Iran protests as Trump announces ‘Project Freedom’ to escort stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz.
Published On 4 May 20264 May 2026
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The Zion Phelps story is going to be told over and over at Loyola High to show students what can happen when someone discovers potential and decides to take a chance to bring it out.
In his first year running track after bragging during the football season that he was the fastest student at Loyola, Phelps proved on Thursday he’s also the fastest 100-meter runner in the Mission League by winning in a school-record time of 10.49 seconds at the Mission League finals at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
“I’m beyond grateful,” he said after embracing Loyola coach Sharaud Moore.
A junior defensive back, Phelps let Moore bring out his track talent, and now he has options in track and football.
Loyola’s Ejam Johannes offers the “shoosh” sign after anchoring the winning 4×100 relay team. He also won the Mission League 400 and 200 titles.
(Craig Weston)
Another Loyola athlete stepping forward in preparation for next weekend’s Southern Section Division 1 prelims was Ejam Yohannes. He ran anchor leg for the 4×100-meter relay team that beat Notre Dame for the first time in three years with a time of 40.75. At the finish, he put a finger over his lips and gave a “shoosh” sign. He also won the 400 meters in 47.05 and the 200 meters in 20.85, the fourth-best wind legal time in the state this year.
Notre Dame’s JJ Harel qualified in three events — going 6 feet, 10 inches in the high jump, 22-5¼ in the long jump and also qualifying in the triple jump.
The strangest moment of the day came in the Mission League 100 girls’ final. Nalia Keyes of Chaminade and Maya Rios of Bishop Alemany tied for first place, each finishing with a time of 12.46.
“It’s weird,” Rios said of her first ever race tie.
In the Marmonte League final, Demare Dezeurn of Westlake ran the 100 meters in 10.39 seconds to outduel Jaden Griffin of Newbury Park (10.50) and Kingston Celifie of Calabasas (10.56). Dezeurn played football for Palisades in the fall after transferring from Bishop Alemany last season.
Sylmar 10, Kennedy 0: Rickee Luevano hit a grand slam for Sylmar.
Westlake 10, Newbury Park 3: Dylan Lee homered and Holden Backus had two hits and three RBIs.
Bishop Amat 3, La Serna 2: Ray Castro threw six innings and also had an RBI single.
Temecula Valley 3, Vista Murrieta 1: Grayson Martin gave up one hit and struck out seven in six innings.
Oaks Christian 17, Calabasas 8: Ryan Sheffer hit two home runs and finished with four RBIs.
Garden Grove Pacifica 4, Cypress 1: Jenna Valladares had an RBI triple and Shay Kletke threw a complete game.
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 16, Louisville 0: Jackie Morales had three hits and six RBIs.
Harvard-Westlake 14, Chaminade 11: It was a wild Mission League game that ended on a walk-off grand slam by Kale’a Tindal in the bottom of the ninth inning. Chaminade scored five runs in the seventh to tie the score 9-9. Both teams scored runs in the eighth to make it 10-10. Chaminade took an 11-10 lead in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Siena Greenlinger. Tindal finished with four hits and four RBIs. Dylan Fischer had a home run, two doubles, a single and four RBIs.
Murrieta Mesa 8, Great Oak 0: Tatum Wolff threw six innings, striking out 10 and walking none. She also hit a home run.
Maybe Tom Cruise will make a visit to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame on Thursday for the Mission League track and field finals since he’s the one who said in his 1986 movie, “Top Gun,” that he feels “the need for speed.”
There will be no lacking in speed for the 100 meters, where there are so many runners who have run under 11 seconds this season that a second 100 final could be run if needed. Zion Phelps of Loyola has the fastest time at 10.39. Quincy Hearn of Notre Dame is at 10.52. Jayden Davis of Loyola has run 10.57. And there’s a freshman at Harvard-Westlake, Calvin Portley, who ran 10.69 at Monday’s prelims.
The 4×100 relay also should be outstanding, matching Notre Dame and Loyola. The Notre Dame quartet of Nikko Petronicolos, Quincy Hearn, Beckham Borquez and Emmanuel Pullins has run 40.76. Loyola has a time of 40.73.
