San Francisco, Apr 27 (IANS): US aerospace giant Boeing on Thursday was awarded a five-year contract worth $427 million for depot maintenance of the US Navy's F/A-18 jets.

Under the "sole-source" contract, Boeing said it will provide consumable materials used for structural repair and modification of legacy F/A-18 Hornets at five US Navy and Marine Corps depots, Xinhua reported.

Boeing unveils two programmes to repair the Navy's aging F/A-18 Hornets, including the extension of the Hornets' life from 6,000 hours to 10,000 hours.

Rick Robinson, director of Boeing Global Supply Chain Services, said the contract will improve material availability and reduce cycle times on aircraft maintenance of the Navy's fighter jets.

The US Navy wants to refresh its fleet of more than 560 F/A-18 jets to keep them flying well into the next decades.

Boeing grabbed its latest defence contract only one day after it announced on Wednesday strong 2018 first-quarter profits of $23.4 billion that beat Wall Street expectations.

Boeing delivered 184 commercial airplanes during the first quarter and earned $13.7 billion. It sold a record 763 aircraft last year.