Bell Aerospace Services Begins Work on U.S. Marine Corps Reset Maintenance Contract

Bell Aerospace Services announced today that it has begun work on a multi-year contract with a projected total value of $173 million, as a subcontract member of a team led by PKL Services Inc of Poway, Calif.

The team is currently providing selected organizational-level maintenance (Reset) for Lot 3 and Lot 4 of U.S. Marine Corps rotary wing aircraft.

"We are very proud that U.S. Marine Corps has selected the team led by PKL Services for this crucial task of aircraft reset and field maintenance support," said Randy Pilling, BellAero Support Services general manager. "This award further validates the confidence that the U.S. Marine Corps and PKL Services have in the value that BellAero offers."

"This is also the first contracted opportunity for BellAero to prove our capability to support Boeing and Sikorsky platforms and we are eager to show how well we can perform," Pilling added. "It is indeed an honor and privilege to play a vital role in supporting the USMC as part of the PKL Services Team."

The primary goal of the USMC Reset Project contract is to optimize the material condition of U.S. Marine Corps aircraft that are participating in the Global War On Terror. The Reset Project employs a program of conditional inspections and phased maintenance which includes inspection, cleaning, corrosion treatment, servicing, disassembly, reassembly, repair and select mandatory replacement of parts.

A secondary goal of the Reset Project is to allow civilian contractors to reduce the maintenance burden on active-duty Marine maintainers by performing scheduled and unscheduled organizational level maintenance. The PKL Services, JK Hill and BellAero team will perform this work on both Lot 3 aircraft (AH-1W, UH-1N, CH-53D/E) and Lot 4 aircraft (CH-46E) at multiple locations worldwide.

Bell Aerospace Services provides competitive turnkey aviation maintenance and support services to the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and U.S. Special Operations Command on multiple rotary wing and tiltrotor platforms throughout the world.

In June 2005, BellAero acquired US Helicopter, widely regarded as the premier maintenance and modification center for H-1 helicopters in the world. Over the last fifteen years, US Helicopter has refurbished more than four hundred UH-1 helicopters and installed more than one hundred and fifty Huey II upgrade kits.