The United States Army has approved the Milestone B decision for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) by Bell, marking the beginning of the weapon system’s Program of Record (PoR).

"This achievement marks a historic moment for both the U.S. Army and Bell,” says Ryan Ehinger, Bell’s Senior Vice President and Program Director, FLRAA program. “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 U.S. 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 U.S. Army and Bell’s FLRAA teammates to decompose requirements, reduce risk and inform the weapon system acquisition. This includes the execution of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) ensuring integration and effectiveness of the aircraft’s design including weapon system design, sustainment and system integrations that are integral to the U.S. Army’s special mission requirements.

“This significant milestone is made possible by the years of hard work and sacrifice by Team FLRAA and our teammates throughout the Army and the Department of Defense,” says COL Jeffrey Poquette, FLRAA Project Manager. “We are poised to deliver a truly transformational aircraft for the Army. The hard work continues into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development Phase where we will design, build and test FLRAA prototypes. It is certainly an exciting time for the program.”

Following the U.S. 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 U.S. Army’s new long-range assault aircraft will fly twice as far and twice as fast as the current fleet. By utilizing 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.