"Bell Boeing Awarded Contract For 99 V-22 Osprey..." Topic

… Tiltrotor Aircraft,

" The Bell Boeing V-22 Program, a strategic alliance between Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. [NYSE: TXT] and Boeing [NYSE: BA], has been awarded a five-year U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) contract for the production and delivery of 99 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, including 92 MV-22 models for the U.S. Marine Corps and seven CV-22 models for the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command.

Valued at approximately $6.5 USD billion, the contract is structured to provide nearly $1 USD billion in savings to the U.S. government compared with procurements through single-year contracts. The contract also includes a provision permitting NAVAIR to order up to 23 additional aircraft.

"Signing this contract speaks volumes towards the confidence our services have in the V-22 Osprey," said Marine Corps Col. Greg Masiello, V-22 Joint Program Office program manager. "Since 2007, the V-22 has been continuously forward-deployed in a range of combat, humanitarian, and special operations roles. Ospreys continue to transform our Marine Corps Air Ground Task Force and Air Force Special Operations by enabling missions not possible with conventional aircraft, and helped save lives where others could not…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Always cost overruns in multi-year military contracts; always….

they got a gunship of this yet?

No gunships, no.

Anybody know anything about actual missions that the Ospreys have flown?

link

Apparently…

The Osprey can be armed with one 7.62x51mm NATO (.308 in caliber) M240 machine gun or .50 in caliber (12.7 mm) M2 machine gun on the loading ramp, that can be fired rearward when the ramp is lowered. A .50 in GAU-19 three-barrel gatling gun mounted below the V-22's nose was studied for future upgrade. BAE Systems developed a belly-mounted, remotely operated gun turret system for the V-22, named the Interim Defense Weapon System. This system is remotely operated by a gunner inside the aircraft, who acquires targets with a separate pod using color television and forward looking infrared imagery. The belly gun system was installed on half of the first V-22s deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, but found limited use due to its 800 lb (360 kg) weight and restrictive rules of engagement.

As of February 2012, eight Interim Defense Weapon Systems were available to the Marine Corps, with 24 more fielded by June 2012. At the time, the IDWS had not yet been used in combat. The reason was because Ospreys worked with supporting helicopter gunships and close air support aircraft that engaged threats before V-22s could, allowing them to focus on their transport role.

Why does nobody make a model of one in 15mm?

Because it's a dang big bird!

roughly 9" long, 9" wingspan, and about 16" wide across the rotors in 1/100!

I'm still having problems with the Hercules.