Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft

[2] However, on 8 February 2024, the U.S. Army announced that the FARA program would be terminated due to developments in modern warfare rendering it unnecessary.

[5] The proposed FARA aircraft must integrate government furnished equipment (weapons and engine) with an affordability goal, and should meet desired range, endurance, and payload targets.

In lieu of the OH-58, the Army has used Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters paired with AAI RQ-7 Shadow drones in the armed reconnaissance role.

The US Army released a draft solicitation on June 22, 2018 for reconnaissance helicopter proposals, with the intent to have two flying prototype designs by 2023, which will compete for the final award.

[2] MD Helicopters, which was developing a variant of its MD902 Explorer with a wing to meet the Army's requirements, was not selected for the candidate design phase.

[14] A Boeing executive declined to state if the recently unveiled Compound Apache would form the basis for the company's FARA candidate design.

[20] On October 16, 2019, Karem unveiled its AR40 design, a compound helicopter with a rigid main rotor, a swiveling tail rotor/pusher propeller, and a pivoting wing.

[3] Army Chief of Staff Randy George stated it was influenced by the use of inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicle systems in the Russo-Ukrainian War.