Pictured is a Bell photo of the company’s V-280 Valor, the basis for the Army’s future MV-75.Rolls-Royce‘s testing of the AE 1107F engine for the U.S. Army MV-75 Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) has begun in Indianapolis, the company said on Dec. 16.
The MV-75 by Textron, Inc.‘s Bell is to carry two AE 1107Fs.
Rolls-Royce said that the “advanced manufacturing facility” in Indianapolis is the company’s largest in the U.S. and that Rolls-Royce “has invested more than $1 billion in technology enhancements, facility upgrades and test capabilities over the past decade to support U.S. Department of Defense programs like the MV-75 FLRAA.”
The Army wants to make an early production decision on the MV-75 in fiscal year 2028–a year earlier than originally planned.
The AE 1107F is the newest in the AE line of engines, which have “more than 90 million flight hours across 16 commercial and military platforms,” Rolls-Royce said on Dec. 16. “AE engines share a common core, with 80 percent commonality across the engine family.”
The AE series includes the AE 1107C on the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force V-22 tiltrotor by a Bell-Boeing team, and the marinized MT7 engine for the Navy’s Ship-to-Shore Connector landing craft by Textron.
Unlike the V-22, which features tilting engine nacelles, the MV-22 is to have fixed engines and tilting proprotors.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.