The name reveal comes as manufacturer Bell is working to deliver the first of six MV-75 test aircraft that will launch the army’s tiltrotor fielding programme.
The US Army has revealed the name of the service’s new tiltrotor aircraft, calling it the Cheyenne II.
Speaking at the annual Army Aviation Association of America conference – also known as Quad A – in Nashville on 15 April, senior army officials confirmed the designation of the Bell MV-75 tiltrotor, a nod to the Vietnam-era Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne.
The choice of MV-75 as the new tiltrotor’s type series designation was revealed last year at the 2025 Quad A conference. The name Cheyenne name continues a nearly 80-year army tradition of naming rotary-wing aircraft after one of the indigenous tribes of North America.
“With the MV-75 we honour a legacy, forged by conflict, proven in battle, originally known to the US Army as some of the most formidable and disciplined adversaries on the battlefield,” under secretary of the army Mike Obadal said from Nashville.
Army programme officials say more than 500 tribes were considered for the MV-75’s popular name, with the service seeking a group that typified the characteristics of speed, range, adaptability and self-deployability that are central to the tiltrotor fielding.
“The Cheyenne tribes represent a resilient warrior culture and embodies the key attributes of the MV-75,” says Brent Ingraham, acquisition executive for the US Army.
Meanwhile, the selection of “75” for the type series is a reference to the US Army’s founding in 1775.
The army’s first Cheyenne rotorcraft was the Lockheed AH-56 – envisioned as the service’s first dedicated attack helicopter and ordered as a prototype in 1966. However, the programme was cancelled in 1972 due to development challenges and combat successes with the existing Bell AH-1 Cobra.
Colonel Jeffrey Poquette, the army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft project manager, describes the original Cheyenne helicopter as a “bold vision” and says development of the Cheyenne II “signals a decisive step forward for army aviation.”
Bell tells FlightGlobal it continues to make steady progress toward delivering the first MV-75 test aircraft. The first tiltrotor fuselage is undergoing assembly in Wichita, Kansas, while wing sections are being fabricated in Amarillo, Texas, where final assembly will take place.
The first MV-75 wing assembly was completed several weeks ago, according to Ryan Ehinger, Bell’s programme director for the army tiltrotor.
“We are accelerating assembly and production to deliver the MV-75 capability to warfighters faster,” Ehinger says.
Bell is currently working on the third such wing section in support of the six aircraft that will make up the test fleet.
After undergoing final assembly, there will be a lengthy ground testing campaign for the Cheyenne II, followed by a first flight – expected sometime over the next two years.
Bell tells FlightGlobal it remains on track to meet the army’s stated goal of fielding operational MV-75s to frontline combat units by 2030.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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