Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company, and Lockheed Martin will work as a team on the Bell V-280 Valor™, making Lockheed Martin the first of Bell Helicopter's V-280 program tier one team members. Additional team members will be announced in the coming months.

"We are very excited about teaming with Lockheed Martin on the V-280,” said John Garrison, president and CEO of Bell Helicopter. "Lockheed Martin is a premier defense and aerospace contracting company celebrating 100 years of success. Their experience and innovation, combined with their strong business relationships serving their customers at the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies, will help us provide the highest levels of maturity and technical readiness required for Future Vertical Lift missions.”

“We made the strategic decision to invest in a mission system and provide Bell Helicopter with this leap-ahead combat capability on the V-280 Valor,” said Dale P. Bennett, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training. “The U.S. Government and Lockheed Martin have created affordable yet highly-advanced mission equipment packages for numerous aircraft that can be leveraged to provide an affordable and effective solution for the Future Vertical Lift program. Our efforts will allow the U.S. Army to take advantage of the advanced technology and maturity we've achieved in integrated avionics, sensors, and weapons.”

The Bell V-280 Valor was recently selected by the U.S. Army to enter into negotiations for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Technology Demonstrator (TD) program, with contracts expected to be awarded by September 2013. The transformational features of Bell Helicopter's third generation tiltrotor capitalize on combat-proven technology. The Valor is designed to deliver the best value in procurement, operations and support, and force structure, through increased maintainability, component reliability and systems designed to reduce operational and support costs. The Valor's versatile design has the capacity to perform a multitude of missions with unparalleled speed, range and agility, making the aircraft a combat multiplier. The Bell V-280 is the most advanced and operationally effective vertical lift solution, providing the warfighter a decisive advantage.