Despite battling new testing delays and creeping costs, the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey programme has a new customer - the US Navy, which has agreed to include an order for 48 MV-22s in its long-term spending plans, writes Stephen Trimble.
The navy has taken the initial step of including the MV-22 requirement in a five-year spending proposal outlined in a document called the programme objective memorandum (POM) for fiscal year 2006, says V-22 programme director, Col Craig Olson. The proposal must still work its way through acquisition planning reviews this year, but the POM entry offers the navy's first firm commitment to start buying the aircraft in the 2010-12 period.
For several years, the navy has eyed the V-22 for combat search and rescue and fleet logistics missions. A notional design has been called the HV-22, but the service intends to drop the special designation. Any modifications would be defined under a special block configuration of the MV-22, says Olson.
Meanwhile, the joint US Marine Corps/Air Force programme must reverse new cost increases and schedule delays.
The air force's CV-22 flight-test programme has fallen six months behind schedule, says Olson. The programme intends to reduce that deficit by half in 2004 and then eliminate it before the USAF special operations initial operational capability milestone in 2009.
A cost-reduction initiative that seeks to cut the aircraft unit cost, excluding non-recurring expenses, from $74 million to $58 million by 2010 is also under pressure. The closure of Boeing's RAH-66 Comanche production line in Philadelphia means the facility's total overhead bill must be absorbed by the Osprey programme. Boeing believes the impact should be less than $1 million per aircraft, although a full assessment has not been completed.
Source: Flight International
