Rolls-Royce has been awarded a new, two-year contract to provide aftermarket engine support for the US Marine Corps and Air Force V-22 fleets, which provides a more than 30 percent reduction in support costs.
The contract, through the company’s innovative MissionCare™ model, is valued at up to $287 million and will cover all V-22 aircraft across the Marine and Air Force fleets. Rolls-Royce is the sole engine provider for V-22 aircraft and has delivered 750 AE 1107C engines to the program.
The reduced maintenance costs result from a significant improvement in engine time on wing since 2009 when the original MissionCare contract was signed. Rolls-Royce has invested $90 million in capability and reliability improvements for the AE 1107C engine. Rolls-Royce has designed a series of upgrades that boost “hot and high” performance and add 17 percent more power to the engine over the original specification.
MissionCare, a Rolls-Royce developed package of services, incentivizes the company to design, develop and implement technology and affordability improvements to benefit the customer.
Tom Hartmann, Rolls-Royce, Senior Vice President Customer Business, said, “This new contract demonstrates confidence from V-22 operators that Rolls-Royce will continue to provide outstanding service and capability to the V-22 fleets. Operators know they can count on Rolls-Royce to provide the power and support they need to succeed in their missions – while also focusing on increased affordability.”
The Rolls-Royce AE 1107C engine is robust and battle-proven, demonstrating reliability during deployments across the Mideast, Africa and the Pacific. V-22 operators have never cancelled a mission due to engine availability.
The AE 1107C engine shares a common core with the Rolls-Royce AE family of engines, which totals more than 62 million flight hours of service and includes nearly 6,000 total engines in military and commercial service.
Press Release; Image: Wikimedia