Bell Boeing signs $85.7M contract to upgrade four Osprey aircraft

March 11 (UPI) -- Bell Boeing signed a $85.7 million contract to reconfigure four V-22 Osprey aircraft for the U.S. Navy.

The joint venture of Boeing and Textron's Bell Helicopter subsidiary will modify Block B MV-22 Osprey units into Block C vehicles and a maintenance interval effort for one tiltrotor aircraft, the Department of Defense said Friday.

The work is in support of the military's Common Configuration Readiness and Modernization Program.

The project is expected to be completed in March 3032. Ninety-three percent of the work will be performed in Ridley Park, Penn., and the remaining 7 percent in Fort Worth, Texas.

Naval fiscal 2017, 2018, and 2019 aircraft procurement and 2019 operation and maintenance funds in the full amount will be obligated at time of award, including $22.3 million of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

In January, Bel Boeing signed a $143.9 million contract for V-22 Osprey performance-based logistics and engineering support as well as support for the Navy's CMV-22B variant. The 11-month base contract has four one-year options.

The V-22 Osprey is the world's first production tiltrotor aircraft. In 2012, the Marines first received the first aircraft.

With two pilots and two crew members, it can take off, land and hover like a helicopter with its rotors in vertical position. And once airborne, it can convert to a turboprop airplane capable of flight with a maximum speed of 270 knots, 879-nautical range and 25,000-foot altitude. Its lift capability is 523,600 pounds, according to Boeing.

More than 200 V-22 Ospreys are already in the operational fleet, according to Boeing.