The U.S. Navy received its first fleet of CMV-22B Osprey, a tilt-wing helicopter, originally designed and built by Bell Textron Inc. and Boeing Co. It has been redesigned lately for use on aircraft carriers, according to Navy sources.
Two prior CMV-22Bs were delivered to the US Navy, in February and in May, for developmental testing.
The Osprey’s capabilities is a warfighting enabler and has the ability to provide time sensitive logistics to the men and women deployed around the world in support of U.S. Navy operations.
The variant of the Navy’s V-22 aircraft will take over the Carrier Onboard Delivery Mission, replacing the C-2A Greyhound, in use since 1964. It is a tiltrotor V/STOL aircraft that can take off and land as a helicopter, as well as transit as a turboprop aircraft. The aircraft can carry 6,000 pounds of cargo, enough to transport the engine power module of an F-35 fighter plane, and its increased fuel capacity allows it to travel over 1,150 nautical miles.
The CMV-22B is seen as the transporter of goods and other logistical support between aircraft carriers, and between land and a carrier. It is a capable machine to deploy in the fleet in order to develop combat lethality. “Today marks our birthday as a squadron,” Cmdr. Tervor Hermann, commanding officer of VRM-30, said in a statement. “This is the instrument that will bring lethality to the fleet.” The Navy projects an inventory of 44 CMV-22Bs.
