As reported yesterday, the entry into service of the new Bell V-280 tiltrotor aircraft for the United States Army will be delayed by one year, with the new estimated delivery date being fiscal year 2031. The reason appears to lie in the complaint filed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, competitors in the program, at the end of 2022 after the selection of the aircraft proposed by Textron-Bell for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program.
The decision is somewhat surprising given the statement from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2023, which dismissed the complaints from Lockheed Martin and Boeing. At that time, they stated: “By denying the protest, GAO concluded that the Army reasonably evaluated Sikorsky’s proposal as technically unacceptable because Sikorsky did not provide the level of architectural detail required by the request for proposal GAO also denied various allegations from Sikorsky regarding the acceptability of Bell’s proposal, including the claim that the agency’s evaluation violated the terms of the solicitation or applicable acquisition law or regulation.”
Despite the program delay, General Wally Rugen stated the following during the U.S. Army Aviation Association Summit held between April 24 and 26: “We are constantly working on [the program], and I will say that the team met last quarter and made a tremendously detailed plan to analyze all aspects of this deployment.”
This confidence in the program’s development, combined with statements from Bell executives, leads to the following schedule: delivery of 2 simulators in the next 12 months, delivery of the first aircraft in 2026, while limited user testing will take place between 2027 and 2028, so that ultimately the Bell V-280 can enter service no later than 2031. It is worth noting in this regard that this new aircraft would replace the UH-60 Black Hawks, which have been in the US Army inventory since 1978, in what has become a potential investment of over $7 billion.
Meanwhile, the Bell V-280 passed low-speed agility tests as early as 2019, which reveals some of its characteristics: a possible speed of over 300 knots, a climb rate of 4,500 feet per minute, and a maximum altitude of 11,500 feet with a maximum range of 3,900 kilometers. Regarding its transport capacity, it is estimated that the potential replacement for the UH-60 Black Hawk can carry up to 14 soldiers plus the 4 crew members, while also having integrated hooks to transport up to an M777A2 howitzer (weighing 4,500 kilograms).
Meanwhile, Bell, a subsidiary of Textron, is currently working on the construction of test laboratories in Arlington, Texas, with the aim of accelerating the integration of different weapon systems into its current Bell V-280 prototype. Additionally, the company is concurrently developing its transmission systems for the aircraft, in this case, at its Grand Prairie, Texas headquarters. As for the final assembly site, it is publicly known that it will be located in Armadillo, Texas; with the locations of factories responsible for transmission and rotor blade production still to be determined.
*Image credits: Bell Flight
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