1st Osprey squadron to deploy

 

By Trista Talton - Staff writer

Posted : Thursday Apr 12, 2007 11:13:40 EDT

 

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Commandant Gen. James Conway is expected to announce Friday the first deployment of an MV-22 Osprey squadron, according to a Pentagon release.

 

Until then, officials are remaining mum on where Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., will deploy. The squadron is expected to deploy late summer or early fall this year.

 

In early March, the squadron wrapped up several weeks of integration training with Camp Lejeune-based Marines. Part of the training was to get the Osprey more exposure to ground troops as the program attempts to overcome its troubled past.

 

VMM-263 was the first of the Corps’ now three operational Osprey squadrons. The other squadrons include VMM-162 and VMM-266, which stood up late last month.

 

The Osprey is phasing out the Corps’ aged fleet of CH-46 Sea Knights. The West Coast transition will likely begin around late 2009, early 2010, followed by overseas squadrons. There are three remaining Sea Knight squadrons on the East Coast, six on the West Coast and two on Okinawa, Japan.

 

The Corps’ growing Osprey fleet includes 43 war birds at New River and four test tilt-rotors at Patuxent River, Md., said James Darcy, Osprey program spokesman at Pax River. The Corps is set to receive another 13 Ospreys this year.

 

Two Ospreys crashed in 2000, killing a total of 23 Marines.

 

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Osprey to make combat debut in Iraq

 

By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer

Posted : Friday Apr 13, 2007 13:51:32 EDT

 

The Corps’ MV-22 Osprey aircraft will make its combat debut in Iraq when Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 deploys to Al Asad Air Base in September, Commandant Gen. James Conway announced at the Pentagon on Friday.

 

Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, deputy commandant for aviation, said the Osprey’s primary job in Iraq will be “to take Marines into combat,” but that it will be used “for a variety of missions” currently performed by the Corps’ aging fleet of CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

 

“The commandant wants to provide the best equipment available to Marines in the greatest need,” Castellaw said. “It is our view that the V-22 right now can do the greatest amount of support in Iraq.”

 

With the Osprey, “what we have is an aircraft that goes twice as fast, it goes three times as far and it is the most survivable by about six or seven times what the aircraft it replaces is,” he said.

 

It’s more survivable because its engines having lower infrared and acoustic signatures, making it harder for the enemy to target. Plus, “it flies faster, higher and it was designed from the beginning to absorb hits from weapons.”

 

The Osprey can carry 24 combat-loaded Marines or 12 litters for casualty evacuation. It can transport 10,000 pounds of cargo externally and 20,000 pounds internally, Castellaw said.

 

It can also fly 900 miles without refueling, which means “it can go anywhere in Iraq from where we’re going to put it,” he said.

 

When the squadron arrives in Iraq, it will represent about 30 percent of the medium-lift capability available to commanders there, Castellaw said.

 

He said VMM-263 has participated in two training exercises in a desert environment similar to that of Iraq — Exercise Mojave Viper at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Exercise Desert Talon, run by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 in Yuma, Ariz.

 

“And there’s a lot of dust out there,” Castellaw said.

 

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Osprey aircraft heading to Iraq

Marines bullish on hybrid helicopter-plane despite past accidents

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 8:02 p.m. ET April 13, 2007

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. - The Marine Corps announced Friday it will send 10 V-22 Ospreys to Iraq this year in the first combat mission for the hybrid aircraft expected to carry troops in and out of battle at unprecedented speed.

 

Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the planes' deployment marks a significant reversal for an aircraft program that was nearly scrapped after two deadly test crashes and a history of mechanical failures.

 

The medium-size, tilt-rotor plane — which takes off vertically like a helicopter and flies likes a plane — replaces the CH-46 Sea Knight, a 39-year-old assault helicopter used in the Vietnam War.

 

Demonstrated to reporters at Quantico Marine Corps Base, Va., on Friday, the Osprey can travel twice as fast and three times farther than the Sea Knight. The planes, equipped with radar, lasers and a missile defense system, each carry 24 combat-ready Marines and will accompany attack helicopters in Iraq, which come under gunfire and mortar attacks.

 

The Marines expect speed to protect the Osprey from the ground-fire Iraqi insurgents have used to down U.S. helicopters this year.

 

"The V-22 will be able to fly above the threat," said Lt. Gen. Castellaw, deputy commandant for Marine Aviation. "It's harder to shoot a rabbit that's running than one that is sitting still. We're talking about the ability to climb altitude outside of the heart of the threat over there."

 

'Most capable, survivable aircraft'

"It is our fervent feeling that this aircraft is the most capable, survivable aircraft that we carry our most important weapons system in, which is the Marine or rifleman," he added.

 

Gen. James Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, said 171 Marines will accompany the Osprey set for September deployment to Al-Asad Airfield, the second largest air base in Iraq located 100 miles west of Baghdad.

 

"This is a great day for our corps," Conway said. "This deployment directly supports our corps' number one priority — the Marines and sailors in contact at the tip of the spear."

 

Like the Black Hawk used by the Army, the Marine Corps' Osprey strikes a dramatic, even intimidating form as it roars over the horizon. Landing in a clearing of trees at Quantico on Friday, gusts from two Ospreys sent dirt and blades of grass flying as far as 100 yards.