Borquez is also a top hurdler and defending state champion JJ Harel of Notre Dame will be in the high jump. Ejam Yohannes of Loyola is one of the favorites to win a state title in the 400.
League finals are scheduled all week, with the Trinity League finals on Friday at 6 p.m. at JSerra.
Southern Section prelims will be held next weekend, followed by the finals on May 16 at Moorpark High.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com
WASHINGTON — Two and a half centuries after the American colonies declared independence from Britain under King George III, his descendant King Charles III lands in Washington on Monday with trans-Atlantic ties under strain and security in the spotlight.
A shooting at a Washington dinner attended by President Trump on Saturday sparked a last-minute security review of the four-day state visit, intended to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, and the U.S.-U.K. “special relationship.”
Buckingham Palace said the king “is greatly relieved to hear that the president, first lady and all guests have been unharmed.” After a security review, the palace said the trip “will proceed as planned.”
A rift between the U.K. government and Trump over issues including the Iran war had already raised the political stakes for the British monarch’s visit.
In recent weeks, Trump has lambasted Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his unwillingness to join U.S. military attacks on Iran, dismissing Britain’s leader as “not Winston Churchill,” the World War II prime minister who coined the phrase “special relationship” for the U.K.-U.S. bond.
It’s part of a wider rift between Trump and the United States’ NATO allies, whom he has called “cowards” and “useless” for not joining action against Iran. A leaked Pentagon email suggested the U.S. could reassess support for the U.K.’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic. Britain and Argentina fought a 1982 war over the islands, also known as the Islas Malvinas.
The president insists the political chill won’t affect the royal visit. Charles “has nothing to do with that,” Trump said in March, meaning NATO.
The president has spoken in glowing terms about Charles, repeatedly referring to the monarch as his “friend” and a “great guy.”
He also continues to mention his “amazing” trip to the U.K. in September with first lady Melania Trump for an unprecedented second state visit. Starmer hand-delivered the invitation from the king in the Oval Office five weeks after Trump returned to office, in a very public attempt to woo the Republican president.
The U.K. royal family laid on pomp and pageantry for the Trumps, with scarlet-clad guardsmen, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet at Windsor Castle.
“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic visit to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Associated Press. “The president looks forward to a special visit by Their Majesties, which will include a beautiful state dinner and multiple events throughout the week.”
Trump, meanwhile, told the BBC that the king’s visit could “absolutely” help repair the trans-Atlantic relationship.
“He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes,” the president said.
Kristofer Allerfeldt, a University of Exeter professor specializing in American history, said the two governments have very different objectives for the trip.
He said that for Charles, the trip is about “reinforcing long-term ties, showcasing the monarchy’s soft power and reminding the world that Britain still carries diplomatic weight.”
For Trump, it’s more about “a media event,” with emphasis on the optics of a visit that resembles a meeting of “two gilded monarchs.”
Some U.K. politicians worry that the trip is fraught with opportunities for embarrassment. Trump’s recent broadsides at Pope Leo XIV have heightened those concerns.
Ed Davey, leader of the U.K. centrist opposition Liberal Democrats party, earlier this month called Trump “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” and implored the government to cancel the trip.
“I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,” Davey said in the House of Commons. “We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”
Starmer defended the visit, saying “the monarchy, through the bonds that it builds, is often able to reach through the decades” and bolster important relationships.
Raising the stakes is the shadow of the king’s younger brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has been stripped of his royal title of Prince Andrew, exiled from public life and put under police investigation over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. He has denied committing any crimes.
Epstein victims have urged the king to meet with them and other sexual abuse survivors. It’s unlikely he will do so.
Charles has visited the U.S. 19 times, but this is his first state visit to the country since becoming king in 2022. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made four state visits to the U.S.
The king, who is 77 and was diagnosed in early 2024 with an undisclosed form of cancer, will spend four days in the U.S. accompanied by Queen Camilla.
In Washington, the king and queen will have a private tea with the Trumps and attend a garden party and a formal White House state dinner. The president and the king will also have a one-on-one meeting.
The royal couple will also visit the Sept. 11 memorial in New York and attend a 250th birthday block party in Virginia, where Charles will also meet Indigenous leaders involved in nature conservation — a favorite cause of the environmentalist king.
