The U.S. Army's Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program — the Black Hawk replacement — is now in production-prep stage. Bell Textron won the December 2022 contract for the V-280 Valor over Sikorsky's defiant; the production designation is now MV-75. Coverage from U.S. Army and Aviation Today.
Program timeline
- December 5, 2022: FLRAA contract awarded to Bell Textron, includes 9 options
- August 2024: Milestone B (engineering and manufacturing development) achieved; first option exercised for 6 prototype aircraft
- 2026: First flight of FLRAA prototype scheduled
- 2028: Low-rate initial production begins
- 2030: Initial fielding
Subcontract recent news
April 16, 2026: Bell selected RTX's Collins Aerospace to provide key systems for the MV-75. Collins joins Rolls-Royce (engines) as named subcontractors. Specialty avionics, mission systems, and weapons-integration subcontracts continue to flow.
Why MOSA mattered in the GAO protest
Sikorsky challenged the contract award; GAO upheld the Army's decision in part because Sikorsky's bid didn't adequately address the Modular Open System Architecture (MOSA) requirement. MOSA enables faster software upgrades and more open subcontract opportunities — a worth-noting precedent for how all future major aviation programs are evaluated.
What to do
- Aviation subsystem firms: Bell's named-supplier announcements set the tier-1 lineup; tier-2 work flows from those firms
- MOSA-aligned firms: any avionics, mission system, or sensor that conforms to MOSA standards has an obvious lane
- Watch MV-75 prototype testing through 2026-27 — firms whose components show up in test articles tend to win production work