The US Army’s next-generation tiltrotor will likely have capability to fly autonomously.
An initial prototype of that aircraft is currently being designed and fabricated by Bell, which expects to deliver the first of six test examples to the army in 2026 under the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programme.
Speaking during a 24 April investor call, the chief executive of Bell’s parent Textron revealed that the new tiltrotor will likely include at least some capability to fly in an unmanned configuration.
“The army wants to make sure that that aircraft can be unmanned,” CEO Scott Donnelly says.
Bell previously demonstrated such capability with the V-280 Valor, its competitive FLRAA prototype, first showcasing the autonomy in 2020. That event included onboard pilots for safety.
While autonomous flight technology may wind up a standard feature on operationally configured FLRAA rotorcraft, it remains unlikely that soldiers will be ferried into battle behind an empty cockpit.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to fly it as an unmanned aircraft with 12 guys in the back, going into an assault insertion,” Donnelly notes. “But relocations and different missions, there might be places where they want that.”
The new tiltrotor will likely operate similarly to existing troop carriers like the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, which the FLRAA is meant to succeed.
Much like the Black Hawk, Bell’s yet-unnamed tiltrotor is expected to fly with two pilots and one crew chief, and be capable of carrying a fully equipped squad of combat troops, or supplies, into battle.
Images released by the US Army last September show troops from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division testing out a full-scale FLRAA mock-up, complete with two pilots seated behind flight controls.
However, the autonomous flight technology is likely to be a prominent feature of the final FLRAA design.
“Ensuring that the capability is in these platforms for either optionally or unmanned [flight] is becoming very, very standard,” Donnelly says.
In partnership with Sikorsky, the army is separately developing the ability to equip a standard model UH-60M with so-called “optionally manned” flight capability.
Sikorsky has been demonstrating that concept on the Black Hawk for several years using a modified UH-60A known as the Optionally Piloted Vehicle. The system logged its first fully autonomous sortie in 2022 and offers the ability to fly with two, one or zero humans in the cockpit.
In October, the army contracted with Sikorsky to install the technology on a contemporary UH-60M. That vehicle has been dubbed the UH-60MX.
Such pilotless capabilities could significantly shake up army aviation operations.
During the two-decade combat mission in Afghanistan, enemy activity or bad weather often restricted aviation support to ground forces fighting in the mountainous terrain. This could cause critical delays in evacuating wounded soldiers or resupplying troops.
The ability to deploy an autonomous-capable transport helicopter could allow commanders to approve medical evacuation or resupply flights deemed too risky for crewed aircraft.
“Having those options, I think, will really make a difference,” Sikorsky’s Jay Macklin told FlightGlobal in 2024.
Macklin commanded an army aviation task force in Iraq during combat operations from 2007-2009 and now oversees business development for Sikorsky’s US Army and US Air Force portfolio.
While delivering optionally manned capability to legacy rotorcraft requires significant aftermarket modifications, it appears to be coming standard on the FLRAA.
Even so, the aircraft’s primary mission of flying low and fast to deliver ground troops to distant objectives is still expected to be performed by human aviators.
“I don’t think that we’ll be using unmanned aerial systems soon to put Rangers onto the objective,” Major General Michael McCurry, chief of the army’s aviation branch, said at the service’s 2024 aviation conference.
Exactly how the army plans to incorporate any optionally manned capabilities into its rotorcraft fleet remains a matter of discussion. Some portion of the service’s more than 2,100 Black Hawks are now expected to serve as far out as the 2070s alongside the FLRAA fleet.
Service leaders reaffirmed needing capabilities offered by FLRAA last year at the army’s annual aviation conference, saying they do not expect to significantly change the programme’s requirements – which include a one-way, un-refuelled flight range of 2,440nm (4,520km) and continuous cruise speeds of at least 280kt (518km/h).
Other army aviation programmes have been significantly altered based on observations from the war in Ukraine.
Most notably, the service cancelled development of a new armed scout platform in 2024 after determining it would be overly vulnerable to precision munitions and swarms of lethally armed enemy drones.
With flight testing on FLRAA scheduled to begin in 2026, Bell hopes to be approved for low-rate initial production on the programme in 2028.
The army plans to field its first tiltrotor to a frontline unit by 2030.
