Monday, March 31, 2008 Bell Boeing Strategic Alliance Scores Five-Year Contract for V-22 Osprey By FlyingNews @ 7:15 AM :: 266 Views :: 0 Comments :: Military Aviation Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today that the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $10.4 billion, five-year Multi-Year Procurement contract for 167 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to a strategic alliance between Bell Helicopter and The Boeing Company. "This is a significant step in the V-22 program," said Dick Millman, Bell Helicopter president and CEO. "This five-year contract will allow us to plan much further out as we order long-lead materials, invest for capacity growth, increase our production rate, and deliver these unique aircraft on time to a war-fighting customer who really needs them." The contract calls for 141 MV-22 aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps and 26 CV-22 aircraft for the Air Force Special Operations Command. To date, the Bell Boeing alliance has delivered a total of 100 V-22 aircraft to the U.S. military. The Marines currently have 12 MV-22s deployed in combat at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. The world's first production tiltrotor, the V-22 combines the vertical performance of a helicopter with the high speed and range of a fixed wing aircraft. The V-22 offers twice the speed, three times the payload, five times the range of the older aircraft it will replace.