Well, the CV-22 is supposedly getting a new forward-facing gun:
SOCOM soon getting more capable, deadlier Ospreys and C-130s
Defense News May. 22, 2014
Plans briefed to industry at the annual SOFIC conference include adding a forward-facing gun and better armor to its 50 CV-22 Ospreys... SOCOM leadership is working on beefing up the firepower on the aircraft, testing new forward-firing weapons that it wants to put in place by the end of this year... The gun program “is something that if we went to big Air Force or big Navy acquisitions it would have been a five-year program,” said [the CV-22 program director], but since the command is doing the research and development itself, “companies are looking to put a capability on this aircraft and shoot it by the end of this year.”
In other Osprey related news, there were some fascinating usage stats presented during AHS Forum 70 last month. The V-22's operating time stats break down as follows:
- Airplane mode:.........43% (original design assumption = 69%)
- Helicopter mode:......17% (original design assumption = 30%)
- On ground/on deck:..40% (original design assumption = 1%)
Of that 40% operating time OTG/OTD, 32% is rotors turning (i.e. with 8% rotors static). Could this explain why the V-22's engine erosion has been
so bad, necessitating a continuous flow of low power repair and spare engine contract awards to R-R Indianapolis? Recirculation of air around the V-22's proprotors during operations in the sandpit can't be good for its donks.
(Thanks to PPRuNers Tango & Cash for the AHS info)
I/C