Tiltrotor: The need for speed & range in response to global threats

The United States (U.S.) Army recently decided to modernize its medium vertical lift fleet with the selection of Bell’s V-280 Valor, a next generation tiltrotor incorporating over 70 years of experience and nearly 800,000 operating hours with tiltrotor. The U.S. Army was part of early tiltrotor developmental programs but decided it was not the right solution at the time. The time is now for the U.S. Army, as witnessed by its approval of the FLRAA Milestone B Acquisition Decision Memorandum. This next generation weapon system is a leap in technology, flying at twice the range and twice the speed of current U.S. Army assets and includes a modular open system approach (MOSA) giving it unmatched flexibility for future mission scenarios. It will lead to a significant revolution in how the U.S. Army conducts missions, enhance its global responsiveness, and reduce deployment timelines and complexity. It will also outpace any vertical lift capabilities of the U.S. Army’s allies and partners.

The tiltrotor provides the combination of range, speed, and payload of an airplane, while combining the runway independent characteristics of a helicopter. It can deploy by, and operate from, naval vessels, and is fully capable of self-deployment. It also gives the commander a wide range of flexibility since there is reduced reliance on infrastructure and can be deployed to the point of need in a short period of time, as well as to austere and remote locations from which forces would not normally operate. Such a capability is well placed for operations in locations such as the Indo-Pacific, the Arctic, Europe, and the Mediterranean with reach into the Sahel and the Middle East.

With its range and speed, the tiltrotor enables operations from a point of relative sanctuary in dispersed locations, safe from most long-range fires and threats that make current assets vulnerable. This is critical in today’s operational environment where ISR is pervasive, and surprise is elusive. Dispersion enables the commander to think differently and to employ forces from multiple locations and converge on the objective – operational flexibility. This is revolutionary maneuver. It’s about surprise and initiative, and the ability to move people and material flexibly around the battlefield. The U.S. Army has begun the process to redefine its doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures as it prepares to field its own tiltrotor capability. The result will enable commanders to do things much differently than in the past, enabling them to think and operate differently, to get inside of adversaries’ decision cycle. It will lead to expanded strategic choices and enhanced competitive advantages.

It is also going to have an impact on when, how, and if the U.S. Army operates with its allies and partners unless they jump on the leap-in-capability bandwagon.

Why It Matters

In the Pacific, the United States and its allies and partners may need to compete with increasingly capable peer and near-peer competitors, leading to changes in operational approaches. This includes potentially operating from dispersed locations over vast distances. In Europe, NATO’s eastern flank includes battle groups from Estonia down to Bulgaria and crosses multiple borders; reinforcing them in a crisis will be challenging. NATO’s border with Russia has doubled since Finland joined the Alliance. The Mediterranean also creates distance challenges that expand into the Sahel and the Middle East.

The tiltrotor changes the geometry of the battlefield. It provides the operational reach, responsiveness, and flexibility to the commander to employ forces at distance, speed, and minimize risk. It increases the depth from which maritime and marine forces can conduct littoral operations. It creates strategic unpredictability, offers operational flexibility, and creates decision dilemmas for the adversary, enhancing the overall deterrence value. Its leap-ahead capability is well-suited for the increased complexity in today and tomorrow’s global operating environment.

However, the tiltrotor’s improved mission performance creates a capability gap between the U.S. Army and its allies and partners, one that cannot be completely bridged with existing technologies.
Interoperability has been a key focus among both NATO and non-NATO allies for years. While platforms may have been different – such as the U.S.-made Abrams tank and the German-made Leopard tank – they had similar capabilities and allies developed similar tactics that enabled them to operate together. The tiltrotor is such a significant leap in capability that there are limited ways to integrate allied and partner nation assets. Tactics possibly could be adapted to enable some level of integration, but that is likely to create unnecessary risk for the commander and to the forces operating legacy or less-than-capable assets. This capability gap will increase the burden on U.S. forces and increase the overall operational risk.

There is, however, an opportunity to mitigate this imminent capability gap. Many Allies and partners are approaching a window to modernize medium vertical lift fleets. At the same time, there is an increased focus on defense and associated budgets. This confluence of aging fleets and rising budgets creates an opportunity for allies and partners to keep pace with the U.S. Army as it makes the capability leap with a tiltrotor. Given increasing competition in the Pacific and the pace of capability development among peer and near-peer competitors, expanding the pool of tiltrotor operators enables interoperability among the joint force. It also enhances the prospects for interchangeability – a growing buzzword in NATO and like-minded allied circles related to interoperability that highlights, inter alia, the ability to apply common sustainment practices and pooling and sharing of supply chains and logistics. It additionally could create savings over the long term in acquisition and sustainment costs.

The United States and its allies and partners have acknowledged that no single nation can win the next major conflict alone. The coalitions of the willing must be supplanted by the coalitions of necessity to confront adversaries’ vast and growing capabilities. Tiltrotors have already revolutionized the way the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force Special Operations operate, and the U.S. Navy has revolutionized the way it operates with the recent introduction of tiltrotor and continues to expand its application. As the U.S. Army begins fielding a tiltrotor, air assault missions as we have known them, and other applications yet to be discovered, will change significantly. If the U.S. Army wants to maintain the competitive edge over its adversaries, it needs its allies and partners. The Honorable Doug Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, noted in 2022, “Technological cooperation. . .improves our ability to collectively modernize and increase interoperability ensuring we can train and fight alongside our allies and partners more effectively and efficiently.” The U.S. Army’s allies and partners need to take note and ensure that they are not left behind as it fields an advanced tiltrotor, and work with the U.S. Army as it creates the conditions to make that possible.