Bell Textron, Army continue V-280 Valor progression

Bell Textron and Army officials said terms have been reached regarding the execution of the Competitive Demonstration and Risk Reduction (CD&RR) contract’s second phase involving the V-280 Valor design.

“This is the next step to a program of record, and Bell is proud to closely collaborate with the Army to transition our flight-proven V-280 Valor into a highly-capable and sustainable Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft weapons system,” Keith Flail, executive vice president, Advanced Vertical Lift Systems at Bell, said. “Bell and our Team Valor teammates continue to optimize our platform based on research, design, and thorough flight-testing of the aircraft to deliver an outstanding capability for the Army.”

Bell Textron noted the second-phase agreement represents an important milestone and serves as a testament to the continued momentum for Army modernization.

The flight-proven V-280 Valor design advances from an aircraft with transformational speed and survivability towards a low-risk weapons system ready to support joint combined arms and maneuver operations worldwide.

“This aircraft is not an engineering science project,” Ryan Ehinger, vice president and program director of FLRAA at Bell Textron, said. “The V-280 tiltrotor provides a critical and combat-proven capability needed to maintain our U.S. military’s ability to deter adversaries by radically improving over the current fleet’s speed, range, versatility, and sustainability. Our program has provided evidence that the V-280 is a transformational long-range assault aircraft solution for the Army, and we are proud to move forward as a team to continue to mature the weapons system.”