{"id":44219,"date":"2020-08-24T22:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T22:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/24\/army-awards-air-launched-effects-contracts-for-future-helicopters\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:38:18","slug":"army-awards-air-launched-effects-contracts-for-future-helicopters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/08\/24\/army-awards-air-launched-effects-contracts-for-future-helicopters\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army awards air-launched effects contracts for future helicopters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CORRECTION \u2014 Based on information provided by the U.S. Army, the original version of this story had incorrectly named Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation.<\/i> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Army has awarded 10 contracts worth a total of $29.75 million to companies to provide mature technologies in the realm of air-launched effects, or ALE, <\/a>for future vertical lift aircraft that are expected to come online around 2030<\/a>, service aviation officials have told Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raytheon, Alliant Techsystems Operations of Northridge, California, and Area-I of Marietta, Georgia, were awarded contracts to develop air vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L3 Technologies, Rockwell Collins and Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation were awarded contracts to provide mission systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Raytheon, Leonardo Electronics US Inc., Technology Service Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama, and Alliant Techsystems Operations LLC of Northridge, California, received contracts to provide ALE payloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through ALE<\/a>, the Army hopes to provide current and future vertical lift fleets with \u201cthe eyes and ears\u201d to penetrate enemy territory while manned aircraft are able to maintain standoff out of range of enemy attack, Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen, who is in charge of the Army\u2019s FVL modernization efforts, said in an exclusive interview with Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo do that, that has a whole host of capabilities embedded in it, and I would say it\u2019s not just the eyes and ears, but it\u2019s also, what we are finding, is the mouth, so our ability to communicate by bringing mesh network capabilities, by bringing an ability to hear in the electronic spectrum, and, again, the ability to collect in that spectrum so we can find, fix and finish on pacing threats,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army plans to take these already technically mature capabilities through additional technology maturation, Col. Scott Anderson, the unmanned aircraft systems project manager for the Army\u2019s Program Executive Office for Aviation, said in the same interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for high technology readiness levels, so best of breed,\u201d he said, \u201cthat we can buy and then we don\u2019t have to develop, spend a lot of developmental dollars getting ready to get out the door in a prototype.\u201d The air vehicle, payloads and missions systems will all fit into a government-owned architecture by fiscal 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service will first look at each major component of ALE individually, rather than as a whole system, to assess readiness, Anderson said. That will run through most of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in 2022, the Army will take those capabilities and bring them together into a full system prototype working with Georgia Tech, which is helping the service write the underpinnings of the reference architecture, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final phase, the Army will integrate the system onto a platform, first targeting the Gray Eagle and AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. Ultimately the ALE capabilities to come out of the effort will be targeted for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA)<\/a> ecosystem, Anderson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army is planning to field both FARA and a Future Long-Range Attack Aircraft (FLRAA)<\/a> in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to mature the [ALE] ecosystem and then have it ready to hand off to FARA in full bloom,\u201d Rugen added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army has been looking at ALE since roughly late 2017, Rugen said, and has been working to refine the associated capabilities development documents for several years. Army Futures Command Commander Gen. Mike Murray signed an abbreviated capabilities development document in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service has been pleased with what it has seen so far in live prototype experimentation and physics-based modeling within the science and technology community and is prepared to move quickly on the effort, Rugen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t