Three centuries after Britain’s kings and queens gave up any real political power, the royals remain symbols of soft power, deployed by elected governments to smooth international relationships and send messages about what the U.K. considers important.
A key moment will be the king’s speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. It’s only the second time, after Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, that a U.K. monarch has addressed a joint meeting of both houses.
Elizabeth praised liberalism on that trip, spoke against the idea that “power grows from the barrel of a gun” and praised the “rich ethnic and cultural diversity of both our societies.”
The king’s treasured causes, including the environment and harmony among religious faiths, are in contrast to Trump’s. He’s unlikely to accentuate differences, but Allerfeldt said that, in the monarch’s subtle way, the king could use his speech to send a message.
“He does have an unorthodox way of looking at the world, and I think maybe he can actually have something valid to say when he addresses Congress,” Allerfeldt said.
Superville and Lawless write for the Associated Press. Jill Lawless reported from London.
Five years ago, longtime baseball coach Joe Cascione left coaching the sport to start a women’s tennis team at Mission College.
On Wednesday, Mission College won the state women’s tennis championship armed with local players from Kennedy, Granada Hills, Sylmar and Birmingham high schools, among others.
It’s quite an achievement to win it all with local athletes.
Key contributors included Amy Nghiem, Priscilla Grinner and America Fragoso from Granada Hills; Jaelyn Rivera from Birmingham; Josilyn Rivera and Natalia Ponce from Kennedy; Alitzel Ortega Partida from Golden Valley; Genesis Nochez from West Ranch and Kristen Bonzon from Sylmar.
Cascione singled out his players for their passion and commitment.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sylmar coach Ray Rivera is smiling. His favorite major league team, the San Francisco Giants, beat the Dodgers twice this week with great pitching. And his favorite high school team, the Spartans, swept a two-game series from Sun Valley Poly with their own great pitching to move three games up in the Valley Mission League race with four to play.
Sylmar pitchers gave up no runs in 14 innings this week. After Matthew Torres threw a no-hitter on Monday against Poly, Alex Martinez took the ball Thursday and recorded six shutout innings in a 10-0 win over the Parrots. He gave up three hits and struck out five.
Tim Sepulveda finished with three hits. Sylmar is 17-6 and 10-1 in league.
Verdugo Hills 10, San Fernando 4: Anthony Velasquez had a two-run double and finished with three RBIs for the Dons.
El Camino Real 5, Chatsworth 1: Ryan Glassman had two hits and two RBIs and Shane Bogacz finished with two hits, including an RBI double, for El Camino Real. Hudson December gave up one hit in five innings.
Taft 5, Cleveland 2: Victor Jara had a two-run single to lead the Toreadors.
Bell 3, Garfield 1: Jayden Rojas struck out six in six innings. He also had two hits.
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 8, Sierra. Canyon 5: The Knights ended a six-game losing streak. Jake Noroian had three hits and Jacob Madrid homered.
Alta Loma 2, South Hills 0: Logan Stein threw a one-hit shutout.
Thousand Oaks 4, Westlake 3: Preston Lee contributed an RBI single to break a 3-3 tie in the seventh and lift Thousand Oaks to victory.
Oaks Christian 6, Agoura 5: The Lions scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win. Ryan Sheffer tied it with an RBI single and KJ Henrich won it with an RBI single. Carson Sheffer finished with two doubles. Tyler Starling homered for Agoura.
Villa Park 4, La Serna 0: Logan Hoppie struck out six and gave up two hits in six innings.
Aliso Niguel 3, San Clemente 1: Chad Alderman threw a complete game and Henry Drews had three hits.
Anaheim Canyon 4, Garden Grove Pacifica 1: Kelsey Perez struck out 11 for Canyon.
Carson 4, San Pedro 3: Ashannalee Titialii had two hits and Simi Mafoe homered for Carson.
Chaminade 7, Sierra Canyon 4: Siena Greenlinger had two hits and two RBIs.
It’s not every day that umpires decide a player used an illegal bat in a high school baseball game, so Wednesday’s Mission League game between host Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Sierra Canyon began with a bang. A Sierra Canyon batter in the first inning was declared out after the umpires inspected the aluminum bat following an appeal from Notre Dame.
