The V-280 Valor prototype that the Army announced this week would be re-designated as the MV-75 and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division by 2030. (Bell/Lockheed Martin)
The 101st Airborne Division will be the first to fly the new Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, which is designed to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter by 2030, the Army has announced.
Gen. James Mingus, the service’s vice chief of staff, revealed the choice Wednesday at the Army Aviation Association of America conference in Nashville.
The vertical take-off and landing aircraft built by a partnership of Bell and Lockheed Martin would be designated the MV-75, Mingus said. The MV stands for “multi-mission” and “vertical take-off and landing.”
“The number 75 is a homage to 1775, the birth year of the United States Army,” said Maj. Daniel Mathews, a spokesman for Mingus.
The aircraft was previously called the V-280 Valor.
The Pentagon has said the aircraft could eventually be operated by the other military services and be sold to allied forces.
Col. Marty Meiners, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, said the Army has not specified yet whether the MV-75 will retain the prototype’s Valor name.
The MV-75 is intended to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, a design that first flew in October 1974, the Army said. It is a tilt-rotor aircraft with engine mounts on the wingtips. The engines can counter-rotate, allowing for high level of maneuverability and hovering stability, according to the service.
Mathews said the MV-75 is a tactical assault and medical evacuation aircraft that will provide the Army with long-range, high-speed options “that are survivable in contested environments.”
The V-280 Valor prototype was designed to carry 14 troops and a crew of four, the Army said. It has a top speed of 310 mph – much faster than the Black Hawk’s operating speed of 183 mph. The new aircraft has a range of 931 miles, compared to 367 miles for the Black Hawk.
Mingus said the Army is hoping to move up the projected 2030 delivery date under the Army’s Transformation Initiative, which was announced April 30 by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant, and inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems,” Hegseth said in a memo announcing the initiative.
The V-280 Valor was part of the Pentagon’s Future Vertical Lift project to prototype five airframes to replace the UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook, AH-64 Apache, and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters.
The replacement for the Kiowa, designated as the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, reached the point in which the designs for the Bell 360 Invictus and Sikorsky Raider X were designated as finalists in 2020.
In February 2024, the Army cancelled the program.
Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff at the time, said in a statement cancelling the program that lessons learned by the vulnerability of manned reconnaissance aircraft in the war between Russia and Ukraine had “fundamentally changed” that Pentagon plans.
Mingus said when deliveries of the aircraft begin at Fort Campbell, Ky., they will be assigned to the 5th and 6th Battalions, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.
“The 101st is a formation built to deploy rapidly and operate in austere conditions,” he said. “They fly into real-world contested environments, across wide terrain, often without the luxury of fixed support infrastructure. They need speed, endurance, and reliability.”
