Navair Orders $55M Upgrade for MV-22 Osprey

Navair Orders $55M Upgrade for MV-22 Osprey

(NSI News Source Info) December 10, 2008: Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas, is being awarded a $55,605,664 modification to a previously awarded fixed price incentive fee contract (N00019-07-C-0066) to incorporate Engineering Change Proposal #708R2.

Tasking under this effort includes the production of kits, recurring engineering, and installations for nine Lot 5 MV-22 aircraft to be converted from a Block A to a Block B configuration.

Work will be performed in Cherry Point, N.C., (65 percent); Amarillo, Texas, (20 percent); Philadelphia, Pa., (10 percent); Oklahoma City, Okla., (3 percent); and Mesa, Ariz., (2 percent) and is expected to be completed in May 2009.

Contract funds in the amount of $47,910,772 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

Additional Info: Related Topic

Recent DID articles have conveyed doubts about the V-22 Osprey’s attributes in the search-and-rescue (SAR) category, beginning with our original in-depth coverage and analysis of the $8-10 billion, 141-helicopter CSAR-X/PRV competition and continuing into our coverage of recent V-22 evaluation reports. The US Navy, which has placed its buy of 48 HV-22s for the SAR role on the deep back-burner in favor of the MH-60 helicopter, said a lot on this subject without saying a lot. On the other hand, a recent article in DefenseNews noted that as DID had predicted, the US Marines were making a push for the V-22 in order to expand the USA’s tilt-rotor fleet. That decision is now out of their hands, however. In an Oct. 20 press release, the Bell-Boeing PRV-22 team said that it has made the decision not to submit a proposal for the U.S. Air Force CSAR-X competition: “After thorough review of the revised Air Force request for proposal, it was clear that the CSAR-X program’s requirements and funding profile did not call for the advanced speed and range offered by the V-22 Osprey, and instead leaned toward capabilities found in more-traditional helicopter-type aircraft.”