V-22 - Mulig ny variant i COD rollen

 A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 prepares to land on the deck of the USS Carter Hall, an amphibious dock ship. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

 

The U.S. Navy is planning a third multi-year procurement of the V-22 Osprey to include a new variant it seeks to perform carrier on-board delivery (COD) of cargo and passengers between ships and shore bases. The service is also planning a mid-life upgrade to extend the useful life of the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor.

The program is about halfway through a second, five-year procurement the Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) awarded to Bell and Boeing in June 2013. As of earlier this month, the manufacturers had delivered a total of 299 MV-22s to the U.S. Marine Corps and CV-22s to the Air Force Special Operations Command.

A third multi-year agreement would combine MV-22s remaining in the Marine Corps program of record, 44 variants the Navy seeks for the COD mission and foreign military sales (FMS) to Japan and other potential customers, said Col. Daniel Robinson, Navair’s V-22 program manager. Japan has approved buying five of the 17 tiltrotors it requires, he said.

“The intent is, in the 2018 timeframe, to tag right on to the end of multi-year 2 [procurement],” Robinson said during a briefing at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference in mid-April. “We’re in the midst of planning for a multi-year 3, utilizing the majority of those Marine and Navy platforms for the base and then working to get someFMS customers.”

In its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, the Navy is seeking funding to procure a new variant based on the MV-22 to replace the Northrop Grumman C-2 Greyhound for the COD mission. The service would acquire the initial 24 tiltrotors from fiscal years 2018 to 2020 at a rate of eight per year. It plans initial operational capability of the variant the following year.

Navair is developing an engineering change proposal for the modifications necessary to meet the CODrequirements, which Robinson said include extended range to 1,150 nm, a high frequency radio and a public address system. The command was working with Bell and Boeing to determine the best way to extend the tiltrotor’s range by installing external fuel capacity, probably to the sponson area on the sides of the aircraft.

Planning is also underway for a mid-life update of the Osprey platform that could involve structural changes, an improved electrical system and new capabilities, Robinson said. That would likely begin “in the late 2020s” as tiltrotors reach 5,000 flight hours, or about half of their airframe service life of 10,000 hours. Thus far, an Air Force CV-22 is closest to that point with about 3,000 hours, he said.

“It’s something that’s out there in the future,” Robinson said of the update. “Obviously, it’s very prudent for a program to assess where we are now. As we come to specific components or things that we may have to fix for reliability purposes or for obsolescence reasons, we want to understand where the V-22 is going to go.