Close Chopper, but no cigar. They have already armed the Osprey with the belly-mounted Interim Gun Solution (which is now a permanent solution), as well as ramp and door-mounted machine guns.
The difference is that these are defensive weapons, whereas the gunship story appears to be about giving the Osprey an offensive capability for the first time.
Edited to add: You seem to have updated your post since my response. Those cuttings don't really help as I can't read them, and the headers of 'telescopic boom', 'critical mission requirement', and 'full time engineer', dont really give too much away on the subject of a proposed gunship role.
Of course, assuming that you're correct and this was first proposed in 2000, you don't think it might be worth reporting the colonel's comments given that nothing has happened in this regard in the last 14 years?