 

Castellaw rejected concerns that the Osprey might not be safe, emphasizing that it had been extensively tested and was fully operational.

 

In April 2000, 19 Marines died when their V-22 crashed in Marana, north of Tucson, Ariz. The accident was blamed partly on human error and mechanical problems.

 

Then in December 2000, four more Marines died in a crash in North Carolina due to a hydraulic malfunction.

 

Out of small arms range in seconds

In the demonstration flight at Quantico, the aircraft was off the ground and out of small-arms range in less than a minute. Once airborne, its rotors shifted from helicopter to airplane position in 12 seconds, and the transition was so smooth that passengers unprepared for the Osprey's next flight mode were jolted toward the back of the aircraft.

 

It can move from 110 knots to more than 200 knots as the aircraft shifts into airplane flight, said Lt. Col. Paul Rock, commander of the squadron headed to Iraq. It can hit speeds of nearly 350 knots, or more than 400 miles per hour.

 

Critics have raised questions about the maneuverability of the aircraft in some circumstances.

 

Pilots will face the same restrictions in the Osprey as they do in other helicopters and tactical adjustments will be implemented to avoid the risk, Castellaw said.

 

For example, Osprey pilots when in helicopter mode will have to avoid descending at a low air speed and high rate of descent, just as pilots of traditional helicopters.

 

"You don't want to do that in a helicopter, and you do not want to do that in a tilt-rotor," Castellaw said.

 

He said the Osprey has systems on board to warn pilots when they are descending from a high altitude with too much power in helicopter mode.

 

© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveThe Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

 

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From Defense Aerospace

 

The Marine Corps' Strategic Procurement Mistake

(Source: Project On Government Oversight; issued April 18, 2007)

 

Several news outlets are reporting on the announcement yesterday that the Marine Corps' revolutionary tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey will be deploying to Iraq this fall after two decades of development. Despite setbacks, including fatal crashes of the aircraft, such as the loss of 19 Marines in an April 8, 2000 crash in Arizona, the Marine Corps' has stuck with the Osprey. Indeed "the Marine Corps has built its entire future concept of warfare around the V-22," Loren Thompson, a defense industry analyst, told The Washington Post.

 

But the Marine Corps' planned reliance on the V-22 is a strategic procurement mistake. Each V-22 costs so much the overall quantity buy had to be scaled back. Marine commanders might be loathe to put the relatively few $100 million V-22s they have in risky situations where, with a cheaper, much more numerous helicopter model, they would have the numbers to be more flexible. Each V-22 might be perceived as so precious, they may not be put into battles that may need to be fought, if the few that will be bought are even available. The budget realities of the V-22 buy may bind the military, putting our troops at risk and reducing military options to the extent where the best options may have to be ruled out.

 

We do think the V-22 could fulfill specialty missions, such as special ops deployments or long-range rescue missions (like the “Desert One” situation), but those relatively few missions don't justify putting all of the Marine's chips behind just the V-22. There should be a better procurement mix, perhaps 50 or so V-22s and a large purchase of cheaper, yet still very capable helicopters.

 

The design of the V-22, while particularly suited for the specialty missions listed above, are possibly deadly liabilities.

 

Weight problems with the V-22 and the placement of the prop-rotors on the sides of the aircraft both make it difficult to install a gun on the aircraft (the gun's weight has to be counterbalanced and the V-22's prop-rotors physically get in the way of mounting guns on the side). V-22 proponents say the problem is minimized because the Osprey can fly faster than helicopters when it is in aircraft mode. But the Osprey will not be in aircraft mode when taking off, landing, picking up or dropping off troops—the times when it needs a gun the most to suppress enemy ground fire.

 

Also, the design of the V-22 creates a unique flight envelope which may make it prone to entering the Vortex Ring State (VRS), however, some knowledgeable people have claimed that "The V22 VRS envelope is significantly smaller than any other rotorcraft out there....it is harder to get a V22 into VRS than a regular helicopter." This is a point of some disagreement and any knowledgeable readers should chime in down in the comments.

 

Appropriate training and understanding of the V-22's flight envelope will help pilots avoid VRS, but when engaged in combat maneuvering, pilots need the kind of maneuvering flexibility that may exceed the threshold of a safe flight envelope--will V-22 pilots exceed their aircraft's threshold and put them at risk more often when engaged in combat manuevering than the pilots of other helicopters?

 

Furthermore, the V-22 is unable to autorotate, a standard safety capability all helicopter pilots learn to utilize. When the V-22 goes down, it is more likely to go down harder than helicopters do.

 

Again, V-22s engaged in long-range rescue operations or special ops missions may be less likely to deal with these situations than a workhorse combat helo. Though it could autorotate, had defensive guns and did not have the tendency to enter VRS, thousands of UH-1 Hueys went down in Vietnam (pdf).

 

Recent hydraulic leaks indicate that the V-22 may have some serious bugs that could put the aircraft at risk and increase maintenance time. The desert environment is unforgiving (the AH-64 Apache had significant problems in the first Gulf War because sand got into its engines), leading to more maintenance time.

 

How will the V-22 fare in that environment? When it lands, its two prop-rotors kick up quite a bit of desert sand leading to decreased visibility from brown-out. Will that exacerbate the maintenance problem too?