thedrifter
08-30-07, 06:42 AM
Osprey to show its wings Friday; Marines unveil controversial transport aircraft
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
MIRAMAR -- As the Marines prepare to send the first wave of V-22 Ospreys -- airplane-helicopter combinations -- to Iraq, the Corps is putting the oft-troubled aircraft on display for reporters Friday.
One prominent and longtime critic said Wednesday that the Osprey is still "unreliable."
Ten Ospreys have been shipped to Iraq, where they are scheduled to begin service next month in the volatile Anbar province west of Baghdad.
The aircraft features the speed and range of a turboprop airplane with the ability to take off and land in smaller spaces than traditional planes. Military officials say it can quickly carry and drop off up to 24 troops.
It's tilting rotors allow it to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane once airborne.
The Ospreys about to begin service in Iraq were sent by ship, a decision that was intended to "save wear and tear," a spokesman said earlier this month.
In development for more than two decades, the Osprey has slowly been brought into the military's fleet after three test flight crashes in recent years that claimed 30 lives, including 14 Marines from Camp Pendleton and one from Miramar.
The Marine Corps maintains that the problems that plagued the Osprey's development have been overcome.
But Phil Coyle, a longtime Osprey observer and critic, said he believes it is still unsafe.
"For the Marines, the Osprey is like a bad poker hand, and the Marines have been investing in it for 20 years," Coyle said this week. "They'd have been better off if they'd invested in brand-new helicopters."
A former assistant secretary of defense and director of operational testing and development at the Pentagon from 1994 to 2001, Coyle said the Osprey's history is replete with announcements of problems. Those announcements, he said, are followed by others about fixes and subsequent disclosures that problems still exist.
"It continues to be an unreliable aircraft," said Coyle, who now serves as a senior adviser at Washington's Center for Defense Information.
Marine Corps officials have rejected those contentions. They have argued the aircraft, which can fly more than 400 mph, is now safe, and that the Osprey will play an important role in Iraq.
Efforts to reach officials for responses to some of Coyle's specific concerns were not immediately successful, but the Marine Corps' top officer, Commandant James Conway, said in an interview last month that the Osprey's development problems were not unusual for a new breed of aircraft and that he is anxious to get it into the field.
"I just want to see Osprey given the opportunity to prove itself," Conway said.
After years of crashes and criticism, the Osprey's fortunes improved in 2005 when the aircraft passed a series of tests and was subsequently approved for full-scale production.
Friday's Osprey exhibition will take place at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in north San Diego. That's where a North Carolina-based Marine air squadron has spent the last three weeks familiarizing the locally based I Marine Expeditionary Force and Miramar's 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing with the 57-foot-long aircraft operated by a crew of three.
Several Ospreys operated by crews from the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 have been spotted flying over the area in recent days. Friday's event is limited to a ground display with crew members on hand to answer questions from the media. It is not open to the public.
The Boeing and Bell Helicopter-built aircraft can fly more than 2,500 miles and carry up to 20,000 pounds of material. Each aircraft costs about $71 million.
To date, the Marine Corps has received 52 Ospreys with several more expected before year's end. The service has ordered more than 360 Ospreys for combat assault and support missions, and the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is buying about 50.
-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
MIRAMAR -- As the Marines prepare to send the first wave of V-22 Ospreys -- airplane-helicopter combinations -- to Iraq, the Corps is putting the oft-troubled aircraft on display for reporters Friday.
One prominent and longtime critic said Wednesday that the Osprey is still "unreliable."
Ten Ospreys have been shipped to Iraq, where they are scheduled to begin service next month in the volatile Anbar province west of Baghdad.
The aircraft features the speed and range of a turboprop airplane with the ability to take off and land in smaller spaces than traditional planes. Military officials say it can quickly carry and drop off up to 24 troops.
It's tilting rotors allow it to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane once airborne.
The Ospreys about to begin service in Iraq were sent by ship, a decision that was intended to "save wear and tear," a spokesman said earlier this month.
In development for more than two decades, the Osprey has slowly been brought into the military's fleet after three test flight crashes in recent years that claimed 30 lives, including 14 Marines from Camp Pendleton and one from Miramar.
The Marine Corps maintains that the problems that plagued the Osprey's development have been overcome.
But Phil Coyle, a longtime Osprey observer and critic, said he believes it is still unsafe.
"For the Marines, the Osprey is like a bad poker hand, and the Marines have been investing in it for 20 years," Coyle said this week. "They'd have been better off if they'd invested in brand-new helicopters."
A former assistant secretary of defense and director of operational testing and development at the Pentagon from 1994 to 2001, Coyle said the Osprey's history is replete with announcements of problems. Those announcements, he said, are followed by others about fixes and subsequent disclosures that problems still exist.
"It continues to be an unreliable aircraft," said Coyle, who now serves as a senior adviser at Washington's Center for Defense Information.
Marine Corps officials have rejected those contentions. They have argued the aircraft, which can fly more than 400 mph, is now safe, and that the Osprey will play an important role in Iraq.
Efforts to reach officials for responses to some of Coyle's specific concerns were not immediately successful, but the Marine Corps' top officer, Commandant James Conway, said in an interview last month that the Osprey's development problems were not unusual for a new breed of aircraft and that he is anxious to get it into the field.
"I just want to see Osprey given the opportunity to prove itself," Conway said.
After years of crashes and criticism, the Osprey's fortunes improved in 2005 when the aircraft passed a series of tests and was subsequently approved for full-scale production.
Friday's Osprey exhibition will take place at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in north San Diego. That's where a North Carolina-based Marine air squadron has spent the last three weeks familiarizing the locally based I Marine Expeditionary Force and Miramar's 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing with the 57-foot-long aircraft operated by a crew of three.
Several Ospreys operated by crews from the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 have been spotted flying over the area in recent days. Friday's event is limited to a ground display with crew members on hand to answer questions from the media. It is not open to the public.
The Boeing and Bell Helicopter-built aircraft can fly more than 2,500 miles and carry up to 20,000 pounds of material. Each aircraft costs about $71 million.
To date, the Marine Corps has received 52 Ospreys with several more expected before year's end. The service has ordered more than 360 Ospreys for combat assault and support missions, and the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is buying about 50.
-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Ellie