During a ceremony held at the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual conference, the MV-75 Future Long Range Assault Aircraft has been officially baptized “CHEYENNE II”, a name selected after careful considerations of over 500 nominations from Native American tribes and figures. Cheyenne tribal representatives joined Army officers at the conference to celebrate the historic naming.
The Cheyenne, which had a strong warrior culture and thribed on the Great Plains, today continue their legacy through the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribes in Oklahoma and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana. Their representatives imparted their blessing to the new machine, which with its unprecedented speed and long range, superior to that of legacy helicopters, is expected to represent a true evolutionary leap for Army aviation.
The “II” is a nod to the transformational, but ultimately unlucky Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne from the 1960s: the AH-56 attack helicopter, with its pusher propeller and the four-blade rigid rotor system, was a groundbreaking and very ambitious project at the time, although ultimately short lived. The AH-56 project was ultimately cancelled after just 10 machines were produced.
The US Army has every intention of ensuring the CHEYENNE II prospers, instead. It is working to accelerate the entire program by several years, with delivery of the first machine now expected by the end of FY 2026 or, at the latest, by early FY 2027. Come FY 2030, the US Army plans to field a first battalion of 24, some 4 years earlier than under previous assumptions.
Bell has started building components of the aircraft even though design work is still underway. Models-based system engineering and the use of “virtual prototypes”, at least 3 of which have already been delivered to the Army for trials and evaluations that will provide feedback to the design and build, is expected to enable an early production decision, ahead of what would be possible following common practice towards Milestone C. If progress will continue to be good, the production decision will be taken in fiscal year 2028, a year earlier than originally scheduled, in order to achieve the first delivery to the 101st Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade by late 2028 or early 2029. The 101st, specialising in long range air assault, has unsurprisingly been selected as the first formation to convert to the new machine.
In order to prepare its crews, the Army is sending pilots to fly the US Marine Corps’ MV-22s, the most directly comparable machines available. The two aircraft use 2 variants of the same Rolls Royce engine: the AE1107C is found on the MV-22, the 1107F on the MV-75. The commonality is very high, up to 80%.
The most notable difference is that the 1107F does not rotate, unlike on the MV-22 OSPREY. The engine is fixed in position at the extremities of the simplified wing and only the rotor unit itself tilts. The 1107F also comes with a native particle separator, which is something that had to be added to the OSPREY over time.
In the meanwhile, on April 13, Bell also announced the award to Collins Aerospace of important subcontracts: the Firm will be responsible for the SmartProbe air data system, the cockpit seats and the tiltrotor platform’s ice protection system. Collins joins an already large team which includes GE Aerospace delivering the avionics and “digital backbone” for the aircraft and Honeywell contributing the auxiliary power unit and cooling solution.
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