Army cancels FARA helicopter program, makes other cuts in major aviation shakeup

WASHINGTON — The US Army is cancelling its next generation Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program, service officials announced today, taking a potential multi-billion-dollar contract off the table and throwing the service’s long-term aviation plans into doubt.

In addition, the Army plans to end production on the UH-60 V Black Hawk in fiscal 2025, due to “significant cost growth,” keep General Electric’s Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) in the development phase instead of moving it into production, and phase the Shadow and Raven unmanned aerial systems out of the fleet, the service added.

All told, it reflects a massive shift in the Army’s aviation strategy and upends years of planning. There is also an ironic sense of history repeating: the decision to end FARA comes two decades to the month after the Army ended its plans to procure the RAH-66 Comanche and nearly 16 years after it terminated work on the ARH-70A Arapaho, both aircraft designed to replace the Kiowa — the same helicopter FARA was supposed to, finally, replace.

The reason for ending FARA, Army leaders told a small group of reporters ahead of the announcement, is a reflection of what war looks like in the modern era. 

“We absolutely are paying attention [to world events] and adjusting, because we could go to war tonight, this weekend,” head of Army Futures Command Gen. James Rainey told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

“We are learning from the battlefield — especially Ukraine — that aerial reconnaissance has fundamentally changed,” Army Chief Gen. Randy George said in a press release. “Sensors and weapons mounted on a variety of unmanned systems and in space are more ubiquitous, further reaching and more inexpensive than ever before.”

Although industry was planning for a Kiowa replacement for years, the program officially kicked off in 2018 with five competitors, which in 2020 were downselected to two: Bell-Textron with the 360 Invictus and Sikorsky with its Raider X.

While observations from places like Ukraine and Gaza are part of the impetus for FARA’s cancellation, the need to free up billions of dollars to invest in unmanned systems was also a prime factor, Rainey and other aviation leaders explained.

So the tentative plan, if Congress approves a fiscal 2024 spending bill with FARA dollars in it, is to keep FARA development going this year, in part to protect the industrial base and continue testing, Army acquisition head Doug Bush said. However, come Oct. 1 when FY25 kicks off, the FARA  development will come to an end — if the service gets its way, as Congress will have to weigh in.

Although the Army still has a requirement for a FARA-like capability, Rainey said the service does not plan to kickstart another manned Kiowa replacement effort like it has done in the past. Instead, it will invest elsewhere, especially on the unmanned side, to fulfill the Kiowa’s role as an armed scout operating ahead of other units in war zones.

Just want those final investments will looks like will take time to emerge, but Bush said the service plans to use a portion of the billions of dollars freed up, to invest in four spots inside the aviation portfolio.

• Ink a new multi-year procurement deal with Lockheed-Sikorsky for the UH-60M Blackhawk line.
• Give Boeing the greenlight to formally begin production on the CH-47F Block II Chinook.
• Continue Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) development as planned.
• Additional investments for developing and buying unmanned aerial reconnaissance systems like the future tactical unmanned systems and launched effects.

“The Army is deeply committed to our aviation portfolio and to our partners in the aviation industrial base,” service Secretary Christine Wormuth wrote in a press release. “These steps enable us to work with industry to deliver critical capabilities as part of the joint force, place the Army on a sustainable strategic path, and continue the Army’s broader modernization plan which is the service’s most significant modernization effort in more than four decades.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.