Sierra Canyon coach Tom Meusborn had a brief discussion with the umpires but their decision was not reversed. The bat apparently had a crack, which caused a strange sound. So began a sometimes tense, nearly four-hour game for second place in the Mission League.
Sierra Canyon scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a one-run lead, keyed by an RBI double from Brayden Goldstein and a bases loaded walk. In the bottom of the seventh, the Knights received two walks with one out. Sierra Canyon brought in sophomore pitcher Milo Benattar, who got a fly out and force play to save a 3-2 victory.
Sierra Canyon is 8-3 in league and Notre Dame 7-4.
It’s the first inning. 20 minutes have passed and now the umpires call out Sierra Canyon batter for using illegal bat. Never a boring a day in Mission League. pic.twitter.com/baEJB95FwW
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) April 22, 2026
Harvard-Westlake 12, St. Francis 1: The Wolverines, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section power rankings, received home runs and four RBIs each from James Tronstein and Ira Rootman. Evan Alexander struck out 10 in 4 1/3 innings.
Chaminade 7, Crespi 0: Jackson Schroeder struck out 11 and gave up one hit. Isaiah Hearn and Robby Morgan each hit home runs.
Loyola 11, Bishop Alemany 4: Bobby Rapp had three hits to lead the Cubs.
Simi Valley 8, Royal 3: The Pioneers handed their rivals a first Coastal Canyon League defeat. Ryan Whiston had three hits, including two doubles.
Garfield 3, Bell 1: The Bulldogs improved to 7-0 in the Eastern League with a nine-inning win, possibly locking up a City Section Open Division playoff spot. Michael Santillan broke the 1-1 tie with an RBI single in the ninth.
Cypress 1, Foothill 0: Jake DeLaquil had the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning. Drew Slevcove struck out 13 in eight scoreless innings. Landon Smith pitched the final two innings for Cypress. Caden Lauridsen threw nine scoreless innings for Foothill.
St. John Bosco 6, Servite 3: Brayden Krakowski threw four innings of scoreless relief. Aaron Garcia had two RBIs.
Mater Dei 8, JSerra 5: Jack Reis hit a home run and Ezekiel Lara, Jaxon Olmstead and Emilio Young each had two hits for Mater Dei.
King 4, Corona Centennial 1: Eli Lipson had a two-run double and Jason Jones threw a complete game.
Corona 17, Eastvale Roosevelt 5: Adrian Ruiz had three hits and four RBIs.
Norco 3, Corona Santiago 2: After a scoreless game for five innings, Norco broke through for three runs in the sixth. Marcus Blanton had a two-run single. Santiago scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh before Jordan Ayala got the final out on a strikeout.
El Dorado 1, La Habra 0: Juilian Rodriguez struck out five and walked none in throwing the shutout. Brady Abner drove in the winning run in the sixth.
Gahr 9, Warren 1: Bryce Morrison gave up one run in five innings with six strikeouts and Andres Gonzalez had two hits and three RBIs.
San Clemente 2, Aliso Niguel 1: Easton Muraira threw a complete game for the Tritons.
Huntington Beach 4, Los Alamitos 2: Jared Grindlinger struck out eight in five innings.
Rancho Christian 10, Hillcrest 0: Jake Brande struck out 12 in five innings and gave up one hit. Hudson Abbe and Sean Downs each hit home runs.
Bishop Amat 4, La Salle 2: The Lancers clinched the Del Rey League title. Joaquin Ortiz went three for three.
Ayala 13, Diamond Bar 3: Easton Sarmiento finished with three hits and Dylan Wood added two hits and two RBIs.
Oaks Christian 2, Agoura 1: Justin Baird struck out eight in six innings for Oaks Christian. Carson Sheffer had two hits.
Mira Costa 7, West Torrance 1: Caden Ceman finished with three hits.
Torrance 4, Palos Verdes 3: Tessei Magori delivered a walk-off hit in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Norco 15, Corona Centennial 0: Peyton May gave up one hit and struck out 10 with no walks and Camryn May contributed three RBIs.
TWZ got a personal tour of a U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopter by its pilot during the Dubai Air Show in November 2025. Sikorsky has built more than 5,000 examples of the Hawk family of helicopters for 36 nations worldwide. Together they’ve racked up more than 15 million flight hours, including five million in combat.
