--- title: "The Navy’s new Osprey is officially here to drop you off at sea" description: "The Navy has taken receipt of its first CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft for fleet operations, manufacturer Bell Textron announced on Wednesday" date: "2020-06-24" modified: "2020-06-24" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-cmv-22b-osprey-delivered/" categories: - "Aircraft" - "Military Branches" - "Navy" - "News" - "Tech & Tactics" --- # The Navy’s new Osprey is officially here to drop you off at sea ![]() The Navy has received its first CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft for fleet operations, manufacturer Bell Textron [announced]() on Wednesday. The new Osprey, which will perform carrier onboard delivery missions for the service, is based at Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30 at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California. 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]() to a Naval Air Systems Command fact sheet. “We are thrilled to bring the Osprey’s capabilities as a warfighting enabler and its ability to provide time-sensitive logistics to the men and women deployed around the world in support of U.S. Navy operations,” Bell V-22 vice president and Bell Boeing program director Kurt Fuller [said]() in a statement. ![]() Bell had previously delivered a CMV-22B aircraft to the Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in February for developmental testing, followed by a second aircraft in May, the company [said](). According to Bell, the CMV-22B and C-2A "conducted a symbolic passing of the torch flight" between the two deliveries in April. The Navy first [announced]() its plan to replace its last C-2A Greyhounds, which date back to the 1960s and are [scheduled for retirement]() by 2024, back in 2015. The service subsequently [awarded]() 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]() to the NAVAIR fact sheet. "The Osprey is a critical warfighting enabler, providing the time sensitive combat logistics needed to support combat operations." VRM-30 is scheduled for its first operational detachment deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in 2021, [according]() to the Navy. According to USNI News, the deployment is [expected]() to coincide with the first operational deployment of the Navy’s F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter. “The CMV-22B will be a game-changing enabler to the high end fight supporting the sustainment of combat lethality to the carrier strike group,” Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Wing commodore Capt. Dewon Chaney [said]() in a statement. “The multi-mission capabilities of the CMV-22B, already recognized, will be realized in Naval Aviation's Air Wing of the future. The arrival of this aircraft is the first of many steps to that becoming reality.” ***Related:[ The Air Force's flying car competition is officially here]()*** ## 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. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()