PHILADELPHIA–Ongoing engineering and development work to drive efficiencies down into the Marine Corps V-22 Osprey
should allow service and industry officials to exceed cost savings projections in a new multiyear program (MYP).
Currently, service and Pentagon acquisition officials are putting the final touches on a follow-on MYP, that would cover production thru 2017.
If approved by Congress, the plan will complete construction of the final Ospreys in the combined Air Force and Marine Corps buy. Aside from the 40-plus aircraft the Navy is eyeing for its fleet, the total Osprey force between the services will top out at over 260 aircraft.
One hurdle to securing that congressional approval will be to show the plan can generate enough cost savings to appease lawmakers.
Typically, MYP proposals have to show a 10 percent savings, when compared to single procurement. The first Osprey MYP, which is coming to a close, fell short of that goal, Marine Col. Greg Masiello, Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) V-22 program manager, said during a June 6 media briefing here.
“On the first multiyear, we had about four percent savings” per plane, compared to the per unit cost of the aircraft bought under a single procurement program, he said.
However, he noted the lessons learned from ongoing Osprey production, coupled with a handful of efficiency initiaitives integrated into the aircraft’s development, and said he was confident the new MYP could exceed that 10 percent threshold.
“We are targeting greater than a 10 percent savings” under the second multiyear program currently being worked by the service, Masiello said.”That’s what we are going for [but] we have some work to do,” he added.
That work has focused on the most recent variant of the Osprey to date, the block C model. That variant is in production with Marine Corps planners looking to have those aircraft in the field by next year, according to Masiello
As the new C models begin to come off the line, NAVAIR program officials have been working to outfit the initial A-model Ospreys with the same capabilities as the newer B variant, Masiello said.
However, he added that the Marines “do not have the funding or the requirement” to upgrade the A and B variants of the Osprey to the C model configuration.
As the Marine Corps works through that upgrade configuration process on the Osprey fleet, one modification that won’t become permanent is the aircraft’s belly-mounted gun system.
Osprey crews have the option of outfitting their aircraft with the belly gun via a kit-like application, depending on the mission requirements. Marine Corps aircrews can also opt to use a a .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounted near the rear ramp.
The belly gun kit is also a mission-specific capability available on the Air Force versions of the Osprey, used to support special operations units. However, the system is rarely fielded on the CV-22s flown by Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), because many of those missions do not require the gun, another Boeing official said after Masiello’s briefing.
While the Osprey has been proven in combat, Masiello said that program officials will not make the gun kit a permanent part of the Osprey standard configuration. That said, Marine Corps and AFSOC officials do scrap the system altogether, but plan to keep it as a kit-type application.