December 16, 2019 | International, Aerospace

Bell Invictus to Offer Army ‘Lower-Risk Path’ to FARA Capabilities

By Brian Garrett-Glaser

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bell's offering for the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) contest, the 360 Invictus, is intended to offer the Army an insurance policy by presenting a lower-risk path to the capabilities it hopes to acquire as a “knife fighter” light attack helicopter to replace the retired OH-58 Kiowa Warriors.

The Invictus, with its low-drag tandem cockpit design, draws from a lot of the development Bell has put into the 525 Relentless, a super-medium utility aircraft it hopes will be the first fly-by-wire rotorcraft certified for the civil market. Though Bell's FARA program is newer than some of its competitors, such as Sikorsky's S-97 Raider — Bell officials said the program had just three employees at this time last year and now comprises over 200 — the company believes its reliance on systems which it already has at a high technology readiness level due to work on the 525 will provide the Army with a compelling aircraft inside of its cost and timeline objectives.

“It's still a very advanced aircraft. But by using technologies that we already had high TRLs in, or high manufacturing readiness levels in, we are ahead on that timeline piece,” Frank Lazzara, director of advanced vertical lift systems, told Avionics International during a press visit to the company's Flight Research Center here.

The Invictus design meets or exceeds Army requirements in every area, according to Lazzara, due in part to the clean-sheet engineering that went into the Bell 525, including in the main and tail rotor systems. That aircraft has flown in excess of 200 knots without issue, despite being designed for 160 knots cruise speed. Bell intends the Invictus to cruise efficiently at 180 knots.

“We flew [the 525] until we said we're done, but that rotor wasn't done,” said Josh O'Neill, senior manager for technology and evaluation on the Bell 525 program. “So we went not just 201 knots. It was a good bit more than that.”

The 525 Relentless was the first aircraft Bell designed “totally in the 3D space,” O'Neill said, and the Invictus is similarly using a digital thread, enabling things like virtual reality maintaining exercises to provide design feedback without a physical product.

“You have a digital thread, the same part that's used when you design your aircraft is used in the maintenance training, used throughout the product,” said O'Neill. “You design the aircraft in 3D, lay out all the systems and you're able to go in there with an actual maintainer. So we pulled [a line maintainer] and had him put the gloves on and go maintain the aircraft. And you can see in the 3D space, I need to reach around this piece, I need to turn my hand in a way that the human hand doesn't like to be turned. So we need to move that item.”

As a fly-by-wire aircraft designed with a modular open systems architecture (MOSA) approach, Bell believes Invictus will provide the Army with an path to autonomy — or enable a single person in the aircraft to focus on mission functionality — similar to Bell's approach with the V-280 Valor, its offering for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition. Bell officials said they are currently introducing autonomous flight software and performing software regression tests for that aircraft and intend to begin autonomous flight tests within the next few months.

In March 2020, when the Army narrows the FARA competition from five companies to two, Bell's team will be nine months into design. After that, two of the five designs — selected from Sikorsky, Bell, Karem Aircraft, AVX/L3Harris, and Boeing — will be selected to participate in a fly-off slated for the second half of 2022. The Army hopes to field the first FARA aircraft in 2028.

https://www.aviationtoday.com/2019/12/15/bell-invictus-offer-army-lower-risk-path-fara-capabilities/

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November 5, 2019 | International, Aerospace

