THE US Army has revealed that it has awarded the highly anticipated Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) contract to Bell Textron and its V-280 Valor - a second-generation tiltrotor that will eventually replace the service's Black Hawk helicopters and is set to shape the future of US Army Aviation. The market-defining FLRAA award - which is worth an initial $1.3bn, but follow-on production contracts could see the program's worth grow to the range of $70bn over its lifetime - is the Army's largest helicopter procurement decision in more than 40 years. The decision to select the Valor to eventually succeed the US Army's venerable Black Hawk fleet is not just a major win for Bell Textron domestically, but also a victory for the firm on the global stage, given that many US allies are likely to follow the Army's lead when seeking to replace their own assault/utility helicopter fleets in the future, many of which are currently operate a variant of the UH-60.
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