order to support [the] original FARA need,’ Col Kevin Chaney, FARA project manager in the US Army, said in a statement.
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