Bell Boeing Wins $20 Million Navy Order for MV-22 Harness Retrofit Kits

The Bell Boeing Joint Project Office has received a $19.6 million firm-fixed-price delivery order from Naval Air Systems Command to supply 59 Conversion Area Harness Retrofit base and supplemental kits for Marine Corps MV-22 aircraft. The kits will upgrade aircraft wiring and associated components to improve reliability and readiness. Work will take place in Simpsonville, South Carolina, and Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in May 2029.

Conversion Area Harness Retrofit Details

Bell Boeing will provide the 59 base and supplemental kits for retrofitting the MV-22’s conversion-area harnesses. The order covers the kits, rather than aircraft installation work. Simpsonville accounts for 72% of the planned work and Fort Worth for 28%.

The retrofit addresses wiring in an area closely tied to V-22 nacelle maintenance. In an account of earlier V-22 nacelle and harness work, Naval Air Systems Command described wire replacement and troubleshooting as maintainability concerns. The new MV-22 order applies that wiring-improvement effort to Marine Corps aircraft, with reliability and readiness as its stated goals.

V-22 Harness and Nacelle Improvement Background

Bell Boeing’s harness work spans multiple V-22 variants. In January 2021, Naval Air Systems Command announced an $81 million Bell Boeing contract to develop, design and install nacelle modification kits and conversion-area harnesses for Air Force CV-22s. The agency said at the time that the Marine Corps and Navy were looking to incorporate improvements on their MV-22 and CMV-22 aircraft.

Other retrofit procurement is also underway for those variants. A notice for MV-22 and CMV-22 nacelle-improvement kits and pylon support assemblies preceded a separate award valued at $157 million for 10 nacelle-improvement kits and three shipsets of pylon support assemblies.

Award and Contractor Background

The harness delivery order was not competitively procured. It was placed under Bell Boeing’s basic ordering agreement for V-22 aircraft support, which began in February 2022 and runs through January 2027.

Earlier Bell Boeing work includes a V-22 conversion-area-harness order valued at $29.9 million covering retrofit kits, interim spares and engineering for foreign military sales. A separate CV-22 nacelle-improvements order valued at up to $348.5 million includes conversion-area harness procurement and installation, wiring assessments and support for fleet retrofits. Both provide context for Bell Boeing’s work on V-22 harnesses, while the newly announced order specifically supplies kits for Marine Corps MV-22s.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under N0001926F0015 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.