The U.S. Navy has awarded U.S. aerospace giant Boeing two contacts for upgrade and support of T/AV-8B Harrier II aircraft, according to U.S. Department of Defense.

The contracts, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, includes the engineering services in support of the development of the T/AV-8B aircraft.

Boeing is awarded $71,3 million to provide engineering and integrated logistics support to maintain the T/AV-8B Harrier during the aircraft’s Post-Production Support Phase. Work is expected to complete in December 2023.

- ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW -

Also U.S. aerospace giant awarded $16 million contract for engineering services in support of the development of the T/AV-8B aircraft, including system configuration set updates, avionics and weapons integration, and avionics obsolescence mitigation. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed in March 2024.

AV-8B Harrier II is a ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier Jump Jet family. Capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL), the aircraft was designed in the late 1970s as an Anglo-American development of the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational V/STOL aircraft.

TAV-8B Harrier is a two-seat trainer version of the AV-8B Harrier aircraft.

All Harrier variants are capable of carrying and delivering a wide range of air-to-surface weapons. GPS-guided, laser-guided and general purpose bombs make up the majority of the aircraft’s operational payload. Rockets, precision-guided missiles, illumination flares, cluster munitions and other special ordnance supplements the aircraftâ€™s capability. The Litening targeting pod remains a critical target detection, recognition and designation system. Additionally, AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-120 AMRAA and 25mm gun weapons are utilized. The aircraft is designed to perform all Offensive Air Support missions and a subset of Anti-Air Warfare missions.