thedrifter
05-21-09, 07:59 AM
A long and winding military procurement road: The V-22 Osprey story
May 20, 11:51 AM
Few topics generate more public anger than military procurement. Citizens everywhere rail against vast cost overruns and technologies that fail to work as advertised. Recently, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged this issue by calling for terminations or cutbacks of several programs as well as more general procurement reform. However, most of Gates’ predecessors have done the same, only to face Congressional and Armed Forces intransigence. We’ll see. In any case, the underlying problem is complexity. Military procurement is a complicated business, and almost every story has two sides, sometimes more.
Consider for example the V-22 Osprey. Media coverage of this aircraft program usually describes it with one adjective –troubled. That may be true, but here’s the rest of the story.
The V-22 tiltrotor aircraft is a hybrid design that combines the vertical takeoff and hover capabilities of a helicopter, with the speed and range of a turboprop airplane. Cruise speed is about 230 knots, and the Osprey can fly more than 2,100 nautical miles with one aerial refueling. The MV-22 tiltrotor is the Marine Corps’ combat assault aircraft, able to fly from amphibious ships to land over distances that shield fleets from shore defenses. The Air Force CV-22 variant enables special operations troops to conduct high-risk, long range operations in a single period of darkness without dependence on runways, military facilities or extensive logistics support.
The tiltrotor concept is not new. In the 1930s, designers explored linking vertical takeoff and landing capability with conventional fixed wing flight. Flying prototypes in the 1950s included tail-sitting, tilt wing and tiltrotor aircraft, but more than 20 years would pass before critical technologies – light-weight composite materials, digital controls and displays, and small, high-output turboshaft engines – enabled truly practical hybrid platforms.
Bell Helicopter Textron introduced the NASA-sponsored XV-15 tiltrotor in 1977. Its remarkable performance at the 1981 Paris Air Show, just a year after the failed “Desert One” attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran, quickly raised military interest. After watching the XV-15 perform, then Navy Secretary John Lehman noted that “Desert One” would have succeeded with tiltrotors.
Six months later, the Defense Department began the Joint Services Advanced Vertical Lift Aircraft (JVX) Program to develop a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), medium-lift, tactical transport aircraft. The new design would replace obsolete military helicopters and eliminate operational deficiencies in range, speed, payload, communications, maintenance costs, reliability and adverse weather and night flight. In 1982, a Joint Services Technical Assessment confirmed tiltrotor technology as the best solution for JVX program requirements. Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Rotorcraft Systems quickly teamed to pursue the JVX and began preliminary design. Bell Boeing conducted wind tunnel tests and also built and tested full-scale fuselage and wing models. The DoD designated JVX the V-22 and Secretary Lehman named the aircraft “Osprey” in 1984. Full-scale development started the following year, culminating with the first prototype flight on March 19, 1989.
A month later, however, the new Bush administration attempted to eliminate the program’s funding based on its high cost, up from $24 to $35 million each. Crashes of test aircraft in 1991 and 1992 also raised doubts about the Osprey’s capabilities. The first mishap occurred on the fifth prototype’s inaugural flight during a low hover, and no one died. The second crash was far more serious. The fourth prototype lost power on final approach to the runway at Quantico, Va., and slammed into the Potomac River, killing three Marines and four Boeing employees.
Despite these issues, Congress continued to support development and authorized several studies that validated the V-22’s superior operational capabilities compared to conventional helicopters. The program completed its first Operational Test and Evaluation at the end of the decade. Then another crash shattered the program’s equanimity. This time, 19 Marines, four crewmen and 15 passengers, died in April 2000 when their V-22 stalled and plummeted into the ground near Marana, Az., during a mission simulation. An accident investigation showed that pilot error was to blame, and the DoD prepared to clear the V-22 for low-rate production.
Trouble continued to dog the Osprey, however. The fourth crash in December 2000 killed four Marine crewmen. This mishap delayed the production decision and led to an 18-month stand-down while experts evaluated tiltrotor design and technology and implemented system improvements. Exhaustive analysis underscored the V-22’s effectiveness. A successful second OPEVAL led to a green light for full-rate production in September 2005. The Marine Corps deployed its first Osprey unit in 2007, and Air Force Special Operations Command deploys this year. To date, the Marines have converted five operational squadrons, one training squadron and a test and evaluation squadron, all based at the Marine air station in New River, N.C., from helicopters to tiltrotors. The first West Coast squadron at Miramar, Calif., will convert this year. Marine MV-22s completed three successful deployments to Iraq, starting in the spring of 2008. The Air Force has established two operational squadrons and one training squadron in Florida and New Mexico.
