The high resolution spectrum of VCl has been observed in emission in the 3000-9400 cm(-1) region using a Fourier transform spectrometer. The bands were excited in a high temperature carbon tube furnace from the reaction of vanadium metal vapor and a trace of BCl3 and the spectra were recorded at a resolution of 0.05 cm(-1). The new bands observed in the 6000-8000 cm(-1) interval have been attributed to VCl. The bands having R heads near 6176, 6589, 7004, 7358, and 7710 cm(-1) have been assigned as the 0-2, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0, and 2-0 bands, respectively, of the [7.0](5)Delta -X (5)Delta electronic transition. A rotational analysis of the (5)Delta (1)-(5)Delta (1), (5)Delta (2)-(5)Delta (2), and (5)Delta (3)-(5)Delta (3) subbands of the 0-1 and 0-0 vibrational bands has been obtained and molecular constants have been extracted. The remaining two of the five subbands could not be analyzed because of severe overlapping from neighboring subbands. The principal molecular constants for the X (5)Delta state obtained from the present analysis are: DeltaG(1/2) = 415.26(113) cm(-1), B-e = 0.165 885(250) cm(-1), alpha (e) = 0.000 586(84) cm(-1), and r(e) = 2.213 79(170) Angstrom. Our work represents the first observation of this near infrared electronic transition of VCl. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.