Since we are talking about the V-22's little brother....we might want to bring up this thread again.
Way back when Lu Zuckerman (Lord Bless Him!) brought up the issue of the fallacy of the V-22 replacing helicopters for the Beach Assault mission of the USMC.
The USMC has decided Vertical Envelopment relying solely upon helicopters was not the way beach assaults are done. They decided a combination of resources including helicopters, conventional landing craft, and the LCAC (Landing Craft, Air Cushion) would be the correct approach. Thus, the modern amphibious ships would all have helidecks/flight decks for aircraft and well decks for boats and LCAC's.
The introduction of the LCAC was designed to allow an "over the horizion" assault capability. LCAC's can carry very heavy loads of vehicles and equipment as well as large numbers of troops. LCAC's can travel at 40-50 knots across water and land. V-22's are said to have a 200nm range for troop lifts and pre-assault SOF Ops.
The V-22 Osprey was designed to meet a 50NM range for external cargo flights. It would follow, it seems, the Osprey operations in direct support of an amphibious assault would have to work in conjunction with the other means of transportation, those being boats, helicopters, and LCAC's.
The current LHA's (largest of the amphib ships much like an aircraft carrier without the angled deck) were not designed to accomodate the V-22.
Throw in the need for the Harrier squadrons for CAS and it seems there is a shortage of deck space for all the aircraft and operations.
A digram of the USS Tarawa shows there are three landing spots adjacent to the ship's island that are too narrow for the V-22. The ships beam is 106' and the width of the Osprey with rotors running is just over 84'.
What is it I seem to be missing? Any Marines out there that can explain how all this is going to work?
