The Army will meet with four teams of contractors who are competing in the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program later this month or early next month, Defense News reported Friday.Paul McLeary writes that Dan Bailey, an Army program manager, said the branch will use the meeting to announce two finalists and their rotocraft technologies for the military.
The branch is scheduled to demonstrate its Future Vertical Lift helicopters in 2017 and expects to achieve operational capability in mid-2030s, according to Defense News.
Nearly $350 million has been allocated for the JMR project through fiscal 2017, according to the article.
McLeary reports Bailey projected that potential sequestration cuts in fiscal 2016 would not have a significant impact on the program.
“I have full confidence we are not at risk,†he told audience at a July 1 forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“I don’t have many contingencies because I do not feel at risk that the JMR-TD will lose its resources,” he added, according to the publication.
AVX Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, a Boeing–Sikorsky alliance and Karem Aircraft were awarded $6.5 million each in 2013 to help the Army develop its next-generation rotocraft.
