The original schedule set for the competitive flyoff of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) also will lead to both industry teams using nonproduction-representative hardware, negating an acquisition strategy premised on minimizing airframe development during the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) stage.

As the Bell 360 Invictus and Sikorsky Raider X teams pass a 50% completion milestone for their competitive prototypes, Army officials in the Program Executive Office for Aviation (PEO-A) are grappling with the need to amend requirements and strategies set in 2018 by the Army Futures Command.
Credit: Sikorsky Concept
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