PHASE 3.0 MOVES SPINE FROM PROTOTYPE TO FLEET MODIFICATION

Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. company, has announced an estimated $300 million contract from the Department of the Navy covering Structural and Power Improvements for NextGen Effects — SPINE — upgrades on up to 49 US Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom aircraft. The award is structured as a firm-fixed-price, fixed-price incentive and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with a base period plus three option years. Known as Phase 3.0, the contract covers 49 aircraft comprising 21 UH-1Y and 28 AH-1Z airframes, with work to be performed at the Bell Amarillo Assembly Center beginning in mid-2027 and first deliveries of upgraded H-1 units in 2028.

The award represents the transition of SPINE from demonstration to production modification. In autumn 2025 Bell completed the first SPINE upgrade on one UH-1Y and one AH-1Z, with both aircraft subsequently sent to Naval Air Station Patuxent River for flight testing. Bell’s work on modifying the H-1 began at the company’s Drives System Center and Repair and Overhaul Center before culminating in the first aircraft electrical and structural modifications performed at Amarillo. Phase 3.0 signals the start of fleet modification into the new configuration, with aircraft to be fielded by the Marine Corps in future efforts.

ELECTRICAL POWER AS THE ENABLING CONSTRAINT

The programme, formerly known as SIEPU, provides greater electrical power capacity for modern warfighting capabilities alongside improved ability to integrate next-generation technology for enhanced lethality and survivability. The emphasis on electrical power reflects a constraint that has become general across ageing military aircraft fleets: the sensors, data links, electronic warfare systems and processing hardware that define contemporary combat capability all draw power, and airframes designed in an earlier era frequently reach their generation and distribution limits before they reach the end of their structural life. Adding capability to such an aircraft is therefore not primarily a question of finding physical space but of finding electrical headroom.

Danielle Markham, programme manager at Bell, said beginning SPINE Phase 3.0 emphasised the importance of the modernisation effort and enabled the Marine Corps H-1 fleet to remain competitive with current and future capabilities. She said SPINE would enable H-1 operators and maintainers to implement the equipment and technology needed to keep the aircraft a fully interoperable member of the modern joint force throughout the lifetime of the fleet. Colonel Jason Duke, Program Manager at PMA-276, said H-1s were essential to maintaining attack, strike and utility capabilities within the Marine Corps while providing a large volume of fires, and that SPINE would provide a significant increase to overall H-1 electrical capability to optimise advanced battlefield technology and ensure the fleet continued to be relevant into the 2040s.

SERIES A: WHAT THE UPGRADED AIRCRAFT CAN DO

SPINE-equipped H-1s will deliver improvements across three identified areas. The first is an advanced and scalable architecture supporting rapid integration of current and future technologies — a design approach intended to avoid the need for further structural modification each time a new capability is fielded. The second concerns the UH-1Y specifically, with aircrew safety enhancements alongside mission kit improvements to the fast rope, hoist and litter kit, providing the ability to conduct personnel recovery rapidly while operating in austere environments. The third is the Series A capability providing integration of net-enabled weapon systems and data links, encompassing improved defensive systems, digital interoperability and increased aircraft electrical power.

Bell describes the resulting operational concept in specific terms. Equipped with more robust defensive systems, an advanced data bus, Link 16 and long-range net-enabled weapons, Series A AH-1Zs and UH-1Ys will be able to operate more effectively at altitudes and in environments exclusive to rotary-wing platforms. Flying below radar resolution cells, the Viper and Venom would be undetectable to enemy radar while receiving target locations from joint force fixed-wing assets remaining outside the range of enemy missiles. The combined arms approach leverages the respective strengths of rotary and fixed-wing platforms, allowing Marine Corps H-1s to contribute to the maritime fight and to the joint force in ways Bell states were previously unavailable to combatant commanders.

The award also provides context for Bell’s recently reported financial performance. In Textron’s second quarter results published on 28 July, Bell revenues rose 6% to $1,074 million, with $47 million of the increase attributed to higher military revenues largely driven by H-1 production volume and the MV-75 programme. The SPINE Phase 3.0 contract extends that H-1 workstream into the next decade, with the Amarillo Assembly Center — which also assembles the V-22 Osprey and H-1 platforms — carrying the modification work from mid-2027.