The Ukrainian “Spider Web” Operation: Highlighting the Importance of the U.S. Army Acquiring the MV-75 Tiltrotor Aircraft
The success of Operation Spider Web – the audacious and highly successful Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet – has highlighted the vulnerability of aircraft concentrated at fixed air bases.
The threat to traditional airbases is more pronounced than ever before. As detailed in a report by the Hudson Institute, Concrete Sky: Air Base Hardening in the Western Pacific, current U.S. airfields, particularly in contested regions like the Indo-Pacific, are alarmingly vulnerable.
The People’s Republic of China has invested massively in hardening its air infrastructure, doubling the number of hardened aircraft shelters and expanding runways. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts have been comparatively limited. The report’s authors warn that this creates a dangerous imbalance, where a first-strike scenario could severely cripple U.S. air power on the ground. Mitigating this vulnerability, the report says, will require costly and time-consuming upgrades to air defenses and base hardening.
Another part of the solution for mitigating this vulnerability is to invest in runway-independent air capability. That’s where the U.S. Army’s new MV-75 FLRAA (Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft) tiltrotor emerges as an even more critical asset to American forces’ survivability and lethality on the modern battlefield.
The MV-75 will be runway-independent, and it will fly much faster and farther than any traditional helicopter. Imagine a scenario where a surprise Chinese missile and drone attack lays waste to our fixed airbases in the western Pacific. With the MV-75, U.S. forces can still disperse over long ranges to deliver land- and air-based effects and continue the fight within the first island chain.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps ground forces are fundamental to any operational concept in the Indo-Pacific, and those forces will need the ability to maneuver rapidly and over great distances, moving personnel and materiel to the point of need.
The Marines have been refining the concepts of distributed operations for years, employing the MV-22 Osprey, a previous generation of tiltrotor aircraft. The Army’s next-generation MV-75 will expand, and augment distributed operations across the theater, creating even more dilemmas for the adversary.
The MV-75 will enable rapid force projection, agile resupply, and swift medical evacuation — all critical for maintaining the initiative in a contested environment. The MV-75 will allow ground commanders to operate from points of relative sanctuary, far from the reach of most long-range fires, while still allowing for rapid convergence on objectives.
Some have questioned the role of the U.S. Army in the Indo-Pacific, and indeed the Army’s role there is underappreciated. Historically, the Army has always played a significant role, including in World War II. Today, U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo has said, “All joint force functions are intertwined with land-based operations.”
Nevertheless, there are also doubters, such as Elon Musk, who have questioned the utility of manned aircraft entirely. However, the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific make drone warfare significantly more challenging, and aircraft like the MV-75 will play a major role in moving personnel and materiel across the battlespace.
That prompts another lesson to be learned from Operation Spider Web: Russian bombers were targeted precisely because they had been wreaking havoc on Ukrainian cities, making those manned platforms enormously high-value targets. If they had been irrelevant to the conflict, they never would have been on a target list.
The conflict in Ukraine has also spurred some observers to question the survivability of vertical lift capabilities, pointing to Russia’s helicopter losses during the initial Battle of Hostomel Airport in 2024. This was a premature death knell for military vertical lift.
Indeed, both Russia and Ukraine, despite early blunders, have adapted helicopter employment, increasingly utilizing them in a stand-off role. This tactical evolution has demonstrated that with proper employment, helicopters can still increase both survivability and lethality.
The key takeaway from Ukraine regarding vertical lift is the critical importance of tactical employment. Aircraft at fixed air bases are vulnerable. Aircraft employed in the wrong tactics are also vulnerable.
Both Congress and the Pentagon must learn from the conflict in Ukraine but not overlearn from it – we risk disregarding vital capabilities based on skewed analysis.
The lessons from Ukraine underscore the shifting dynamics of modern warfare, where static targets are becoming increasingly vulnerable and adaptability is paramount. There’s no question the Army took the right course of action when it chose a tiltrotor for its next-generation vertical lift, and indeed it is continuing down the right path in wanting to accelerate even further the development of the MV-75.
The MV-75 offers the critical speed, range, and operational flexibility necessary to ensure U.S. ground forces can maneuver effectively, survive, and dominate in the complex, dispersed, and highly lethal battlefields of the future – independent of runways.
Investing in and rapidly fielding this next-generation tiltrotor is an imperative for maintaining survivability and lethality in an increasingly complex and dangerous battlespace.
Lt. Gen. William J. Troy, U.S. Army (Ret.), last served as Director of the Army Staff and was the Vice-Director of J8, Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment Directorate. He was Chief of Staff of III Corps in Iraq and served 38 years in the Army.