The wing for the first MV-75 tiltrotor prototype has been built, and Bell has begun assembly on the aircraft’s fuselage, the company says.
Bell has been accelerating development of the MV-75 — the winner of the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program — after the Army tightened the timeline for how quickly it wanted to field the new tiltrotor.
“The objective with all this acceleration discussion is to close the gap between test, production, and fielding,” Carl Coffman, Bell’s VP of military sales and strategy, told reporters at a press conference at the Verticon trade show in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Army is hoping to have the first company fully equipped with the MV-75 by 2030, and the first battalion by 2031.
“What’s enabling this [acceleration] is Bell’s performance, our significant investment in systems integration labs, [and] manufacturing capability, as well as close collaboration with our Army program office and our teammates,” said Coffman.
“Right as we finish critical design review items, we go ahead and start moving out on [production] of those particular parts.”
The company is simultaneously building components of the first six test article aircraft, Coffman added.
“We’re moving fast and very deliberately,” he said.
The acceleration requires work beyond engineering, with the type’s future operators already looking to better understand tiltrotor capabilities.
The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division is currently using Bell Boeing MV-22 Ospreys from the U.S. Marine Corps to perform long range assault operations to help inform how they want to use the MV-75 when the type joins service, said Coffman.
“[This will] inform the doctrine and the tactics they’re going to have to use when they receive this aircraft,” he said.
The Marine Corps has offered MV-22 training to Army aviators, Coffman added, and six Army test pilots are currently going through tiltrotor training with the service.
Bell is seeing interest “multi service” and international interest in the MV-75, the company said.
“As people understand that speed and range are going to be critical in the future fight, the ability to respond, we’re very confident that the MV-75 has a future beyond just the Army,” said Coffman.
