Bell is ramping up staffing and capacity as it looks to build momentum in the development of its V-280 Valor, following the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s decision to uphold its selection for the U.S. Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based manufacturer was announced as the FLRAA winner in December 2022, but a protest from Sikorsky and Boeing delayed the start of work on the program until April.
The initial development contract seeks to define the Valor’s weapon system design, sustainment, digital enterprise, manufacturing, systems integration, flight testing, and airworthiness qualification.
Bell is focused on being “vicious on schedule,” the company’s CEO Lisa Atherton told reporters at the Paris Air Show, where a full-scale mockup of the V-280 spanned Bell’s enormous pavilion at the event. “We have to make sure that we hit all of our marks right out of the gate, because our warfighter is depending on it.”
Atherton said the Army has a “very deliberate plan” in rolling out the V280 fleet. “We’re following them very closely, and ensuring that we meet their marks on time, on schedule, [and] on cost,” she said. “We’re just excited about making history. This is generational.”
The company spent much of the last decade working towards the FLRAA contract win, and Atherton said this work has secured the company’s future.
“The only way to make sure that we keep that future secure is to hit every single mark on this contract, as needed for the Army,” she said. “We are never going to be the one that they’re waiting for — we want to make sure we are there or ahead of what the Army needs on this contract.”
Keith Flail, executive VP of military business at Bell, said execution was now “the name of the game” for Team Valor.
“We’re underway, getting all the things that you would expect turned on: staffing up for the program, having the consensus of contract, getting our teammates working [and] moving forward.”
He said the company is also continuing to invest in its physical and digital infrastructure to ensure it can ramp up production when required.
“We, as an executive leadership team, are very focused on the building the many, thinking about the Production Readiness Review that’s out there and what it takes to get to rate.”
While the Army has not provided ramp up rate with yearly production targets, the UH-60 Black Hawk saw a peak output of over 80 aircraft a year, and Atherton said Bell has “hit a sweet spot of what we’re trying to optimize to.”
The Army’s Production Readiness Review is in 2027. “That’s a mere three years away,” said Atherton. “So, we’re investing now to make sure that we can hit that rate for the Army.”
A key element in enabling this is the company’s Manufacturing Technology Center, which has been used to prove out new production technologies for transmissions, gearboxes, blades, and advanced composites.
“The Manufacturing Technology Center is really a microcosm of the future factory,” said Flail. “Because we know that we have our manufacturing processes nailed down — and making sure that the community, the airworthiness folks, everybody’s comfortable with what we’re doing — so that when we go to rate, it’s a matter of scaling appropriately out of what is currently in that center.”
The company is also hopeful of foreign military sales (FMS) further down the road. Flail acknowledged “quite a bit” of international interest in the V-280, due to the aircraft’s potential speed, range, payload and endurance. The U.K, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada have already been linked with type.
Textron CEO Scott Donnelly said the company was taking the opportunity to speak to prospective international customers while in Paris. “Clearly FMS will be an important part of the program as time goes on, so there’s a lot of great discussions going around with those potential customers.”
