Future Vertical Lift
| Future Vertical Lift | |
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| Issued by | United States Department of Defense |
 Drawing of SB>1 Defiant, CG image
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Full-size mock-up of Bell V-280 Valor
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Future Vertical Lift (FVL) is a plan to develop a family of military helicopters for the United States Armed Forces. Five different sizes of aircraft are to be developed, sharing common hardware such as sensors, avionics, engines, and countermeasures. The U.S. Army has been considering the program since 2004. FVL is meant to develop replacements for the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache, CH-47 Chinook, and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters. The precursor for FVL is the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) helicopter program, which will provide technology demonstrations planned for 2017.
After a decade of combat from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. Department of Defense found that the U.S. Army's rotorcraft fleet was wearing out. Combat operations made the helicopters fly five times more often than in peacetime. Manufacturers have been remanufacturing and upgrading existing families of aircraft without creating original platforms. The Future Vertical Lift (FVL) concept is to create a new rotorcraft that uses new technology, materials, and designs that are quicker, have further range, better payload, are more reliable, easier to maintain and operate, have lower operating costs, and can reduce logistical footprints. FVL is to create a family of systems to replace most Army helicopters. The Joint Multi-Role (JMR) phases will provide technology demonstrations. JMR-TD will develop the aerial platform; JMR Phase I will develop the air vehicle; JMR Phase II will develop mission systems. The Army plans to acquire as many as 4,000 aircraft from the FVL program. The Army started an FVL engine program in 2016.
Future Vertical Lift was established in 2009 as an initiative, not yet a solution, by the Secretary of Defense to focus all DoD vertical lift capabilities and technology development, as well as retaining long-term engineering capabilities. In October 2011, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued the FVL Strategic Plan to outline a joint approach for the next generation vertical lift aircraft for all military services. The Strategic Plan provided a foundation for replacing the current fleet with advanced capability by shaping the development of vertical lift aircraft for the next 25 to 40 years. It indicates that 80 percent of decision points for the DoD vertical lift fleet to either extend the life, retire, or replace with a new solution occurring in the next eight–ten years. Implementation of the FVL Strategic Plan which will impact vertical lift aviation operations for the next 50+ years. The U.S. Navy is a partner to the Army on the effort, so a derivative of FVL may be used in the Navy's MH-XX program to replace the service's MH-60S/R helicopters.
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