The UH-60M Black Hawk has a maximum gross weight of 22,000 pounds (9,979 kg) and can transport 12 fully-equipped troops (seated). The variant has also been missionized for various roles, including for U.S. special forces as the MH-60M.
Whether used by the National Guard to respond to disasters, delivering humanitarian aid across Europe, supporting relief operations in the Philippines, battling wildfires in the Firehawk version, or hoisting stranded hikers, the Black Hawk is a truly versatile multi-mission helicopter.
Sikorsky’s Black Hawk modernization efforts will enable more power, greater payload and extended range while reducing fuel consumption.
Furthermore, with a digital Modular Open-System Approach and autonomy for unmanned operations in its new U-Hawk variant, the Black Hawk will be able to support fast capability integration and enhanced survivability through uncrewed battlefield operations.
Check out the full walk-around video below:
U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk Tour And Mission Brief With Its Pilots
Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Bottom line: The MV-75A Cheyenne II’s modular design allows for flexible mission configurations, enhancing operational capabilities and streamlining acquisition. This adaptability supports rapid reconfiguration for MEDEVAC missions, offering significant flexibility over existing ‘dustoff’ Black Hawks.
U.S. Army officials say the modular design of the service’s new MV-75A Cheyenne II tiltrotor will make it easier to reconfigure baseline versions for the medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) mission. This also means that the aircraft can be readily restored to a configuration optimized for the air assaults. The Army currently operates HH-60 Black Hawk MEDEVAC helicopters purpose-built for this role. The service says the Cheyenne II will give commanders in the field important new flexibility, as well as help streamline the acquisition and fielding of the tiltrotors.
Army officials have touted the MV-75’s modularity in the context of the MEDEVAC role, also commonly referred to as the “dustoff” mission, on several occasions this week at the Army Aviation Association of America’s (AAAA) 2026 Warfighting Summit. TWZ has been in attendance at the conference, which wraps up today.
The Army plans to supplant a significant portion of its existing H-60 Black Hawk helicopters with MV-75s in the coming years. A subset of the service’s current Black Hawk fleet consists of the aforementioned HH-60 variants outfitted for the MEDEVAC role. Standard UH-60 transports can also be used to retrieve casualties, but are not equipped with the same array of specialized features found on the “dustoff” variants, which you can read more about here.
There are also plans for a special operations-specific configuration of the Cheyenne II, which TWZ has already explored separately.
The “MV-75, as I mentioned, that’s our signature system. Unmatched range. Unmatched speed. Unmatched mission flexibility,” Army Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, the Program Acquisition Executive for Maneuver Air, told attendees at AAAA on Wednesday. “We’re going to build a modular aircraft that we can use for multiple purposes. So it’s going to have a capability that we can put a MEDEVAC ‘plug’ into it, and generate medical capability for the warfighter.”
With MV-75, “we’re no longer going to have a purpose-built [MEDEVAC] variant. It’s going to be what we like to call a configuration. No longer is ‘tail number 25’ coming off the product line going to be the special operations variant, or the medical evacuation variant,” Army Maj. Thomas Barth further explained during a panel discussion at AAAA yesterday. “You can input what that is via the A kit, and then a B kit – for MEDEVAC, that being the patient handling system, the sensor, and the hoist.”
Barth is leading the integration of MEDEVAC capabilities onto the Cheyenne II and has personal experience as a “dustoff” helicopter pilot.
It should be noted that Army officials separately said at AAAA this week that they expect all MV-75s to be equipped with a hoist.
At the panel discussion, Barth did not elaborate on the “sensor” that will be included in the MEDEVAC configuration. However, existing Army HH-60s do have a sensor turret under their noses that contains electro-optical and infrared video cameras. This is something not found on the service’s standard UH-60s. Bell, the MV-75’s prime contractor, also released a computer-generated video this week, seen below, which depicts a MEDEVAC version of the Cheyenne II with a sensor turret under the nose. Depictions, at least so far, of the baseline MV-75 configuration do not include this sensor turret.
