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The Pentagon, two days before the fiscal year ended, applied $200 million in reprogramming funding for the Bell MV-75 program as Textron was forced to spend internal funds to keep the U.S. Army tiltrotor program moving.
The program faced a stop work order in July as funding ran out, and the Pentagon the same month requested approximately $230 million in fiscal 2026 funds to be applied to the program. In a Sept. 28 notice recently published by the Pentagon, the department writes that though the $230 million was approved in July, “Insufficient resources were approved to finance the requirement.”
As a result, $200.246 million was reprogrammed to the Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft Development account, bringing the year’s total to $1.422 billion. The Pentagon said funds were required to continue development, testing and building eight MV-75 prototypes in preparation for production in fiscal 2028. The program is expected to complete critical design review in fiscal 2026.
The program faced cost increases from the prime vendor and critical suppliers.
With an impending stop work order, Textron CEO Lisa Atherton said in a July earnings call that the company would self-finance certain parts of the aircraft to keep it on schedule.
“We’ve made the determination that it really is in the best interest of the overall long-term health of the program for us to continue forward,” Atherton said at the time.
Chief Financial Officer Dave Rosenberg said during the call that absent reprogramming, the company faced reduced full-year results of 20-30 cents per share and a potential cash impact of $150 million to $250 million.
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