Bell Is Selling Simplicity with a New Special Mission Helicopter for Military Customers Who Don’t Need Exquisite Solutions

Bell publicly unveiled its 407M special mission helicopter at the Army Aviation Association of America Mission Solutions Summit last week. It’s hoping to sell the versatile, familiar platform to countries who don’t need the bells and whistles more ambitious helicopters like those competing for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft have for a variety of military missions.

Derived from Bell’s iconic 206 – a five-and-a-half decade old design that has served military and civilian users worldwide – the 407M can perform light attack, special operations, anti-piracy and armed reconnaissance missions.

“We are thrilled to be able to showcase the 407M in a configuration that can be an optimal solution for many,” said Brian Vollmer, special mission aircraft program manager. “Many of the military operating environments around the world require an option in-between pure military and commercial platforms, and special mission aircraft can support that flexibility.”

The special mission 407 can be equipped with the latest commercial avionics, flexible mission systems and an interchangeable menu of armaments for attack and surveillance tasks or with equipment for medical evacuation, combat search and rescue, and humanitarian aid disaster relief.

Bell says the various levels of capability are available through the foreign military sales program or direct commercial sales, depending on country requirements.

“When you look at the market of fielded systems and how current sanctions may limit parts availability, there is a need for affected countries to act quickly to avoid a capability gap when parts are no longer available for their existing platforms,” Vollmer explained.

Joe Priester, a former U.S. Army attack helicopter pilot with more than 3,300 flight in hours in the OH-58D (another derivative of the Bell 206 which served the Army from the mid-1980s through 2017) who’s also flown the civilian versions of the 407 and 206 says the 407M is well suited to the markets Bell is targeting.

“I’ve flown eight different helicopters and the 407 is far and away the best single aircraft you could use for an almost unlimited range of missions,” Priester maintains.

“You can change it or make it into whatever you need it to be with minimal effort and minimal cost.”

The jack of all trades nature of the 407M is complimented by the common elements it shares with its 206 and 407 cousins in military and commercial service. That familiarity, Priester says, should aid pilots transitioning to the 407M and make them effective operating it in relatively swift fashion.

“Training will take minimal time,” he opines. “That’s one thing Bell has done really well with the 206 and the 407 airframes. They’re so similar. The cockpit layout, the similarities in the engines. You can go from one to another and fly them with no problems. And if you did have a problem, you’d be able to execute an emergency procedure going from one to the other that was really, mostly the same.”

Training with a new but familiar, comparatively simple helicopter should help users maintain competency at a time when flying hours are expensive and alarmingly under-funded – even in America’s military.

On Friday, Army Chief of Staff, General James McConville, ordered a safety training pause for all “non-essential flights” after the second midair collision between the service’s helicopters in a month. Army pilots are flying fewer hours than required for proficiency and being promoted to pilot-in-command with as few as half the hours required in the past for the qualification.

Priester thinks the 407’s robust design and the wide availability of parts for it should help keep it airborne more regularly than many contemporary helicopters.

“There’s not a doubt in mind that its operational availability will exceed just about any other helicopter,” he affirms.

“I’m sure it has a lot of the same simplicity as the Kiowa Warrior and I’m certain they’ve taken a lot from the OH-58 and the [ARH-70] Arapaho. I’m sure it will do the missions they’re aiming for excellently.”