The US Army has awarded Bell Textron (TXT.US) a contract worth a total of $1.3 billion to produce a helicopter that will replace the aging UH-60 Black Hawk and be a key component of the Army's future force. The information was released before the Defense Department on December 5.
The contract is worth $1.3 billion with an initial commitment valued at $232 million over the next 19 months.
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Open account Try demo Download mobile app Download mobile appThe total order amount for FLRAA, including the engineering and development production phase and the first batch of low-production initial production, is $7.1 billion.
The long-term potential is estimated at $70 billion, depending on how many aircraft the Army orders in the long term to include potential foreign military sales.
For the past several years, the Bell Textron and Sikorsky-Boeing teams have been racing against each other for this high-profile contract, producing futuristic prototypes and logging flight hours. Army commanders were initially expected to announce the winner earlier this year, but said they needed additional time to review the bids. Then on November 21, Bush Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology told reporters that a decision would be announced by the end of the calendar year, saying the delay was simply due to the necessary "quality control" and "due diligence" associated with a contract "this large." It is not known at this time whether an appeal of the decision will be filed by Sikorsky-Boeing, but given the scale of the FLRAA program, it would not be surprising. The appeal could potentially delay the Army in its quest to roll out a new FLRAA fleet around 2030, but service leaders said they are factoring the potential delay into the schedule.
The Sikorsky-Boeing team did not disclose whether it would be filing an appeal, but issued a brief statement after the decision was announced.
Source: xStation
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