U.S. Air Force Signs Predictive Maintenance Enterprise Agreement with U.K.-Based SDL
The U.S. Air Force is to install sensors on the military service's fleet of aircraft to manage millions of pieces of information and streamline maintenance under a predictive maintenance enterprise agreement signed with the U.K.-based SDL this month. SDL said that the agreement will support maintenance and operations personnel with diagnostic checklists and repair procedures and that the predictive maintenance system will interact with other Air Force systems, such as health monitoring, materials management and maintenance management systems. Other high-profile clients using SDL in non-aviation applications include Amazon [AMZN], Nike [NKE], and Ikea. Under the enterprise agreement with the Air Force, SDL is to provide the SDLContenta Publishing Suite for Technical Order (TO) creation, management and delivery, which includes supporting the translation of technical information into predictive maintenance and analysis data across all Air Force assets. Thomas Labarthe, SDL's chief revenue officer, said that the Air Force “is a diligent organization, looking to streamline processes and gain maximum efficiencies across its global operations.” As the Air Force's enterprise technical data solution, SDL is to work closely with the Air Force “to deliver efficiencies across its operations,” Labarthe said. SDL said that the Air Force identified the SDL solution as “the only system” that could meet the service's enterprise requirements, as the Air Force's inventory of technical orders is produced from a variety of source formats, including FrameMaker, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and S1000D. The Air Force Technical Order Authoring and Publishing (TOAP) system is to help manage technical maintenance content in support of all Air Force programs, including the new T-X trainer aircraft program, and various programs aligned under the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. https://www.defensedaily.com/u-s-air-force-signs-predictive-maintenance-enterprise-agreement-u-k-based-sdl/air-force/
August 2, 2022 | International, Aerospace

US Special Operations Command chooses L3Harris' Sky Warden for Armed Overwatch effort
AFSOC hopes its Armed Overwatch plane will be able to pressure violent extremist groups in austere places like Africa, where the airspace is largely permissive.
January 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - January 17, 2020
NAVY Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is awarded a $30,358,285 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-19-C-5509 to exercise the option for dual band radar design agent support efforts. Work will be performed in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (69%); Port Hueneme, California (17%); and Arvonia, Virginia (14%), and is expected to be completed by January 2021. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy); and fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funding in the amount of $2,099,910 will be obligated at time of award, and funds in the amount of $1,069,769 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. CACI International Inc./BIT Systems, Sterling, Virginia, is awarded a $13,336,559 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. This contract provides engineering, program management and technical services to support the installation, integration and sustainment of counter unmanned aerial systems. Installation and integration includes modeling and simulation, hardware installation, software integration, verification testing and integration trouble shooting support. System sustainment includes maintainability and deployment upgrades of operational systems, reconfiguration of installed systems, training, system maintenance, software updates and hardware repairs. Work will be performed in Sterling, Virginia (34%); various locations within the continental U.S (33%); and various locations outside the continental U.S. (33%), and is expected to be completed in January 2022. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1). The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00421-20-D-0020). ARMY Phillips Corp.,* Hanover, Maryland, was awarded a $28,570,997 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of Computer Numeric Control mill and lathe assemblies. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 16, 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W9098S-20-D-0004). Four Tribes Enterprises Inc.,* Gaithersburg, Maryland, was awarded a $13,147,968 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a perimeter security entry point at Rome Laboratory. One bid was solicited via the internet with one bid received. Work will be performed in Rome, New York, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2021. Fiscal 2020 civil construction funds in the amount of $13,147,968 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York, New York, is the contracting activity (W912DS-20-C-0005). Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia, was awarded an $8,873,629 firm-fixed-price contract for program management support services on the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army for the Functional Management Division, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, Technology and Business Architecture Integration Directorate. Fifty-five bids were solicited with one bid received. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 17, 2023. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance, Army, funds in the amount of $8,873,629 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, is the contracting activity (W15QKN-20-F-0144). DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Honeywell International, doing business as Honeywell Aerospace-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $25,664,750 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for helicopter generators. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a one-year base contract with four one-year options periods. Location of performance is Arizona with a Jan 17, 2026, performance completion date. Using military service is the Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 Army working capital funds. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (SPRRA1-20-D-0016). *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2060522/source/GovDelivery/

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Bell Invictus to Offer Army ‘Lower-Risk Path’ to FARA Capabilities

On the same subject

US Special Operations Command chooses L3Harris' Sky Warden for Armed Overwatch effort AFSOC hopes its Armed Overwatch plane will be able to pressure violent extremist groups in austere places like Africa, where the airspace is largely permissive.

US Special Operations Command chooses L3Harris' Sky Warden for Armed Overwatch effort
AFSOC hopes its Armed Overwatch plane will be able to pressure violent extremist groups in austere places like Africa, where the airspace is largely permissive.