Bell Boeing awarded contract for USMC CMV-22B Osprey delivery and maintenance.

Bell Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, is awarded a $170,438,450 modification against previously awarded, fixed-price-incentive-firm-target, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract N00019-17-C-0015. This modification adds scope for the production and delivery of one CMV-22B variation in quantity aircraft for the Navy and exercises options for V-22 Common Configuration Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM) Lot 4 requirements. Additionally, this modification provides for planned maintenance interval inspections, repairs, shipping and storage containers and tooling in support of the V-22 CC-RAM program.

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First delivered CMV-22B Osprey (Picture source: Bell Boeing)

Work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (91%); and Fort Worth, Texas (9%), and is expected to be completed in September 2024. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $93,510,201; and fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $766,800 will be obligated at the time of award, of which $766,800 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

The CMV-22B Osprey is a variant of the MV-22B and is the replacement for the C-2A Greyhound for the Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) mission. The Common Configuration – Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM) programme aims to help MV-22s reach an 80% mission capability goal, Flight Global reported on December 12, 2019.The USMC operates a mixed fleet of older block B and block C MV-22 variants. The maintenance crews must manage parts for the different types, an inventory problem which causes the tiltrotor to be frequently grounded due to missing or mismatched components. The CC-RAM programme aims at reducing aircraft configurations from 75 to 25, and eventually to 5. The USMC believes the modifications will help the aircraft reach the Department of Defense’s 80% mission capability rate goal for the MV-22. The programme plans to bring 129 block Bs and 126 early block Cs to the late model block C production configuration, according to the USMC. The Corps also aims to start inserting new technologies developed from the Joint Multi-Role, Future Vertical Lift and other programmes into the MV-22.