GE Aerospace Awarded Subcontract To Deliver Avionics Systems For Army’s FLRAA

The V-280 Valor. (Bell)

GE Aerospace said Monday it has been awarded a subcontract to deliver avionics systems as part of Bell’s team building the Army’s new Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).

The company noted the avionics work builds off Bell’s prior decision to select GE Aerospace as the “digital backbone” provider for FLRAA.

“Entering this next phase enables us to continue advancing the digital backbone for the U.S. Army’s future vertical lift programs,” Tanika Watson, GE Aerospace’s general manager for future vertical lift, said in a statement. “The digital backbone provides the framework to make aircraft system modifications and realize the benefits of Modular Open Systems Approach designs from the outset of future vertical lift programs.”

Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft was named the winner of the FLRAA competition in December 2022, beating out a Sikorsky and Boeing team’s Defiant X coaxial rigid rotor helicopter offering for the program to find an eventual UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter replacement.

The Army’s initial FLRAA deal to Bell is worth up to $1.3 billion but could total $7 billion if all options are picked up.

The value of the subcontract award to GE Aerospace announced Monday has not been disclosed. 

Bell announced in September 2023 it had selected GE Aerospace to provide FLRAA’s digital backbone, which it said includes the “Common Open Architecture Digital Backbone (COADB), Voice and Data Recorder, and the Health Awareness System” as part of an “open, scalable, high-speed data infrastructure” for the aircraft.

“The digital backbone will allow customers to make changes to the weapon system without going to the systems integrator, which optimizes the cost and speed of change,” GE Aerospace said on Monday.  “The digital backbone incorporates time-sensitive networking to provide a reliable, high speed data ‘highway’ to meet current and future needs for moving data through the aircraft.”

The Army last August approved the Milestone B decision to move FLRAA into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase, to include picking up the next contract option that will cover the build of six prototype aircraft.

“The maturity of the digital backbone for the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft was critical to passing Milestone B and entering the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program,” Matt Burns, GE Aerospace’s general manager for avionics systems, said in a statement. 

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.