Under terms of a $4.9 billion contract, the US Navy is ordering 99 V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from Bell-Boeing for the USAF and Marine Corps. The contract also gives the US Navy an option to order 23 additional V-22 aircraft.
The V-22 Osprey is a joint service, multi-role combat aircraft that uses tilt-rotor technology to combine the speed and range of a fixed-wing airplane with the vertical performance of a helicopter. The V-22, with its nacelles and rotors in vertical position, can takeoff, land and hover like a helicopter. Once airborne, its nacelles rotate forward to transform the aircraft into a turbo-prop airplane capable of high-speed, high-altitude flight. Currently, more than 200 V-22 Ospreys are in operation all over the world and the fleet has amassed more than 185,000 flight hours.