---
title: "The Navy’s new Osprey is one step closer to dropping you off at sea"
description: "The first of the CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft the Navy plans on adopting as its carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft of choice has successfully completed its first flight operations"
date: "2020-01-21"
modified: "2020-01-21"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-cmb-22b-osprey-first-flight/"
categories:
  - "Aircraft"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "Navy"
  - "News"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
---

# The Navy’s new Osprey is one step closer to dropping you off at sea

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/22597702-4.jpg>)

The first of the CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft the Navy plans on adopting as its carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft of choice has successfully completed its first flight operations, manufacturer Boeing [announced](<https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2020-01-21-Bell-Boeing-CMV-22B-Osprey-Successfully-Completes-First-Flight>) on Tuesday.

Produced by Boeing and Bell Textron as a variant of the Marine Corps MV-22 and Air Force CV-22 Ospreys, the CMV-22B is intended to replace the Navy's aging C-2A Greyhound fleet as the service's "long-range/medium-lift element of the intra-theater aerial logistics capability," [according](<https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/CMV-22B-Osprey>) to a Naval Air Systems Command fact sheet.

Once accepted by the Navy, the CMV-22B will be employed to haul up to 6,000 pounds of "personnel, mail, supplies and high-priority cargo from shore bases to aircraft carriers at sea" at ranges of up to 1,150 nautical miles, [according](<https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2020-01-21-Bell-Boeing-CMV-22B-Osprey-Successfully-Completes-First-Flight>) to Boeing.

"The CMV-22B will be a lifeline for our servicemen and women out at sea," Boeing vice president Kristin Houston, vice president, Boeing Tiltrotor Programs and director, [said](<https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2020-01-21-Bell-Boeing-CMV-22B-Osprey-Successfully-Completes-First-Flight>) in a statement. "The quality and safety built into this aircraft will revolutionize the way the U.S. Navy fulfills its critical carrier onboard delivery mission."

The Navy first [announced](<https://news.usni.org/2015/01/15/sna-secnav-mabus-confirms-v-22-carrier-delivery-memo>) its plan to replace its last C-2A Greyhounds, which date back to the 1960s and are [scheduled for retirement](<https://news.usni.org/2018/12/14/39666>) by 2024, back in 2015. The service subsequently [awarded](<https://news.usni.org/2018/07/02/navy-awards-bell-boeing-4-2-billion-contract-modification-for-74-v-22-osprey-tiltrotor-aircraft>) a $4.2 billion contract to deliver a first batch of 39 CMV-22Bs to Boeing and Bell in mid-2018.

The CMV-22B "will provide the Navy with significant increases in capability and operational flexibility over the C-2A," [according](<https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/CMV-22B-Osprey>) to the NAVAIR fact sheet. "The Osprey is a critical warfighting enabler, providing the time sensitive combat logistics needed to support combat operations."

[According](<https://news.usni.org/2020/01/21/navy-cmv-22b-osprey-design-completes-first-flight#more-72838>) to USNI News, the Navy in late 2018 [established](<https://news.usni.org/2018/12/14/39666>) its first Osprey squadron as Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron 30 at Naval Air Station North Island in California ahead of a planned operational detachment deployment with the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in 2021.

Boeing and Bell will deliver the first CMV-22B to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (HX) 21 in early 2020 for a developmental test.

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

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