In a game-changing decision that signals the “preeminence” of tilt-rotors over helicopters, the US Army has announced its selection of the Bell V-280 Valor as a replacement for its fleet of Black Hawk helicopters.
According to reports, the initial contract is worth $232 million and initial production could reach $7.1 billion. The potential contract is worth about $70 billion.
This is the largest related assignment in the last 40 years. The new Bell V-280 Valor will replace about 2,000 Black Hawks and about 1,200 Apaches around 2030 and beyond.
Bell Textron Inc. confirmed that it won the development contract for the US Army’s FLRAA program. Bell’s V-280 Valor was developed and tested as part of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) program that began in 2013. The V-280 was developed and tested over a period of more than three years.
Bell’s V-280 beat Lockheed Martin-Boeing’s Defiant X. The V-280 Valor “acts” as a helicopter during takeoff or landing, but in the air it flies as a propeller-driven aircraft, much faster than conventional helicopters.
