Darwin McDaniel
Luke Savoie, president of surveillance and strike systems sector at L3 Technologies, has said L3 and partner AVX Aircraft aim to meet the Capability Set 1 requirements of the U.S. Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program by designing a platform from the outset, Rotor and Wing International reported Thursday.
He told the publication the team is working on a coaxial compound helicopter that would combine the agility of A/MH-6M Little Bird and the lethality of AH-64 Apache.
The Army awarded contracts to the AVX/L3 partnership, Boeing, Bell, Sikorsky and Karem Aircraft in April to create prototypes for the replacement of the military service's Apache helicopter.
The service branch may choose two FARA finalists in early 2020 and seeks to fly experimental aircraft by 2022 through the four-phase prototyping competition, the report noted.
Savoie noted the AVX/L3 offering are designed with light composite materials, a modular bay, sensors for targeting and situational awareness and a system to operate in anti-access area denial environments or dense urban areas.
