Karem, Northrop, Raytheon Team to Develop Tiltrotor Prototype for Army’s Reconnaissance Aircraft Program Under $738M Army Contract

Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have partnered with Karem Aircraft to develop a prototype tiltrotor aircraft for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program under Karem’s $738M Army contract, Rotor and Wing reported Monday.

Karem is one of five companies that each secured other transaction agreements from the Army in April to submit initial designs for the FAR aircraft.

Northrop intends to build on its manned and unmanned system integration and production experience to help develop Karem's Optimum Speed Tiltrotor concept, while Raytheon plans to leverage its weapons, equipment and systems architecture expertise for the effort.

The Army plans to select two out of the five contractors that will commence prototyping by February 2020 ahead of a “fly-off” in 2023 and low-rate production operations in 2028.