Bell-Boeing given $151 million to start designing CMV-22B

The U.S. Navy has given Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office $151 million to start development work on the CMV-22B.

U.S. Sailors move into position to refuel a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) during Operation Damayan in the Philippine Sea 131117-N-XN177-028
By MC3 Peter Burghart [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The manufacturer will be adding new radios, a public address system and extra fuel tanks to the new tilt-rotor variant. Work should be short and the U.S. Navy is expecting to start purchasing the aircraft starting from end of next year.