WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- The Pentagon Monday awarded a $1.8 billion contract for pre-construction procurement of materials for the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
The contract was awarded to the Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office in Amarillo for the purchase of long-lead time materials that will be used to build 21 MV-22 and five CV-22 aircraft for delivery in 2010.
The CV-22 is the Air Force variant of the Osprey and is designed for special-operations missions. The MV-22 is designed for the Marine Corps. Both aircraft will replace the various helicopters that currently carry out such missions.
The Defense Department said all 26 Ospreys would be from Lot 12. The work will be carried out in Fort Worth, Amarillo and Ridley Park, Pa.
The ambitious Osprey program has moved forward in fits and starts amid ballooning costs and high-profile crashes during the test phase. Nonetheless, the revolutionary aircraft is appealing to planners due to its plane-like speed and carrying capacity and its ability to take off and land vertically like a helicopter.
Twin turboprop engines that rotate 90 degrees from a standard airplane position to that of a helicopter rotor while in flight power the Osprey.
