Developed as part of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) project, the helicopter for the US Army will receive a 20-millimeter cannon capable of" killing "lightly armored systems, in particular, the Russian-made Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and gun system (ZRPK), writes the American magazine Popular Mechanics.
"As a reconnaissance helicopter, the FARA will move along the front line and even rush to the rear of the enemy, actively searching for enemy targets and hitting sudden threats with rapid bursts of 20-millimeter shells," the publication says.
According to the publication, the corresponding gun, called the Sky Viper, is being worked on by Northrop Grumman. This weapon is based on the 30-mm M230 gun of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. The Sky Viper's competitor for the FARA helicopter will be a gun developed according to the Gatling scheme by General Dynamics.
In March 2020, Vertical magazine wrote that the US Army selected Bell (a subsidiary of Textron) and Sikorsky (purchased by Lockheed Martin) to create a replacement for almost 200 Bell OH-58D Kiowa multirole helicopters and half of the army's McDonnell Douglas AH-64 Apache fleet as part of the FARA competition.
In February, the American company Bell released a commercial on Twitter in which the 360 Invictus helicopter "kills" the promising Russian T-14 and T-15 combat vehicles of the Armata platform.
Ivan Potapov
