The US military confirmed TWZ that it plans to begin fielding its new MV-75 tiltrotors in 2027. That’s about five years earlier than originally planned, at least, and three years earlier than what the service was targeting just 12 months ago. The military is pushing to accelerate this program, which it sees as particularly critical to any future high-profile conflict in the Pacific region.
Bell, a Textron subsidiary, is developing the MV-75, which is based on its V-280 Valor tiltrotor, under the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. The service announced that Bell had won the FLRAA competition in 2022, at which point it expected the first examples to begin entering service in the mid-2030s. By early last year, the target timeline for service had moved to 2030. The military later revealed plans to push it further to the left to 2028.
Bell V-280 Valor demonstrator. Bell
“We will receive the MV-75 this year. The acquisition strategy involves testing this year and launching next year,” said Colonel Dave Butler, an Army spokesman. TWZ. “We’re getting the best capability for our Soldiers as fast as we can.”
It is worth noting here that construction of the first MV-75 is ongoing and has not yet flown. However, the V-280 demonstrator has been extensively tested since its first flight in 2017. Eventually, the Army plans to replace a significant portion of its H-60 Black Hawk helicopters, including a segment of the special operations MH-60Ms assigned to the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR7).
We were honored to receive @SecArmy Dan Driscoll and Sen @JerryMoran at the Bell Wichita Assembly Center, where assembly efforts began on the first six #MV75 test aircraft. We proudly accelerate production of the MV-75 airframe, demonstrating the impact of digital… pic.twitter.com/LmSrK63atU
— Bell (@BellFlight) January 14, 2026
TWZ reached out to the Army for clarification and more details on the MV-75 program schedule after U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George highlighted efforts to speed it up at a town hall at Fort Drum in New York on Jan. 12. Fort Drum is home to the 10th Mountain Division. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, is one of the units the service has designated to lead the servicewide modernization effort.
“We have a new tiltrotor aircraft and it was supposed to be delivered in 2031-2032,” General George told soldiers at Fort Drum. “And I said, ‘No, we need it very quickly.’ At the end of this year, we will actually have those flying and going out in formations, both in Compo 1 [the active duty component] and Compo 2 [the Army National Guard]and in our SOF [Special Operations Forces] formations.”
General George starts talking about the MV-75 around 6:20 PM in the video below from the recent town hall at Fort Drum.
The MV-75 promises a major increase in aircraft assault capability for the military. The service expects the tilt rotors to provide about twice the range and speed of existing Black Hawks. Greater range and the ability to cover those distances more quickly would be particularly relevant for future operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where operating locations and objectives are likely to be dispersed over large areas with limited options to make stopovers. The improved performance could also be very valuable in support of a wide range of mission sets globally. The 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s premier air assault unit, has already been working to prepare to receive its first MV-75s for years.
An example of the military’s existing UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. US Army Reserve
There are also plans for a special operations variant of the MV-75. The 160th SOAR was heavily involved in the development of the aircraft to help bring that version into service faster, which contributed to the increased weight of the base version, as you can read more about here.
In a report released last summer, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional watchdog, included a warning about the potential negative impacts of increasing the weight of the MV-75.
“The preliminary design review also indicated that the increase in aircraft weight places certain planned mission capabilities, particularly in terms of payload, at moderate risk,” the report said. “While the review noted that the FLRAA has a plan to reduce weight by about 270 pounds, it falls short of the 2,000-pound reduction needed to reduce payload risk from medium to low. Program officials said they plan to conduct a system-wide critical design review in late fiscal year 2025.”
A rendering depicting an MV-75 tiltrotor flight. Bell
The GAO report, which had a deadline of Jan. 31, 2025, also raised questions about the military’s efforts at the time to accelerate the program’s overall schedule.
“The FLRAA moved to the MCA [Major Capability Acquisition] in July 2024 and began system development. However, officials reported that the program’s critical technologies were not fully mature at the time. The program plans for the technologies to be complete
mature to early production—a date that the program documentation targets for the first quarter of fiscal year 2029, but also indicates that it could be as late as the third quarter of fiscal year 2030. “According to our best practices for technology readiness, programs should fully mature all critical technologies into an operational environment by the time system development begins. We previously found that MTA [Middle Tier of Acquisition] programs transitioning with immature technologies may risk costly and time-consuming re-engineering of the overall effort.”
“The DOD Office of the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering conducted a preliminary system-level design review and risk assessment for the FLRAA in March 2024,” the report continues. “The review showed that the program was at high risk of meeting its planned milestones due to various delays, but allowed the program to progress in detailed design. The program risk analysis showed that delays to the start of production and initial operational capability of the program could be approximately 18 and 11 months, respectively.”
The GAO report also noted that, at least when it was written, the Army expected to “complete testing of system-level integrated physical prototypes in an operational environment in fiscal year 2028.”
Another look at the V-280 demonstrator. Bell
Exactly what the Army did to be able to change the schedule of the MV-75 program so significantly, and what might have been traded in the process, is unclear. The service promoted the use of digital engineering tools, including fully virtualized “digital twins” of design, as well as open architecture systems, as helping to reduce development risk. In the past, Army Col. Jeffrey Poquette, the FLRAA’s program manager, has also been open about the risks and a potential willingness to accept them to a degree to speed up work on the new plane.
Historically, tilt rotor designs have been defined by high cost and complexity in general. At the same time, the inherent combination of capability benefits they offer – point-to-point helicopter flexibility together with the range and speed of a fixed-wing turboprop – has led to continued efforts to develop them globally. Chinese companies are now actively working on at least one manned tilt-rotor project, as well as two unmanned models.
When it comes to the military, the FLRAA has notably survived a major shift in aviation priorities in recent years that has resulted in the cancellation of other major programs. There was talk for a while that the MV-75 might be in danger of being truncated or worse, but the trend line has been very much in the opposite direction for the past year.
“We used to talk about, ‘Hey, we’ve got to change by 2030.’ And 2030, in our opinion, was that arbitrary timeline. And it was based on all these POMs [Program Objective Memorandum] and budget cycles and all that stuff,” the Army chief of staff also said during the recent town hall, speaking more generally. “I think we’ve demonstrated … that we can change faster. We’re talking about how we can improve over the next four months, the next six months and make sure we’re moving as quickly as possible.”
“You know, I was in the military, I got out of high school in 1982, so a few days [after that]and it was always frustrating for me to see technology that was out there and wonder why I had decade-old crap when the stuff was out there on the streets,” added George.
It will be an important demonstration of the Army’s ability to more rapidly acquire and field new major capabilities if it can meet its extremely aggressive timeline for the MV-75.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com