Osprey Shows Its Mettle V-22 Proves Itself in Combat and Its Critics Wrong on Safety, Survivability, Utility

Osprey Shows Its Mettle V-22 proves itself in combat and its critics wrong on safety, survivability, utility By Richard Whittle n October 8, 2007, as the US In October 2007, soon after the MV-22 was declared operational that June, the USS Wasp (LHD-1) transported with VMM-263 to Iraq. (US Navy) Marine Corps was putting the OV-22 Osprey into service in Iraq, into service, the world’s first operational in a 50-50 partnership. The Navy – after a major step after a quarter century of tiltrotor has done the opposite of what decades of disinterest – is now on board politically stormy development that Time and other critics anticipated. The to buy at least 44 Ospreys of its own, and had cost $22 billion and 30 lives lost Osprey has proven itself extraordinarily foreign customers will likely also extend in crashes, the cover of Time magazine safe, survivable under enemy fire that the V-22 production run. Japan has depicted the tiltrotor troop transport might bring down most helicopters, and announced it will buy 17 for its military, casting a shadow in the shape of a more versatile and useful than even the and while politics has put an Israeli graveyard cross. Inside the magazine, an truest of true believers ever imagined. decision to buy six Ospreys on hold, article titled “Flying Shame” said the V-22 In short, the Osprey is now putting its several other countries – South Korea might “kill a lot of Marines” and do “little critics to shame. and the United Arab Emirates, to name of note on the battlefield.” But going For that reason, its popularity is two – are seriously kicking the tires. on eight years later, Time might want rapidly rising. The Marines now want to consider publishing a retraction and to buy two more squadrons of MV-22s “We Love This Airplane” apology. than planned, for a fleet of 388 instead The V-22, which tilts two 38 ft (11.6 m) of 360. The Air Force Special Operations s for the battlefield, at least four diameter wingtip “proprotors” upward Command is to take delivery of its 54th Navy SEALs and one Afghan to take off and land like a helicopter, and final CV-22 in August, but that Asoldier hit by gunfire owe their and forward to fly like an airplane, is service is “exploring adding significantly lives to the Osprey’s speed. In all expensive to buy – $84 million per more quantities to do other missions, likelihood, so does an Air Force F-15E copy on average under the most recent even potentially for the National Guard,” Strike Eagle pilot who was rescued by contract. It’s also costly to fly and said Vince Tobin, vice president in an MV-22 after an aircraft malfunction mechanically complex – one reason it charge of the Osprey program for Bell forced him to bail out over Libya during suffers from a stubbornly substandard Helicopter Textron Inc., which builds a strike on dictator Moammar Qaddafi’s readiness rate. But since the V-22 went the aircraft with The Boeing Company air defenses. Incalculable numbers of 22 VERTIFLITE May/June 2015 United Nations, Samantha Powers, to inspect treatment locations throughout the country. Earlier in his six-month rotation as SPMAGTF-CR-AF commander, Fulford’s MV-22s were put on alert for possible deployment to Iraq to help evacuate Yazidis from Mount Sinjar, where the ethnic Kurds were under siege by extremist Islamic State fighters. Fulford also was ordered at one point to keep four Ospreys and two KC-130J tankers in Sicily at Naval Air Station Sigonella for crisis response eastward, and some of his MV-22s transported 30 marines to Bangui, Central African Republic, to provide security at the reopened US Embassy there. Deputy Commandant Davis said one reason the Osprey is being used An MV-22B with VMM-365 lands in “brown out” conditions in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in this way is that “we don’t have enough July 2010. Dust and sand take their toll on engines, sometimes needing replacement after “just a few hundred hours.” (US Marine Corps) amphibious ships in the United States Navy. Without ships, I’m going to put a marines and others, meanwhile, have nation contain the spread of the Ebola Special Purpose MAGTF in Morón, Spain, been carried into and out of combat virus. and another one in Kuwait, where we’re safely, flying above insurgent small arms When President Obama pledged help positioned to fly 2,000 miles [3,200 km] fire and potential ambushes, swooping to Liberia to fight Ebola, said Col. Robert east or to Liberia, instead of parking an down on objectives from above or from Fulford, SPMAGTF-CR-AF’s commander amphibious