The Incredable "Flying Pork Rind"!
Yes, the AF sees the V-22 as just another Cessna Citation that will OCCASIONALY need to hover, but that's not what the MC needs or wanted but was sold on. The AF does a lot of flying from one protected place to a far-off hostile place, hover then head back. The MC needs the V-22 to act like a pogo stick and that is where the V-22 fails. I read elsewhere the AF V-22 could live with one set of tires a year whereas the MC would need to change them out monthly. Yes, it has accumulated a lot of straight and level flights and impressed all with it's great acceleration but it was supposed to be a replacement for perhaps the MC's best combat proven A/C ever, the H-46. The frog jumps from the boat to shore and back 3 or 4 times an hour ALL day and night. It lands in the dirt and mud and always comes back aboard filthy but flyable. It does hop after hop, sometimes taking off and landing a dozen times an hour. Medivacs in hot LZs, gunners pouring out lead in defense from both sides, wounded on the cable and internals wider than a pallet. Pogo stick versus a flying broom stick. Yep, the AF has something they can get by with but the MC is screwed!. BTW, I'm a H-53 guy.