Ospreys Vs Conventional Choppers
Well I am not a Pilot and hence you can pick apart my argument with ease I guess. But from my experience I have the following observations.
Conventional Choppers - Two Helicopters shot down in South Sudan by the SPLA and White Army (South Sudan Army and White Army Refers to a Militia Group). SPLA Shot down the chopper (MI 08) at a range of two KM with a SAM 7. The second Chopper (MI 8) shot down by two bursts of AK 47 when one Bullet hit a fuel tank. Another chopper was able to fly to safety despite having a Blade damaged and one engine shot.
Ospreys - Just one experience of watching the Ospreys in Action. But it was 2000 Personnel located in the Bor Stadium who started firing with whatever they had (I mentioned the weapons earlier). All or at least two Ospreys got hit and badly damaged. The one which was unfortunate to make its approach for landing right over the Hostile area almost came crashing onto our heads but the pilot despite being hit was able to pull up and fly the Aircraft to safety. And not just fly it flew right from the middle of South Sudan to the middle of Uganda. Nonetheless as I mentioned earlier it is the man behind the machine which matters most of the time. The man in this case was a brave one and needs to be saluted for that. But the maverick style of flying in hostile territory when you are exposed and without cover is a practice better avoided.
Then someone earlier pointed out the issue of securing the airfield. How can you secure an airfield and surrounding areas with 300 Men when the armed personnel number 15000 (Armed to the Teeth)? You can take assurances and assurances were obtained for the C 130 with pictures shown and distributed with flight path coordinated. The coordination had not catered for Ospreys flying in as they would in an Air Show and doing low flying High speed recces.
But From my limited experience I would rate the Ospreys higher on than conventional Choppers on the following counts -
1. Speed.
2. Range.
3. Capacity.
4. Ability to take multiple small arms hits and continue operations.
5. Maneuverability in air.
As far as the conventional choppers are concerned no need to elaborate on the advantages as these are actually known by all. First and foremost being, that the Ospreys do require a large area for landing. I may be wrong or correct. Please correct if wrong.