ship off the shore.” unexpected directions, and arriving with at the time, MV-22s from his 12-aircraft little warning thanks to the Osprey’s Marine Medium minimal forward acoustic signature Tiltrotor Squadron 264 in airplane mode. The Osprey has also were sent because helped save the lives of victims of “no one else could natural disasters, from tsunamis in the get there rapidly.” The Pacific to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Army assigned UH-60 “We love this airplane,” said Lt. Gen. Black Hawk helicopters Jon Davis, deputy commandant of the from the 101st Airborne Marine Corps for aviation. The Osprey, Division, but they had to said AV-8 Harrier jump jet pilot Davis, be taken apart, sent to “has changed the Marine Corps more Liberia by ship, then put than anything we’ve put in the air. We’re back together. As the doing stuff no one ever thought we’d Black Hawks were on do.” their way, the marines Just such a mission was conducted used their MV-22s last year by 93 marines and sailors from to reach areas of Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Tennessee-sized Liberia Task Force – Crisis Response Africa inaccessible by road (SPMAGTF-CR-AF), a unit based in Spain. during the rainy season. On October 8, 2014 – seven years to the The four Ospreys day after Time’s “Flying Shame” article – flew more than 170 that detachment boarded four MV-22s missions, logging 240 and two KC-130J tankers, flew 850 miles hours in the air while with the tankers refueling the Ospreys carrying more than in flight, landed in the Canary Islands to 1,200 government and refuel again and let those aboard stretch relief agency workers their legs, then flew another 975 miles and 78,000 lb (35 t) of to Dakar, Senegal, arriving about nine cargo. They also took hours after their departure from Spain. VIPs including Liberian The detachment spent the night at President Ellen Johnson The pilot and flight crew of an MV-22B Osprey with VMM-266 Dakar, then flew 730 miles the next day Sirleaf, US Ambassador Reinforced were honored in January 2013 for the rescue of a to Monrovia, Liberia, where they spent Deborah Malac, and the downed Air Force F-15E pilot in Libya in 2011. (US Marine Corps) the next 60 days helping that African US Ambassador to the 23Vol. 61, No. 3 VERTIFLITE May/June 201523 suffered five Class A mishaps in the first 200,000 hours it flew after its redesign, the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter the Osprey replaced suffered 41 over its first 200,000 hours of flight, and other Marine Corps helicopters also logged more than the MV-22 during their comparable period. Suspicious of how the Marine Corps counts such mishaps, critics dispute those figures, and the conventional wisdom that took hold during the V-22’s dark days – that the Osprey is a death trap and a boondoggle – is still heard. Critics with open eyes and minds, however, have modified their assessments. “I wouldn’t call it a boondoggle at all,” said Rex Rivolo, one of the Osprey’s severest critics back when the V-22 was on the chopping block. “Being able to Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (center with striped coat) visited remote Ebola-stricken go 1,500 miles [2,400 km] to a place areas of her country via an MV-22 Osprey in October 2014. (US Army) without an airport is an enormous Hours and Safety Marine Corps history. military utility, and only this aircraft can “If you look at the first 200,000 give it to you.” o one anticipated such things [flight] hours, the Class A mishap rate Rivolo, a Vietnam War F-4 Phantom when the Osprey went to Iraq for the V-22 is lower than any other fighter pilot and Ph.D. physicist who Nin 2007. The Marines put the Marine Corps rotary wing platform,” said also flew Air National Guard search and V-22 into service cautiously – “crawl, Marine Col. Daniel Robinson, NAVAIR rescue helicopters with distinction in walk, run” was their mantra – because program manager for the V-22. Class A the 1970s, sees wisdom in the Navy’s of the Osprey’s controversial history. mishaps include any accident causing decision to buy Ospreys to replace In December 2000, after the last of loss of aircraft, fatal injury, permanent its aging Northrop Grumman C-2A three fatal crashes during the Osprey’s total disability or, since 2009, more Greyhound fixed-wing turboprop development and the second that than $2 million in property damage. aircraft for carrier on board delivery year, Pentagon leaders grounded all Previously the Class A dollar threshold (COD). Given that the V-22 can land V-22s and nearly cancelled what until was $1 million.

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