Bell-Boeing delivers first Common Configuration V-22

Bell-Boeing has delivered back to the US Marine Corps (USMC) the first MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to go through the US Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Common Configuration Readiness And Modernization (CC-RAM) programme.

Boeing test pilots conduct the maiden flight of the first V-22 Osprey under the Common Configuration – Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM) programme, the company announced on 10 December 2019. Initial test points were completed for functional checkouts to prepare the MV-22 for delivery to the US Marine Corps customer. (Boeing)

Boeing announced on 10 December that the first of 129 Block B MV-22s to be upgraded to the latest Block C standard was delivered back to Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, North Carolina, from the recently opened production line at its Philadelphia plant in Pennsylvania.

The five-year CC-RAM programme (2017 to 2022) will see the MV-22s fitted with capability enhancements and have obsolescence removed. This first MV-22 was delivered to the USMC as a Block B aircraft in 2005, before being flown to Philadelphia for the CC-RAM upgrade in 2018.

The next CCRAM delivery is expected in early 2020.

As previously told to Jane’s , the latest Block C standard was drawn up partly in response to operational flying of the MV-22 in Iraq and Afghanistan. It features a weather radar, improved environmental controls, an enhanced electronic warfare suite (including chaff and flare countermeasures to both surface-to-air and air-to-air threats), upgraded cockpit displays, and display systems in the main cabin of the aircraft for greater situational awareness of the rear crew members.