The 101st Airborne Division will be the first unit to get the Army’s new tiltrotor aircraft. This week the Army announced that the 101st will get to use Bell’s V-280 Valor, a next-generation replacement for the aging H-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
The 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, the division’s attached aviation unit, will receive the aircraft, which recently was given its official mission-design series designator of the MV-75.
The choice of the 101st “was based on their mission profile and theater demands,” Gen. James Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said during his remarks at the Army Aviation Association of America conference this week. “This decision makes sense, the 101st is a formation built to deploy rapidly and operate in austere conditions,” he continued.
Bell’s V-280 Valor, was selected in 2022 as the winner of the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft competition. The vertical take off and landing craft has two engines and is designed for both assault and transport purposes. According to the manufacturer, the aircraft is capable of a top speed of 280 knots (which led to its name) and has a range of 800 nautical miles, both greater than Black Hawk.
Beyond speed, the aircraft can also carry a greater number of soldiers and cargo than the Black Hawk. Mingus said that the initial testing by the 101st Airborne Division will be used to shape MV-75 tactics and doctrine, per Janes.
The Army operates roughly 2,000 Black Hawk helicopters, which have been in use since the 1970s. The Army previously said it expects to field the MV-75 by 2030. According to TWZ, the MV-75 designation is an homage to the year 1775, the birth year of the U.S. Army. The Army is currently carrying out several events and projects commemorating its 250th birthday.
Earlier this month U.S. Special Operations Command said that the V-280 was changed in development to allow it to carry more weight, with the intention of making it more easily convertible for use by special operations units. The Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment currently uses MH-60M variants of Black Hawks, which require extensive modifications to be mission ready.
The assignment comes as the Army is also aiming to shift how it uses its helicopter units. In late April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a memo directing a major transformation of the overall U.S. Army. That included restructuring of commands, a greater focus on integrating tactics around drones, and a reshaping of helicopter units. Hegseth’s memo directed the Secretary of the Army to “reduce and restructure manned attack helicopter formations,” as well as design them to work in coordination with drone swarms. It’s unclear how testing on the MV-75 will play into that goal.
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