Bell Helicopter said it successfully demonstrated forward-firing weapons capability by a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor during an exercise in November at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz. The company announced the milestone on December 8, providing photos and video of an Osprey launching a rocket over the desert.

“We’ve shown the V-22 can be armed with a variety of forward-facing munitions and can hit its targets with a high degree of reliability,” said Vince Tobin, Bell vice president and program manager. “Congratulations to the team who has worked from initial design to completion of this demonstration.”

Tobin said that equipping the Osprey with forward-facing weapons capability could reduce the need to establish forward arming and refueling points that sustain supporting, short-range attack helicopters. Bell started initial design work on forward-fire capability in mid-2013.

Bell had delivered 242 MV-22s for the U.S. Marine Corps and 44 CV-22s for the Air Force Special Operations Command as of September. Also, Japan has included funding in its Fiscal Year 2015 defense budget for 17 of the tiltrotors Bell co-manufactures with Boeing.