Meet the Cheyenne II
“Being able to have that capability from the beginning of the platform is going to be great. And I really look at modularity from a tactical perspective for MEDEVAC,” Barth added. “Let’s say I have to provide MEDEVAC, and I have an aircraft or a patient handling system that goes down, but I have an aircraft that has a perfectly good patient handling system in it, but that aircraft’s in maintenance. I can now modularly reconfigure my fleet internally to be able to meet the needs of the commander.”
The MV-75 will also offer a massive leap in capability over existing HH-60s, just on account of its increased speed and range. Those attributes have always been among the most attractive elements of the aircraft, and especially so for the MEDEVAC mission. The time it takes to get casualties, especially ones with very serious injuries, to higher levels of care can easily mean the difference between life and death. Medical professionals regularly use the term “golden hour,” which refers to the first 60 minutes after a serious injury occurs, where the chances of saving that person’s life or otherwise preventing serious permanent damage are highest.
Army officials see the added operational flexibility that the Cheyenne II offers going beyond just the MEDEVAC mission.
“Providing flexibility for the warfighter, and really for the commander, is the most important to us. So the aircraft is modular from birth,” Army Col. Jeffrey Poquette, who is managing the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program under which the MV-75 is being developed, also said, while speaking alongside Barth at AAAA. “The commander can maybe take a day to say we need more MEDEVAC aircraft, or we need more assault aircraft.”
“We’re going to let our land component commanders tell us how much of that [MEDEVAC capacity] they need so they’ve got options,” Maj. Gen. Gill had also said on Wednesday. “Maybe in a defense [sic], they want to maximize MEDEVAC capability, put all the plugs in, go heavy MEDEVAC. If not, if they can strip that out, [and] we’ve got more assault capability. So we’re pretty excited about that.”
All of this does raise personnel, training, and force structure questions, especially when it comes to the MEDEVAC role. The Army currently assigns HH-60s to dedicated air ambulance units. “Dustoff” crews specifically train for this mission set and have developed a relevant institutional knowledge base in the process. The Army has already been exploring how MEDEVAC tactics, techniques, and procedures will adapt to its new tiltrotors using surrogate test articles on the ground.
With the MV-75, “we’re delivering a platform that – it’s an a la carte menu of sorts, and there’s certainly some limitations there,” Army Col. Jacob Whiteside, who was also on the panel alongside Poquette and Barth, said yesterday. “That’s the conversation that we use freely and regularly to make sure that we deliver this flexibility to the warfighter, and that’s our job is to consistently advocate for that.”
Whiteside is currently the Director for Transformation and the Lessons Learned Manager at the Transformation and Integration Directorate within the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence.
As Maj. Barth noted when talking about the A and B kits for the MV-75, the Army also sees the focus on modularity as offering advantages just for acquiring the aircraft in the first place by helping streamline the production line.
“Frankly, this is going to be a very expensive airplane that we’re going to buy, so we can’t have single-purpose aircraft,” Maj. Gen Gill had also said during his talk at AAAA. “So we’re thinking about how we incorporate modularity.”
Gill pointed out at that time that those discussions around modularity are already extending to other capabilities for the MV-75, including aerial refueling. That, in turn, might lead the service to acquire its own fleet of uncrewed tankers, as TWZ has previously reported.
The current estimated unit cost of the MV-75A in any configuration is unclear. We do know that Bell’s winning bid in the FLRAA competition was priced out at just over $8 billion, in total. This was roughly twice the price point for the competing bid from a team made up of Sikorsky and Boeing, which had submitted an advanced compound helicopter design, as you can read more about here.
There are questions now about the Army’s planned schedule for fielding the MV-75, as well as when the first flight of the aircraft will occur. The service has walked back from pronouncements made as recently as January that it would start delivering Cheyenne IIs to operational units next year. Those statements had reflected a larger effort to accelerate the program dramatically.
“It’s going to happen when it’s going to happen. So we are moving as fast as we can,” Army Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, the Program Acquisition Executive for Maneuver Air, had said. “If I was king, and I had all the money in the world and all the engineers, and there were no limits, we probably would be able to do it in a matter of months.”
Regardless of when the first operational aircraft arrive, the Army’s clear goal is to leverage the aircraft’s modular design to begin integrating the MEDEVAC capability into the fleet in short order thereafter.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com