Re: V22 Osprey fails OPEVAL
At the risk of being made the target of a US Marine corps-level attack, the problem is that the Marines are so good at working with what they've been given that they have to make it work.
There is no independent evaluation process for US military equipment - by an organization that is not concerned with whether the particular service needs it or not, but whether the equipment meets something equivalent to the civil certification requirements. Failure effects are an example - civil requirements are pretty strict on this, but the military can accept the risk and make work-arounds on something the civil world wouldn't accept.
And this is nothing against the US Marines - one of the world's finest military (non-special forces) organizations. They are simply doing what they need to do to work with the equipment that has been procured for them.
And there have been lots of other military aircraft that were bought for more political than military reasons - the Tornado comes to mind - didn't meet the range or payload requirements, but that didn't stop it being bought and used.
Is the V-22 perfect? Certainly not. It was conceived, designed and made by humans.
Do we need to go through this process to further the development of vertical flight aircraft? Certainly. I know of no other way to make things better.
Again, the Tornado comes to mind. Developments of the avionics, radar and weapons systems were flown in different versions of the Bucaneer, but were never all put together in one Bucaneer, because it would have been obvious that the Bucaneer, old as it was, could have carried more bombs farther and faster than the Tornado, (at least that's what I've been told).
So, while the V-22 isn't perfect, it's a necessary step on the way to getting something much better.
Carry on Marines.