The Bell Boeing Osprey Team is producing 360 MV-22 Ospreys to handle expeditionary combat assault for the U.S. Marine Corps and 50 USAF CV-22s for long range infiltration and exfiltration and other special operations missions. The U.S. Navy is slated to receive 48 Ospreys for missions that could include search and rescue, carrier onboard delivery, vertical replenishment, aeromedical evacuation or even aerial refueling. Boeing builds V-22 fuselages at its Rotorcraft Systems facility in suburban Philadelphia and ships completed airframes to Bell Helicopter Textron in Amarillo, Texas, for installation of the aircraft’s wing and tail, flight test and customer acceptance and delivery.
Given the V-22 program’s many budget and administrative perturbations, it is easy to overlook the remarkable technology the aircraft itself embodies and its transformational implications for military operations, especially Special Operations.
From an aerodynamic standpoint, the tiltrotor enables the aircraft to transfer lift from moving proprotor blades to a fixed wing. Once rotor blades become propellers, they operate with far lighter loads by propelling instead of lifting the aircraft. Fixed wing flight, constituting 75 percent or more of most Osprey missions, reduces wear and tear on proprotor blades, transmissions and other moving parts, keeping maintenance and operational costs relatively low.
With its speed and range advantages, V-22s require a fraction of the logistical support, much of which must be pre-positioned, that helicopters need to complete successful long-range missions. Furthermore, the tiltrotor will add capabilities in the years ahead.
During one of the most comprehensive flight test programs in aerospace history, the V-22 has demonstrated mastery of ground- and sea-based missions. It has flown at altitudes up to 25,000 feet, with gross weight of 60,500 pounds at 19,000 feet, and G maneuver loads up to +3.9 at 260 knots. The Osprey has carried 10,000-lb. external sling loads up to 50 nautical miles at 200 knots calibrated air speed. The V-22 is shipboard compatible, with indexed rotor blades that fold over the wing which rotates in turn over the fuselage. The entire process takes just 90 seconds and facilitates moving the aircraft around a flight deck and onto hangar deck elevators. The tiltrotor also is compact, less than 60 feet long, with a wing span of about 85 feet. Rotor diameter is 38 feet. Clearly, the tiltrotor offers eye-watering capabilities compared to helicopters, enabling the Marine Corps to conduct fast, massive amphibious operations from far off shore, protecting fleets from land-based counterattacks. With the MV-22, the Marine Corps can move a battalion in a quarter of the time, and with half as many sorties, as with a CH-46E Sea Knight, the Corps’ retiring assault helicopter, already in service for more than 40 years. Applicability to the civil market offers broad potential as well, especially for regional transport without reliance on already overcrowded runways. Other possibilities range from offshore oil field support to border security patrol.
The CV-22 features all the advantages of the Marine Corps’ MV-22, with important additional systems that will give Special Ops exceptional new flexibility. To handle low-level, terrain-following flight, essential in avoiding detection by radar and anti-aircraft weapons, the CV incorporates terrain-following/terrain avoidance multimode radar and an advanced electronic warfare suite. Central to this capability is the ITT AN/ALQ-211 suite of Integrated RF Countermeasures (SIRFC) and Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) for heat-seeking missile defense.
Cost continues to be the Osprey’s highest hurdle. A recent multi-year contract specifies an average unit cost of about $63 million, at least twice the price of a comparable helicopter. The Osprey is undeniably expensive. The question remains, are the additional capabilities the V-22 brings to the Armed Forces worth the extra cost? After nearly two decades of association with the program, my answer is yes. Consider a simple scenario: 24 young Marines in a V-22 have a far better chance of completing a vertical envelopment operation against opposing forces than they would in a slower, less maneuverable helicopter. The Osprey’s speed, acceleration, agility and power are clear defensive advantages over other rotorcraft. Are there potential performance deficiencies? Yes. The V-22 doesn’t hover well at high altitudes, and losing power in helicopter mode will translate into a very hard landing. There is no perfect aircraft, however, and performance involves tradeoffs. On balance, the V-22 will be a safer, more capable support system for the U.S. Armed Forces.
