Textron-Boeing V-22 has ‘laid to rest doubts,’ panel says

WASHINGTON – The V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey, four years after it was first deployed to war zones, “has laid to rest all doubts” about its combat effectiveness, said a House defense panel.

The Marine Corps has flown the V-22 in Iraq and Afghanistan. In March, the aircraft was used in the rescue of a downed Air Force pilot in Libya.

The House defense appropriations subcommittee, in a draft report on the fiscal 2012 defense budget scheduled to be approved Tuesday by the full committee, urges the Navy to request authority in fiscal 2013 to proceed with another multi-year contract to complete the entire 458-aircraft program.

Textron Inc. and Boeing Co. are in the last year of a four-year, $10.4 billion contract for 167 aircrafts.

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The Navy by year’s end will have 288 aircraft on contract, including those bought prior to the multi-year contract, program manager Colonel Greg Masiello said in an email. “The program is budgeted for and pursing a second multiyear procurement contract” that would cover purchases through 2017, he said.

The House subcommittee, in its fiscal 2012 draft budget, approved the Pentagon’s request for $2.5 billion for 35 aircraft, including five for Air Force special operations.

Congress through December has approved spending $35 billion on the $53.2 billion program.

The program was approved for full-production in September 2005 after four years of additional development to demonstrate it overcame a host of deficiencies, including problems with its design, safety and reliability uncovered after two crashes in 2000 killed 23 Marines.

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