Chris Pocock has been covering the defense beat for AIN for over 30&nbsp;years. He is a British citizen and a graduate of the University of Cambridge. Chris worked in the air cargo business for ten years before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. He subsequently edited two air cargo journals before becoming AIN’s Defense Editor. He retired from that position in 2018, but still contributes to the publication. Chris has written extensively on aerial reconnaissance, including four books on the history of the U-2 spyplane. He also lectures on this and other topics related to intelligence-gathering in the Cold War.

Defense Correspondent

Chris Pocock

The aircraft carrier delivery version of the Osprey tiltrotor has been funded for production, as the major part of a third multi-year buy (MYB) contract award to the Bell-Boeing partnership. The U.S. Navy will acquire a total of 39 CMV-22B versions to replace C-2 Greyhounds that have been in service since the mid-1960s.

 


The MYB also includes 14 more MV-22Bs for the U.S. Marine Corps; one more CV-22B for the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command; and four more MV-22Bs for Japan. V-22 program officials <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2016-07-11/v-22-program-proposes-international-acquisition-concept">previously hoped</a> to secure other international orders for inclusion in this MYB. But only Japan has opted to become a customer to date; in 2015 it placed an initial order for five. Israel was expected to buy and received a formal foreign military sales offer for six in 2014. But it has not yet proceeded and continues to evaluate alternatives for replacement of its CH-53 heavy helicopter fleet.

 


Chris Gehler, Bell’s vice president for the V-22 program, said that the new MYB extends production “through at least 2024.”  

 


Bell-Boeing previously received a development contract worth $151 million for the CMV-22B, to provide extra range by means of additional fuel tanks in extended sponsons, plus HF radio capability. The UK Royal Navy is theoretically another potential customer for this carrier delivery version, to serve the two Queen Elizabeth-class warships coming into service. But budgetary problems have prevented a commitment.

 


Separately, an aerial tanker version of the MV-22 was instigated in 2016, by means of a <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2016-10-27/cobham-develops-mv-22b-aerial-refueling-capability">contract awarded by Bell-Boeing to Cobham</a>. The refueling specialist was mounting its FR300 Hose Drum unit as a roll-on, roll-off kit.

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Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

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