Ellie
May 20, 11:51 AM
Few topics generate more public anger than military procurement. Citizens everywhere rail against vast cost overruns and technologies that fail to work as advertised. Recently, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged this issue by calling for terminations or cutbacks of several programs as well as more general procurement reform. However, most of Gates’ predecessors have done the same, only to face Congressional and Armed Forces intransigence. We’ll see. In any case, the underlying problem is complexity. Military procurement is a complicated business, and almost every story has two sides, sometimes more.
Consider for example the V-22 Osprey. Media coverage of this aircraft program usually describes it with one adjective –troubled. That may be true, but here’s the rest of the story.
The V-22 tiltrotor aircraft is a hybrid design that combines the vertical takeoff and hover capabilities of a helicopter, with the speed and range of a turboprop airplane. Cruise speed is about 230 knots, and the Osprey can fly more than 2,100 nautical miles with one aerial refueling. The MV-22 tiltrotor is the Marine Corps’ combat assault aircraft, able to fly from amphibious ships to land over distances that shield fleets from shore defenses. The Air Force CV-22 variant enables special operations troops to conduct high-risk, long range operations in a single period of darkness without dependence on runways, military facilities or extensive logistics support.
The tiltrotor concept is not new. In the 1930s, designers explored linking vertical takeoff and landing capability with conventional fixed wing flight. Flying prototypes in the 1950s included tail-sitting, tilt wing and tiltrotor aircraft, but more than 20 years would pass before critical technologies – light-weight composite materials, digital controls and displays, and small, high-output turboshaft engines – enabled truly practical hybrid platforms.
Bell Helicopter Textron introduced the NASA-sponsored XV-15 tiltrotor in 1977. Its remarkable performance at the 1981 Paris Air Show, just a year after the failed “Desert One” attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran, quickly raised military interest. After watching the XV-15 perform, then Navy Secretary John Lehman noted that “Desert One” would have succeeded with tiltrotors.
Six months later, the Defense Department began the Joint Services Advanced Vertical Lift Aircraft (JVX) Program to develop a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), medium-lift, tactical transport aircraft. The new design would replace obsolete military helicopters and eliminate operational deficiencies in range, speed, payload, communications, maintenance costs, reliability and adverse weather and night flight. In 1982, a Joint Services Technical Assessment confirmed tiltrotor technology as the best solution for JVX program requirements. Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Rotorcraft Systems quickly teamed to pursue the JVX and began preliminary design. Bell Boeing conducted wind tunnel tests and also built and tested full-scale fuselage and wing models. The DoD designated JVX the V-22 and Secretary Lehman named the aircraft “Osprey” in 1984. Full-scale development started the following year, culminating with the first prototype flight on March 19, 1989.
A month later, however, the new Bush administration attempted to eliminate the program’s funding based on its high cost, up from $24 to $35 million each. Crashes of test aircraft in 1991 and 1992 also raised doubts about the Osprey’s capabilities. The first mishap occurred on the fifth prototype’s inaugural flight during a low hover, and no one died. The second crash was far more serious. The fourth prototype lost power on final approach to the runway at Quantico, Va., and slammed into the Potomac River, killing three Marines and four Boeing employees.
Despite these issues, Congress continued to support development and authorized several studies that validated the V-22’s superior operational capabilities compared to conventional helicopters. The program completed its first Operational Test and Evaluation at the end of the decade. Then another crash shattered the program’s equanimity. This time, 19 Marines, four crewmen and 15 passengers, died in April 2000 when their V-22 stalled and plummeted into the ground near Marana, Az., during a mission simulation. An accident investigation showed that pilot error was to blame, and the DoD prepared to clear the V-22 for low-rate production.
Trouble continued to dog the Osprey, however. The fourth crash in December 2000 killed four Marine crewmen. This mishap delayed the production decision and led to an 18-month stand-down while experts evaluated tiltrotor design and technology and implemented system improvements. Exhaustive analysis underscored the V-22’s effectiveness. A successful second OPEVAL led to a green light for full-rate production in September 2005. The Marine Corps deployed its first Osprey unit in 2007, and Air Force Special Operations Command deploys this year. To date, the Marines have converted five operational squadrons, one training squadron and a test and evaluation squadron, all based at the Marine air station in New River, N.C., from helicopters to tiltrotors. The first West Coast squadron at Miramar, Calif., will convert this year. Marine MV-22s completed three successful deployments to Iraq, starting in the spring of 2008. The Air Force has established two operational squadrons and one training squadron in Florida and New Mexico.
