Bell shows what the MV-75 Cheyenne II will look like in action and its special operations version

This week we have news about the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor, the replacement for the UH-60 Black Hawk in the US Army.

The pros and cons of the MV-75, the UH-60 Black Hawk's replacement in the US Army
The US Army already has a replacement for the UH-60 Black Hawk: the Bell V-280 Valor

In May 2025, the US Army decided to designate the V-280 as the MV-75. The M is assigned to multi-purpose aircraft and the V to tiltrotor aircraft. The 75 is an allusion to the year the U.S. Army was founded, 1775. Yesterday, the U.S. Army announced that the MV-75's nickname will be "Cheyenne II", continuing its tradition of naming its helicopters after Native American tribes. The U.S. Army released this video to announce it:

Breaking: The U.S. Army has officially named its next-generation MV-75 Future Long Range Assault Aircraft the "Cheyenne II." Announced today at the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual conference, this advanced aircraft marks a new era in technology and capability." pic.twitter.com/DzYHvDkQK5

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) April 15, 2026

The name “Cheyenne II” was chosen in reference to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne, an attack helicopter of which 10 prototypes were built. The AH-56 made its maiden flight on September 21, 1967, and competed with the AH-64 Apache, but the program was canceled in 1972.

Today, Bell released a computer-animated video showing what the MV-75 Cheyenne II will look like in action. The U.S. company has noted that the name was chosen as “a tribute to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes known for adaptability, endurance and a fierce warrior ethos. The MV-75 Cheyenne II reflects these traits as it transforms battlefield geometry and accelerates the Army’s next generation of capability.”

In the video, we can see different variants of the MV-75. Below, we can see the basic version, which will likely be designated as the MV-75A, a multi-mission aircraft used primarily for troop and cargo transport, the same missions currently carried out by its predecessor, the UH-60, to which it bears a striking resemblance despite being two very different aircraft.

We also see the MV-75 as a platform for Air-Launched Effects (ALE), the name the U.S. Army gives to a family of small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that are autonomous or semi-autonomous and used in various missions: surveillance, target tracking, jamming, communications, and attack. In the image, we see four ALE launch tubes on the port side of the MV-75 and what appears to be an UAS Anduril/Area-I ALTIUS-600 already in flight.

Bell's video also shows the medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) version of the MV-75. We can see various sensors on the nose of the aircraft. According to @airsuperiorx, these would be a DVEPS, a Limited Interim Missile Warning System (LIMWS), a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), and an L3Wescam MX-15D electro-optical system (the spherical-shaped display).

In the final part of the video, we see what would be the special operations version, designed for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) 160th SOAR “Night Stalkers” of the U.S. Army, which provides transport to various units under the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), such as the Navy SEALs and Delta Force. Recall that the MV-75 will replace part of the U.S. Army’s UH-60 fleet, including some of the Night Stalkers’ MH-60s, an upgraded version of the Black Hawk built to meet the requirements of the 160th SOAR.

On the nose of the aircraft, we can see the characteristic sensors of the current Night Stalkers aircraft, as well as a refueling probe on the starboard side. An important new feature of the MV-75 for special operations is that it will have a retractable refueling probe, as we can see in the video. Here we see the probe folded up:

And here we see it unfolded:

The video also shows an in-flight refueling operation involving a Boeing MQ-25 Stingray, an unmanned aircraft initially designed for the U.S. Navy as a stealth attack aircraft. In 2012, its mission was changed to reconnaissance, and it was ultimately designated as an in-flight refueling platform in 2016. In 2021, the MQ-25 was the star of the first in-flight refueling from a drone to a manned aircraft, specifically a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet.