Advertisement

Bell Boeing awarded $218.7M for V-22 Osprey support

By Ed Adamczyk

Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The Bell Boeing Joint Project Office has received a new one-year contract for logistics and support on the V-22 Osprey platform.

The $218.7 million contract, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, covers logistics and engineering support on the program for one year, with the deal including four more one-year options.

Advertisement

The deal, awarded by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, will see work conducted in Texas and Pennsylvania for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as Japan. Work ordered under the first year of the deal is expected to be finished in November 2020.

The Osprey is a tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing, and short takeoff and landing capabilities. The aircraft has been in use by the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as Japan's Self-Defense Force, since 2007.

There are currently about 200 Ospreys in service, including those used by the Marines to replace the CH-46 Sea Knight, and has been deployed in transportation and medevac operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Kuwait. The Navy has also said it would use a variant of the V-22 for carrier onboard delivery duties starting in 2021.

Advertisement

The Pentagon has awarded several service contracts in the last month related to the V-22, including a $379.3 million contract with Bell Boeing for maintenance, repair and parts support on the V-22 announced on Nov. 19 and a $1.2 billion deal with Rolls-Royce announced on Nov. 15 to provide sustainment support for the aircraft's engine.

On Monday Raytheon Co. displayed its new V-22 trainer at the I/ITSEC trade show in Orlando, a conference billed as the world's largest modeling, simulation and training event.

The portable Raytheon virtual reality system offers an immersive simulation of flying the plane, with 81 examples of potential equipment failures to better train pilots and crewmembers, the company said in a statement.

Latest Headlines