The Bell Boeing Osprey Team is producing 360 MV-22 Ospreys to handle expeditionary combat assault for the U.S. Marine Corps and 50 USAF CV-22s for long range infiltration and exfiltration and other special operations missions. The U.S. Navy is slated to receive 48 Ospreys for missions that could include search and rescue, carrier onboard delivery, vertical replenishment, aeromedical evacuation or even aerial refueling. Boeing builds V-22 fuselages at its Rotorcraft Systems facility in suburban Philadelphia and ships completed airframes to Bell Helicopter Textron in Amarillo, Texas, for installation of the aircraft’s wing and tail, flight test and customer acceptance and delivery.
Given the V-22 program’s many budget and administrative perturbations, it is easy to overlook the remarkable technology the aircraft itself embodies and its transformational implications for military operations, especially Special Operations.
From an aerodynamic standpoint, the tiltrotor enables the aircraft to transfer lift from moving proprotor blades to a fixed wing. Once rotor blades become propellers, they operate with far lighter loads by propelling instead of lifting the aircraft. Fixed wing flight, constituting 75 percent or more of most Osprey missions, reduces wear and tear on proprotor blades, transmissions and other moving parts, keeping maintenance and operational costs relatively low.
With its speed and range advantages, V-22s require a fraction of the logistical support, much of which must be pre-positioned, that helicopters need to complete successful long-range missions. Furthermore, the tiltrotor will add capabilities in the years ahead.
During one of the most comprehensive flight test programs in aerospace history, the V-22 has demonstrated mastery of ground- and sea-based missions. It has flown at altitudes up to 25,000 feet, with gross weight of 60,500 pounds at 19,000 feet, and G maneuver loads up to +3.9 at 260 knots. The Osprey has carried 10,000-lb. external sling loads up to 50 nautical miles at 200 knots calibrated air speed. The V-22 is shipboard compatible, with indexed rotor blades that fold over the wing which rotates in turn over the fuselage. The entire process takes just 90 seconds and facilitates moving the aircraft around a flight deck and onto hangar deck elevators. The tiltrotor also is compact, less than 60 feet long, with a wing span of about 85 feet. Rotor diameter is 38 feet. Clearly, the tiltrotor offers eye-watering capabilities compared to helicopters, enabling the Marine Corps to conduct fast, massive amphibious operations from far off shore, protecting fleets from land-based counterattacks. With the MV-22, the Marine Corps can move a battalion in a quarter of the time, and with half as many sorties, as with a CH-46E Sea Knight, the Corps’ retiring assault helicopter, already in service for more than 40 years. Applicability to the civil market offers broad potential as well, especially for regional transport without reliance on already overcrowded runways. Other possibilities range from offshore oil field support to border security patrol.
The CV-22 features all the advantages of the Marine Corps’ MV-22, with important additional systems that will give Special Ops exceptional new flexibility. To handle low-level, terrain-following flight, essential in avoiding detection by radar and anti-aircraft weapons, the CV incorporates terrain-following/terrain avoidance multimode radar and an advanced electronic warfare suite. Central to this capability is the ITT AN/ALQ-211 suite of Integrated RF Countermeasures (SIRFC) and Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) for heat-seeking missile defense.
Cost continues to be the Osprey’s highest hurdle. A recent multi-year contract specifies an average unit cost of about $63 million, at least twice the price of a comparable helicopter. The Osprey is undeniably expensive. The question remains, are the additional capabilities the V-22 brings to the Armed Forces worth the extra cost? After nearly two decades of association with the program, my answer is yes. Consider a simple scenario: 24 young Marines in a V-22 have a far better chance of completing a vertical envelopment operation against opposing forces than they would in a slower, less maneuverable helicopter. The Osprey’s speed, acceleration, agility and power are clear defensive advantages over other rotorcraft. Are there potential performance deficiencies? Yes. The V-22 doesn’t hover well at high altitudes, and losing power in helicopter mode will translate into a very hard landing. There is no perfect aircraft, however, and performance involves tradeoffs. On balance, the V-22 will be a safer, more capable support system for the U.S. Armed Forces.
Ellie