The US Army’s V280 Valor, renamed the MV-75, is being pushed to enter service two years early, in 2028. This is surprising given it won the downselect competition just two years ago. That would put it in service with the 101st Airborne in just five years—lightning fast compared to other procurements of its type. Special Operations variants are in the works (stealth), ambulance versions are coming, as well as an armed gunship variant. It will certainly replace many thousands of Blackhawks, but performance is so good there are talks of replacing the Apache attack helicopters with a heavily armed variant, mostly to greatly extend the range of attack helicopters from 300 to 900 miles. Enhancing speed from 300kph to over 520kph is all bonus.
Many are noting the US Marines would similarly benefit from replacing their Cobra/Supercobra/Viper attack helicopters with something based upon the Valor, but with a swing wing for tighter parking aboard ship. Tripling the range is a very persuasive argument and the Viper has half the combat radius of the Apache, so we’re talking about a sixfold increase in range for the Marines.
it’s very exciting the Army got this one right. Very cool machine.
View: https://youtu.be/AyrfIPtGudw?si=wCcqBe4CTx0c0rML
Many are noting the US Marines would similarly benefit from replacing their Cobra/Supercobra/Viper attack helicopters with something based upon the Valor, but with a swing wing for tighter parking aboard ship. Tripling the range is a very persuasive argument and the Viper has half the combat radius of the Apache, so we’re talking about a sixfold increase in range for the Marines.
it’s very exciting the Army got this one right. Very cool machine.
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