Jane Edwards
The U.S. Army has asked industry to submit proposals for a program to design, build and test a future attack reconnaissance aircraft prototype.
A FedBizOpps notice posted Wednesday says Army Contracting Command plans to use an “other transaction†authority for the prototype initiative in support of the cross-functional team responsible for the service’s future vertical lift platform.
The service plans to select four to six vendors by June 2019 to come up with preliminary designs over a period of nine months under the program’s first phase, according to the solicitation.
Each Phase 1 participant will get approximately $15M in funds, including $8.5M in fiscal year 2019 and $6.5M in FY 2020.
The Army will down-select the offerors to two participants for the second phase based on the initial design and risk review and then move the prototypes to initial flight demonstrations planned for the first quarter of FY 2023.
The two awardees selected for Phase 2 will receive approximately $735M in funds from FY 2020 through FY 2023.
The service expects the FARA competitive prototype program’s two phases to conclude in September 2023.
Proposals are due Dec. 18, according to the notice.
