jeffg:
As I am sure you know, the external load requirement is a pretty old design spec for the 53 that won't go away any time soon.
That spec will stand regardless of what a particular operation demands of the 53 due to geographic and other factors in a given op.
Change your op to somewhere with more water, less land, fewer roads ... and you may see a whole lot more external loads. If I am the ground commander, I figure that if I can drive it there over land I will.
I doubt I'll go through the trouble of getting it helo lifted there (one does not simply snap one's fingers and get access to that 53) via external load unless the circumstances are novel.
My two cents.
Good point in the FARP.
That said, SASless has a point. Unless one arms the Osprey, how do you provide fire support, or suppressive fires, for the Osprey flight or section when it arrives at LZ "x" in "Injun Country?" Cobras can't quite keep up. I suppose you could launch the Cobras ahead of time ... but doesn't that possibly telegraph the op?
There's probabaly a work around.
I recall there being much grousing a few years back when EF-111 was retired to be replaced by EA-6B, and Air Force Strike packages no longer had fast electronic tools that could keep up. EF-18G Growler may slightly address that complaint, but what I think happened was that a work around was figured out.