The two demonstrator aircraft were powered by an Allison 250-C20 turboshaft engine mounted in the center fuselage, with a transmission system driving a tilting rotor at the end of each wing.

These successes led to the entry into the Deepwater program in 2002 and construction of the full size vehicle, called the TR918, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207D turboshaft engine.

[3] Bell had promoted the Eagle Eye for a decade without finding a buyer, but in the summer of 2002, the United States Coast Guard ordered the UAV as part of the service's broad Deepwater re-equipment effort.

In the summer of 2004, Bell established a relationship with Sagem in France and Rheinmetall Defense Electronics in Germany to sell variants of the Eagle Eye to European governments.

However, in January 2016, the U.S. Army said it was searching for a mid-sized "runway independent" UAV, years after losing interest in the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout.