What's the latest news of the V22 Osprey?
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When i was an automotive powertrains man we used to use an exponentially decaying curve to estimate the expected number of faults per test hour. It is suprisingly true in other areas of engineering. The problems never go away, but as more "unknowns" reveal themselves the development team can identify and solve the root cause.
Given the statistical nature of this development process, it always amazes me that it is generally the money men who struggle to get it...
Mart
Given the statistical nature of this development process, it always amazes me that it is generally the money men who struggle to get it...
Mart
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
Graviman, no point in explaining stuff like Bath-tub reliability curves to the unbelievers, it only ruins a good story about how crap the V-22 is.
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V-22 Requires Even More Special Treatment
So you'd like to use a V-22 at your airport or pad huh, well make sure it only operates over concrete. (Oh yeah, it will also warp USN carrier decks)
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AL ASAD,Iraq (June 5, 2007) -- The Marine Corps’ MV-22 “Osprey” now has an easier target to sight in when landing at Camp Ramadi. Thanks to a group of Marines, the forward operating base now has a true expeditionary airfield to receive frequent troop movements and re-supplies.
The expeditionary airfield technicians and heavy equipment operators of Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 began building two landing pads for the Osprey and other air assets at Camp Ramadi, April 25.
“The Osprey is coming into theater and we’re building two landing pads so they can bring troops and supplies into Ramadi,” said Staff Sgt. Joseph B. Hague, an expeditionary air field technician with MWSS-371.
Although the MV-22 has increased troop carrying capacity and the ability to fly further and faster than other helicopters, the Osprey needs additional landing space because of the wide rotor span.
“This project is specifically for the Osprey,” said Lance Cpl. Roberto Zepeda III, an expeditionary airfield technician with MWSS-371. “Most helicopters only need a 96 by 96 foot pad, but we expanded to 120 by 120 so the Osprey can land.”
Marines came from various sections at ‘371 comprising a 31 man team, created to help the expeditionary air field section lay two 120 foot by 120 foot AM-2 matting landing pads.
“The matting itself is used universally for landing zones and runways,” said Hague, a Gainesville, Fla. native. “It’s very durable so it can be put anywhere. Basically if there’s ground there, you can put this matting down. It can be used for temporary or permanent airfields.”
Prior to this project, Ramadi’s only landing pad was made of asphalt which can be melted by the heat produced when the Osprey takes off or lands vertically. The AM-2 matting is made of high grade aluminum and can stand up to elements like extreme heat and cold. The matting can be laid on any type of flat terrain and can be utilized by any military aircraft.
The scheduled 30 day project consisted of two phases; surveying the terrain and constructing two landing pads with heavy equipment, then laying the AM-2 matting. The EAF Marines then painted and lighted the new landing pads.
“Matting is simple, it’s like putting together a big puzzle,” said Hague. “You stake it down, then paint it, light it, and certify it. The minute it’s built and certified, you can land on it.”
The AM-2 matting was installed specifically to support the Osprey, but every aircraft landing in Ramadi will welcome the change.
The airfield was a dirt lot with a small existing asphalt pad, according to Hague. The asphalt pad can only sustain two aircraft, any additional aircraft land in the dirt. With the new pads, the extra aircraft will be able to come in and land on pads while they’re waiting to refuel and load or unload passengers.
While increasing aircraft efficiency the new landing pads will also cut down brown out conditions making it safer for aircrews.
“It’s going to help out with all the aircraft traffic,” said Hague. “They’ll be able to bring in more aircraft for supplies, moving troops, and transport between bases.”
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AL ASAD,Iraq (June 5, 2007) -- The Marine Corps’ MV-22 “Osprey” now has an easier target to sight in when landing at Camp Ramadi. Thanks to a group of Marines, the forward operating base now has a true expeditionary airfield to receive frequent troop movements and re-supplies.
The expeditionary airfield technicians and heavy equipment operators of Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 began building two landing pads for the Osprey and other air assets at Camp Ramadi, April 25.
“The Osprey is coming into theater and we’re building two landing pads so they can bring troops and supplies into Ramadi,” said Staff Sgt. Joseph B. Hague, an expeditionary air field technician with MWSS-371.
Although the MV-22 has increased troop carrying capacity and the ability to fly further and faster than other helicopters, the Osprey needs additional landing space because of the wide rotor span.
“This project is specifically for the Osprey,” said Lance Cpl. Roberto Zepeda III, an expeditionary airfield technician with MWSS-371. “Most helicopters only need a 96 by 96 foot pad, but we expanded to 120 by 120 so the Osprey can land.”
Marines came from various sections at ‘371 comprising a 31 man team, created to help the expeditionary air field section lay two 120 foot by 120 foot AM-2 matting landing pads.
“The matting itself is used universally for landing zones and runways,” said Hague, a Gainesville, Fla. native. “It’s very durable so it can be put anywhere. Basically if there’s ground there, you can put this matting down. It can be used for temporary or permanent airfields.”
Prior to this project, Ramadi’s only landing pad was made of asphalt which can be melted by the heat produced when the Osprey takes off or lands vertically. The AM-2 matting is made of high grade aluminum and can stand up to elements like extreme heat and cold. The matting can be laid on any type of flat terrain and can be utilized by any military aircraft.
The scheduled 30 day project consisted of two phases; surveying the terrain and constructing two landing pads with heavy equipment, then laying the AM-2 matting. The EAF Marines then painted and lighted the new landing pads.
“Matting is simple, it’s like putting together a big puzzle,” said Hague. “You stake it down, then paint it, light it, and certify it. The minute it’s built and certified, you can land on it.”
The AM-2 matting was installed specifically to support the Osprey, but every aircraft landing in Ramadi will welcome the change.
The airfield was a dirt lot with a small existing asphalt pad, according to Hague. The asphalt pad can only sustain two aircraft, any additional aircraft land in the dirt. With the new pads, the extra aircraft will be able to come in and land on pads while they’re waiting to refuel and load or unload passengers.
While increasing aircraft efficiency the new landing pads will also cut down brown out conditions making it safer for aircrews.
“It’s going to help out with all the aircraft traffic,” said Hague. “They’ll be able to bring in more aircraft for supplies, moving troops, and transport between bases.”
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Popular Science magazine honors the V-22 with a Best of What’s New Award for 2007
http://www.shephard.co.uk/Rotorhub/D...e-b2423975f034
(Amarillo, Tex., Nov. 13, 2007) – Calling the Bell Boeing V-22 a “two-in-one marvel,” POPULAR SCIENCE has named the Osprey to its list of “The Best of What’s New” for 2007.
Now in service with the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force Special Operations Command, the V-22 is a tiltrotor aircraft with engine nacelles at the tips of both wings. With the nacelles in the vertical position the V-22 can take-off, hover and land like a helicopter. With the engine nacelles in the horizontal or forward position the V-22 can fly more than 300 mph with the long range of a fixed wing turboprop airplane.
“We’re delighted and honored that POPULAR SCIENCE has chosen the V-22 for recognition this year,” said Bell Boeing Program Director Bob Kenney. “This is a tribute to the thousands of Bell and Boeing employees who work on the V-22 as well as the hundreds of young men and women with the Marines and Air Force who operate and fly the Osprey.”
Each year, the editors of POPULAR SCIENCE review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year; breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. The winners—the Best of What’s New—are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of POPULAR SCIENCE, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of the Best of What’s New in 1987. Best of What’s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 10 categories. The V-22 Osprey is part of the Aviation & Space category.
Boeing Rotorcraft Systems, a division of The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc. [NYSE: TXT], share responsibility for production of the V-22. At its Rotorcraft Systems factory in suburban Philadelphia, Boeing builds and ships completed Osprey fuselages to Bell’s Amarillo, Texas, facility for installation of aircraft wing and tail assemblies and delivery to U.S. armed forces customers.
The V-22 Osprey program is slated to deliver 458 tiltrotors in the next decade to the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and the U.S. Navy.
(Amarillo, Tex., Nov. 13, 2007) – Calling the Bell Boeing V-22 a “two-in-one marvel,” POPULAR SCIENCE has named the Osprey to its list of “The Best of What’s New” for 2007.
Now in service with the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force Special Operations Command, the V-22 is a tiltrotor aircraft with engine nacelles at the tips of both wings. With the nacelles in the vertical position the V-22 can take-off, hover and land like a helicopter. With the engine nacelles in the horizontal or forward position the V-22 can fly more than 300 mph with the long range of a fixed wing turboprop airplane.
“We’re delighted and honored that POPULAR SCIENCE has chosen the V-22 for recognition this year,” said Bell Boeing Program Director Bob Kenney. “This is a tribute to the thousands of Bell and Boeing employees who work on the V-22 as well as the hundreds of young men and women with the Marines and Air Force who operate and fly the Osprey.”
Each year, the editors of POPULAR SCIENCE review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year; breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. The winners—the Best of What’s New—are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of POPULAR SCIENCE, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of the Best of What’s New in 1987. Best of What’s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 10 categories. The V-22 Osprey is part of the Aviation & Space category.
Boeing Rotorcraft Systems, a division of The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc. [NYSE: TXT], share responsibility for production of the V-22. At its Rotorcraft Systems factory in suburban Philadelphia, Boeing builds and ships completed Osprey fuselages to Bell’s Amarillo, Texas, facility for installation of aircraft wing and tail assemblies and delivery to U.S. armed forces customers.
The V-22 Osprey program is slated to deliver 458 tiltrotors in the next decade to the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and the U.S. Navy.
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Col. Glenn Walters: Take it from this Marine aviator: The Osprey is worth every penny
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/1120..._8957330.shtml
ESCONDIDO, Calif. - Unlike most of the V-22 critics, I have actually flown the MV-22 Osprey.
I flew hundreds of hours in this remarkable aircraft when I commanded the Marine Corps' test and evaluation squadron from 2003 to 2006, and I am obliged to tell the truth.
The truth is the Osprey is the most thoroughly tested aircraft in the history of aviation for one fundamental reason: the safety of its passengers. Our nation expects the military to use the best engineered, maintained and operated equipment available. Our troops deserve it.
The Osprey we are flying today is just that. Critics say we haven't flown the Osprey in the desert. Not true.
My squadron flew in desert environments on multiple occasions, totaling months of tests. The squadron now in Iraq completed several desert training periods prior to deploying. In fact, we just had another squadron of MV-22s in California and Arizona doing more of the same.
Not only can the Ospreys fly in the desert, the aircraft's advanced technology makes it easier than in any other rotorcraft to land in brownout conditions. Other critics point out that the MV-22 does not have a forward-firing weapon, but none puts this in context: No medium or heavy-lift aircraft in the U.S. inventory has a forward-firing weapon. MV-22s flying in Iraq have ramp-mounted machine guns, which have become the standard on our aircraft in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, based on the threat.
That, and the inherent capabilities of the aircraft (range, speed and altitude), give the MV-22 the ability to reduce susceptibility and vulnerability to many threats. The MV-22 has limited visibility through the cabin windows, much like the CH-46 and the CH-53E, but what most critics do not know is that the troop commander, who rides in the back of the Osprey, has unparalleled situational awareness from the onboard precision navigation system, with moving maps and a significant communications capability.
These capabilities are not an option in existing Marine Corps aircraft. The MV-22 is the most maneuverable medium-lift assault support platform in the world.
Conventional helicopters are limited to standard rotary wing tactics and airspeeds, while the MV-22 has the ability to fly like a turboprop airplane as well as a conventional helicopter. As an airplane, it can climb or descend at a significantly faster rate than any helicopter and transit at much higher speeds. Vortex Ring State is a phenomenon experienced by all rotorcraft - not just the Osprey.
While the MV-22 is the only aircraft with a warning system that alerts pilots to VRS conditions, it is the least susceptible to this phenomenon. To argue whether the aircraft is worth the money spent is an unending debate.
To the injured Marine or soldier whose life is saved due to the unparalleled capabilities of the MV-22, I would posit that the aircraft is worth every penny.
Col. Glenn Walters heads the Marine Corps' aviation plans section in the Pentagon and previously commanded Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 22 (VMX-22).
ESCONDIDO, Calif. - Unlike most of the V-22 critics, I have actually flown the MV-22 Osprey.
I flew hundreds of hours in this remarkable aircraft when I commanded the Marine Corps' test and evaluation squadron from 2003 to 2006, and I am obliged to tell the truth.
The truth is the Osprey is the most thoroughly tested aircraft in the history of aviation for one fundamental reason: the safety of its passengers. Our nation expects the military to use the best engineered, maintained and operated equipment available. Our troops deserve it.
The Osprey we are flying today is just that. Critics say we haven't flown the Osprey in the desert. Not true.
My squadron flew in desert environments on multiple occasions, totaling months of tests. The squadron now in Iraq completed several desert training periods prior to deploying. In fact, we just had another squadron of MV-22s in California and Arizona doing more of the same.
Not only can the Ospreys fly in the desert, the aircraft's advanced technology makes it easier than in any other rotorcraft to land in brownout conditions. Other critics point out that the MV-22 does not have a forward-firing weapon, but none puts this in context: No medium or heavy-lift aircraft in the U.S. inventory has a forward-firing weapon. MV-22s flying in Iraq have ramp-mounted machine guns, which have become the standard on our aircraft in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, based on the threat.
That, and the inherent capabilities of the aircraft (range, speed and altitude), give the MV-22 the ability to reduce susceptibility and vulnerability to many threats. The MV-22 has limited visibility through the cabin windows, much like the CH-46 and the CH-53E, but what most critics do not know is that the troop commander, who rides in the back of the Osprey, has unparalleled situational awareness from the onboard precision navigation system, with moving maps and a significant communications capability.
These capabilities are not an option in existing Marine Corps aircraft. The MV-22 is the most maneuverable medium-lift assault support platform in the world.
Conventional helicopters are limited to standard rotary wing tactics and airspeeds, while the MV-22 has the ability to fly like a turboprop airplane as well as a conventional helicopter. As an airplane, it can climb or descend at a significantly faster rate than any helicopter and transit at much higher speeds. Vortex Ring State is a phenomenon experienced by all rotorcraft - not just the Osprey.
While the MV-22 is the only aircraft with a warning system that alerts pilots to VRS conditions, it is the least susceptible to this phenomenon. To argue whether the aircraft is worth the money spent is an unending debate.
To the injured Marine or soldier whose life is saved due to the unparalleled capabilities of the MV-22, I would posit that the aircraft is worth every penny.
Col. Glenn Walters heads the Marine Corps' aviation plans section in the Pentagon and previously commanded Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 22 (VMX-22).
The latest "Mission Capable" readiness rate has been reported being 75% for the aircraft in Iraq and is said to be comparable to other USMC aircraft.
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Eating Crow on Black Friday!(?)
With the V-22 now flying at 400 MPH and sporting a "Heavy Machine Gun" on its ramp, I thinks some apologies are in order from the V-22 Naysayers.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/11/23/news/top_stories/20_10_7811_22_07.txt
Osprey said to be performing well in Iraq
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Nearly two months after the controversial Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft began flying in Iraq, a Marine Corps official said this week that no significant problems have emerged for the much-troubled aircraft.
"They have been moving troops and supplies with ease," Maj. Eric Dent at Marine Corps headquarters at the Pentagon said in response to an inquiry from the North County Times. "There have been no significant maintenance issues."
The Osprey's performance is closely watched by Marine Corps officials and critics of the hybrid aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane at more than 400 mph with tilt-rotor propellers.
The Osprey and its tortured development were the subject of a Time magazine cover story last month, which noted the Marine Corps had spent $20 billion developing the aircraft and that 30 lives were lost during training missions before it was put into service.
Seven years ago, two Osprey crashes killed 23 Marines. Nineteen died when one went down near Tucson and four others died a few months later in North Carolina accident.
Fourteen Camp Pendleton Marines and one from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station perished in the April 2000 crash in Arizona, a mishap investigators blamed on a condition called vortex ring state, a danger for all helicopters.
Another Osprey also crashed in a nonfatal accident and others have been damaged in mishaps involving fires, including one earlier this month in North Carolina, and stalled engines and software problems.
Officially designated the V-22, the first 10 Ospreys to see active service were sent to Iraq in September and began flying missions in October.
The North Carolina unit in Iraq, VMM-263, has been flying sorties in Iraq for more than a month, although the Marine Corps would not say precisely how many missions it has flown.
"So far, the squadron has performed exactly as projected," Dent said. "The V-22 is making a significant difference in the way Marine aviation provides medium lift assault support to our Marines on the ground and we could not be more pleased."
Among the issues being closely watched is the Osprey's ability to withstand an attack of ground fire and respond. The aircraft now only has a rear-mounted machine gun but the service is working with the manufacturer, Boeing and Bell Helicopter, to install a second, forward-mounted gun and working on a remote-controlled turret gun.
Dent was unable to say if the Osprey had been involved in any firefights, but a former Pentagon official has said he believed the Marine Corps is restricting the Osprey's use to avoid combat.
The official, Thomas Christie, who was the Defense Department's director of Operations, Test and Evaluation for five years until retiring in 2005, said earlier this year that he believed the Marine Corps would carefully plan initial Osprey missions to avoid its flying into areas where ground fire would not be unexpected.
Dent said he was unable to address Christie's assertion. That may be because Gen. James Mattis, former commander of Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, ordered in September that a tight lid be kept on the Osprey's operations, according to a Marine Corps source familiar with that directive.
Dent said he was also unable to report the number of missions the Osprey has flown.
Approximately 11,000 Marines and sailors from that force's Regimental Combat Teams 1 and 5 and its headquarters group will assume responsibility for security in Iraq's Anbar region after the first of the year.
It was not clear this week if the Osprey unit now in Iraq will return to the U.S. next year and be replaced by a similar unit deploying with the locally based troops.
Although the Osprey has a range of more than 2,500 miles and can carry up to 24 troops or 20,000 pounds of cargo, the ones sent to Iraq went by sea.
The only known problem since the Osprey arrived came during its flight from the deck of the vessel that ferried it there, the amphibious assault ship Wasp, to the Al Asad Air Base in Anbar. One Osprey was forced to land in Jordan and make a second unscheduled landing the next day because of an undisclosed mechanical issue, the Marine Corps said at the time.
A former head of the Marine Corps' helicopter test and evaluation squadron, Col. Glenn Walters, recently wrote a column for the North County Times defending the Osprey.
Walters argued that the Osprey is the most thoroughly tested aircraft in the history of aviation and pointed out no similar aircraft has a forward-firing weapon. He also said the Osprey is the most maneuverable medium lift helicopter in the world, with the ability to climb or descend at a significantly higher speed than any other helicopter.
To date, the Marine Corps has received more than 52 Ospreys from the manufacturer as it moves to replace its fleet of Vietnam-era helicopters.
The service has ordered more than 360 Ospreys for combat assault and support missions, and the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is buying about 50.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/11/23/news/top_stories/20_10_7811_22_07.txt
Osprey said to be performing well in Iraq
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Nearly two months after the controversial Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft began flying in Iraq, a Marine Corps official said this week that no significant problems have emerged for the much-troubled aircraft.
"They have been moving troops and supplies with ease," Maj. Eric Dent at Marine Corps headquarters at the Pentagon said in response to an inquiry from the North County Times. "There have been no significant maintenance issues."
The Osprey's performance is closely watched by Marine Corps officials and critics of the hybrid aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane at more than 400 mph with tilt-rotor propellers.
The Osprey and its tortured development were the subject of a Time magazine cover story last month, which noted the Marine Corps had spent $20 billion developing the aircraft and that 30 lives were lost during training missions before it was put into service.
Seven years ago, two Osprey crashes killed 23 Marines. Nineteen died when one went down near Tucson and four others died a few months later in North Carolina accident.
Fourteen Camp Pendleton Marines and one from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station perished in the April 2000 crash in Arizona, a mishap investigators blamed on a condition called vortex ring state, a danger for all helicopters.
Another Osprey also crashed in a nonfatal accident and others have been damaged in mishaps involving fires, including one earlier this month in North Carolina, and stalled engines and software problems.
Officially designated the V-22, the first 10 Ospreys to see active service were sent to Iraq in September and began flying missions in October.
The North Carolina unit in Iraq, VMM-263, has been flying sorties in Iraq for more than a month, although the Marine Corps would not say precisely how many missions it has flown.
"So far, the squadron has performed exactly as projected," Dent said. "The V-22 is making a significant difference in the way Marine aviation provides medium lift assault support to our Marines on the ground and we could not be more pleased."
Among the issues being closely watched is the Osprey's ability to withstand an attack of ground fire and respond. The aircraft now only has a rear-mounted machine gun but the service is working with the manufacturer, Boeing and Bell Helicopter, to install a second, forward-mounted gun and working on a remote-controlled turret gun.
Dent was unable to say if the Osprey had been involved in any firefights, but a former Pentagon official has said he believed the Marine Corps is restricting the Osprey's use to avoid combat.
The official, Thomas Christie, who was the Defense Department's director of Operations, Test and Evaluation for five years until retiring in 2005, said earlier this year that he believed the Marine Corps would carefully plan initial Osprey missions to avoid its flying into areas where ground fire would not be unexpected.
Dent said he was unable to address Christie's assertion. That may be because Gen. James Mattis, former commander of Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, ordered in September that a tight lid be kept on the Osprey's operations, according to a Marine Corps source familiar with that directive.
Dent said he was also unable to report the number of missions the Osprey has flown.
Approximately 11,000 Marines and sailors from that force's Regimental Combat Teams 1 and 5 and its headquarters group will assume responsibility for security in Iraq's Anbar region after the first of the year.
It was not clear this week if the Osprey unit now in Iraq will return to the U.S. next year and be replaced by a similar unit deploying with the locally based troops.
Although the Osprey has a range of more than 2,500 miles and can carry up to 24 troops or 20,000 pounds of cargo, the ones sent to Iraq went by sea.
The only known problem since the Osprey arrived came during its flight from the deck of the vessel that ferried it there, the amphibious assault ship Wasp, to the Al Asad Air Base in Anbar. One Osprey was forced to land in Jordan and make a second unscheduled landing the next day because of an undisclosed mechanical issue, the Marine Corps said at the time.
A former head of the Marine Corps' helicopter test and evaluation squadron, Col. Glenn Walters, recently wrote a column for the North County Times defending the Osprey.
Walters argued that the Osprey is the most thoroughly tested aircraft in the history of aviation and pointed out no similar aircraft has a forward-firing weapon. He also said the Osprey is the most maneuverable medium lift helicopter in the world, with the ability to climb or descend at a significantly higher speed than any other helicopter.
To date, the Marine Corps has received more than 52 Ospreys from the manufacturer as it moves to replace its fleet of Vietnam-era helicopters.
The service has ordered more than 360 Ospreys for combat assault and support missions, and the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is buying about 50.
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Combat Photo of V-22 Doing Its Thing !!
071023-M-2166H-008 AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (Oct. 23, 2007) MV-22B Ospreys fly over U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Troy Juarez, assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 29, as he acts as an injured pilot waiting to be rescued during a Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP) exercise at Al Asad Air Base. This TRAP exercise is being conducted as training in the event of actual situations. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Michael Haas (Released)
Now finally supporting Marines in Iraq we find the long awaited V-22 accumulating war time combat flight hours doing missions that could have been done at Disney World. Kinda makes ya proud don't it.
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V-22: When Words Have Consequences
http://www.shephard.co.uk/Rotorhub/D...9-419f8b838974
The following will appear in the 'Eye on Americas' column in the November-December edition of Defence Helicopter magazine.
***
Can a V-22 autorotate? No, but the reasons it won’t have to are more important.
Do USMC MV-22Bs have a forward-firing gun? No, but the reasons they don’t need one are more important.
Have Osprey prototypes crashed? Yes, but the specifics of each incident are the real point.
Selectivity - of the extreme type practiced by Time magazine in a recent cover story (‘A Flying Shame,’ September 27, 2007) - hold readers hostage to an incomplete, at best, parsing of the facts.
Speaking as a correspondent who has followed the Osprey debate pretty thoroughly over the years, this is a disservice to a genuine advance in national aeronautics capability of which the nation should be proud, not dismissive. In fact the Marines - currently and no doubt tentatively probing it’s use in Iraq - deserve our admiration for their foresight. We will go out on a limb: the Osprey is safe, well tested (within the limits of human capability), and well poised to pay back the investment of national will and treasury it took to get here.
Over the years this is a circus that has been fascinating to watch. A sort of tendentious negativism has come to roost among the Osprey's critics, which won’t be moved whatever the evidence.
In parallel, meanwhile, the technology inside it has vaulted ahead; early Ospreys, designed when digital meant watches bear, practically speaking, no resemblance to the current models.
Materials, digital controls, production predictability, maintenance and support - in fact, almost anything aerospace science and technology has given us - has in turn accelerated beyond recognition over the past ten years; it’s undeniable that much of it has made its way into the aircraft.
We were at a small Virginia airport this summer when a USAF crew returned in a CV-22. They had just flown out of the Blue Ridge mountains, 40-50 feet off the ground doing 200 knots, in actual fog, to prove a wondrous thing called TFR (terrain following radar) works as advertised.
We were in the back of an Osprey over Britain’s Salisbury Plain when its USMC pilot suddenly got taken by an urge to rack his aircraft around. No agile helicopter (and we’ve flown Apaches, Cobras, Lynxes and MH-6s) can perform like an MV-22 near the ground. Ospreys feel - well, they feel, in a word, tough. Helicopters creak and flex in the air, particularly so when flying radically. The V-22 is testament to its precision composite construction.
Some time ago - at the height of the vortex ring state paranoia - we fashioned a satirical Time magazine/Washington Post type headline: 'Sources revealed today that a 747 will fall out of the air if the pilot allows it to get below about 100 knots. Engineers call it ‘stalling’ and although they’ve known about it for years, nothing has been done...' Absurd on its face, but it has to be said (and we’re sorry to say it) the pilots in the Marana accident (four of them, the two in the lead aircraft got down with busted parts and bruised egos) flew their aircraft outside the envelope that was designed (and so noted in the flight manual) to ensure it didn’t ‘stall.’
We have - over the years - been impressed by the brainpower, persistence and commitment that’s gone into this project.
I know, I know, ‘big’ media will accuse me (they already do) of drinking the Koole Aid, but it’s a fact: this aircraft epitomises the best the aerospace culture today can come up with, which is saying a lot.
It’s not designed to ignore the realities of landing at hostile LZs, or built to ignore the fact it can’t auotorotate for convenient reasons.
It’s built, instead, to take account of new realities that have grown up while most of its negative correspondents have assiduously been fighting the last (Vietnam) war and ignoring what’s been happening since.
Battlefields today are digitally networked, prepped by precision missiles and bombs that don’t miss, hosts to true combined arms and joint integrated force action that has appeared only relatively recently.
(Surveillance, for example, is today a huge differentiatior, with UAVs doing real-time reconaissance, feeding the stuff back directly to the cockpit). No, the days of little Hueys, crewed by some of the bravest aviators in history, spiralling down into gun and rocket fire are probably over. (We say probably because asymmetric warfare is a problem; the appearance of IEDs in Iraq is an asymmetric problem).
But we also would say we respect the Osprey critics we’ve met, the real critics, the ones - industry and military - who have had to do the figuring, fix the processes, design the work-arounds, fly the tests flight, and who are part of the iterative process.
To deny the genuiness of their effort, conscientiousness and professionalism is not only wrong, but it is to fall into today’s one-sided cultural thinking - that everything that lacks an instantly emotional identity is somehow not valid. Anything said in defence of something like the Osprey is dismissable for falling outside the cultural norms of the day.
Time magazine didn’t do this directly, obviously, but Chuck Allen, the Boeing rotorcraft GM where they build half the V-22, told me he got letters from workers asking why their efforts were being thrown to the journalistic winds like this. Another source talked of mothers concerned their (Marine) kids would fly the Osprey in Iraq.
We saw Fox NewsTV - discussing the article - show the tape over and over again from Grady Wilson’s Wilmington accident years ago (1991, an early prototype, with both pilots getting out unhurt). It was troublesome that some gunner in some far off place somewhere might just have relished it greatly - the angles, the way the controls moved, the profile it presented against the skyline - for the info it gave him. It seems we’re too casual about the criticism we sometimes bring to these things. Words have consequences.
- David S. Harvey.
The following will appear in the 'Eye on Americas' column in the November-December edition of Defence Helicopter magazine.
***
Can a V-22 autorotate? No, but the reasons it won’t have to are more important.
Do USMC MV-22Bs have a forward-firing gun? No, but the reasons they don’t need one are more important.
Have Osprey prototypes crashed? Yes, but the specifics of each incident are the real point.
Selectivity - of the extreme type practiced by Time magazine in a recent cover story (‘A Flying Shame,’ September 27, 2007) - hold readers hostage to an incomplete, at best, parsing of the facts.
Speaking as a correspondent who has followed the Osprey debate pretty thoroughly over the years, this is a disservice to a genuine advance in national aeronautics capability of which the nation should be proud, not dismissive. In fact the Marines - currently and no doubt tentatively probing it’s use in Iraq - deserve our admiration for their foresight. We will go out on a limb: the Osprey is safe, well tested (within the limits of human capability), and well poised to pay back the investment of national will and treasury it took to get here.
Over the years this is a circus that has been fascinating to watch. A sort of tendentious negativism has come to roost among the Osprey's critics, which won’t be moved whatever the evidence.
In parallel, meanwhile, the technology inside it has vaulted ahead; early Ospreys, designed when digital meant watches bear, practically speaking, no resemblance to the current models.
Materials, digital controls, production predictability, maintenance and support - in fact, almost anything aerospace science and technology has given us - has in turn accelerated beyond recognition over the past ten years; it’s undeniable that much of it has made its way into the aircraft.
We were at a small Virginia airport this summer when a USAF crew returned in a CV-22. They had just flown out of the Blue Ridge mountains, 40-50 feet off the ground doing 200 knots, in actual fog, to prove a wondrous thing called TFR (terrain following radar) works as advertised.
We were in the back of an Osprey over Britain’s Salisbury Plain when its USMC pilot suddenly got taken by an urge to rack his aircraft around. No agile helicopter (and we’ve flown Apaches, Cobras, Lynxes and MH-6s) can perform like an MV-22 near the ground. Ospreys feel - well, they feel, in a word, tough. Helicopters creak and flex in the air, particularly so when flying radically. The V-22 is testament to its precision composite construction.
Some time ago - at the height of the vortex ring state paranoia - we fashioned a satirical Time magazine/Washington Post type headline: 'Sources revealed today that a 747 will fall out of the air if the pilot allows it to get below about 100 knots. Engineers call it ‘stalling’ and although they’ve known about it for years, nothing has been done...' Absurd on its face, but it has to be said (and we’re sorry to say it) the pilots in the Marana accident (four of them, the two in the lead aircraft got down with busted parts and bruised egos) flew their aircraft outside the envelope that was designed (and so noted in the flight manual) to ensure it didn’t ‘stall.’
We have - over the years - been impressed by the brainpower, persistence and commitment that’s gone into this project.
I know, I know, ‘big’ media will accuse me (they already do) of drinking the Koole Aid, but it’s a fact: this aircraft epitomises the best the aerospace culture today can come up with, which is saying a lot.
It’s not designed to ignore the realities of landing at hostile LZs, or built to ignore the fact it can’t auotorotate for convenient reasons.
It’s built, instead, to take account of new realities that have grown up while most of its negative correspondents have assiduously been fighting the last (Vietnam) war and ignoring what’s been happening since.
Battlefields today are digitally networked, prepped by precision missiles and bombs that don’t miss, hosts to true combined arms and joint integrated force action that has appeared only relatively recently.
(Surveillance, for example, is today a huge differentiatior, with UAVs doing real-time reconaissance, feeding the stuff back directly to the cockpit). No, the days of little Hueys, crewed by some of the bravest aviators in history, spiralling down into gun and rocket fire are probably over. (We say probably because asymmetric warfare is a problem; the appearance of IEDs in Iraq is an asymmetric problem).
But we also would say we respect the Osprey critics we’ve met, the real critics, the ones - industry and military - who have had to do the figuring, fix the processes, design the work-arounds, fly the tests flight, and who are part of the iterative process.
To deny the genuiness of their effort, conscientiousness and professionalism is not only wrong, but it is to fall into today’s one-sided cultural thinking - that everything that lacks an instantly emotional identity is somehow not valid. Anything said in defence of something like the Osprey is dismissable for falling outside the cultural norms of the day.
Time magazine didn’t do this directly, obviously, but Chuck Allen, the Boeing rotorcraft GM where they build half the V-22, told me he got letters from workers asking why their efforts were being thrown to the journalistic winds like this. Another source talked of mothers concerned their (Marine) kids would fly the Osprey in Iraq.
We saw Fox NewsTV - discussing the article - show the tape over and over again from Grady Wilson’s Wilmington accident years ago (1991, an early prototype, with both pilots getting out unhurt). It was troublesome that some gunner in some far off place somewhere might just have relished it greatly - the angles, the way the controls moved, the profile it presented against the skyline - for the info it gave him. It seems we’re too casual about the criticism we sometimes bring to these things. Words have consequences.
- David S. Harvey.
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Seems like the Spec Ops CV-22s will have a much better system than the Marines 'gun on the ramp' set up...
BAE Systems to Provide All-Quadrant Interim Defensive Weapon System For CV-22 Osprey
JOHNSON CITY, N.Y.-- BAE Systems will develop an interim all-quadrant defensive weapon system for the CV-22 Osprey aircraft. The contract awarded by the U.S. Special Operations Command, calls for rapid development, installation, testing, and qualification of a weapon capability that provides defensive fire protection to all quadrants of the aircraft.
The belly-mounted system is remotely operated and capable of delivering accurate, sustained fire throughout the CV-22’s flight envelope. The contract is valued at $491,000, with a potential value of $16.3 million, including options.
"At BAE Systems, we pride ourselves on the work we do to protect those who protect us," said Clark Freise, vice president of defense avionics for BAE Systems in Johnson City, New York. "This system will provide vital protection to this aircraft, its operators, and the Special Operations personnel that it will carry.”
The weapon system is based on BAE Systems’ Remote Guardian System, a company-funded effort to develop a common airborne defensive capability. BAE Systems has been investing in the RGS for more than two years and unveiled the system in October 2007 at the Modern Day Marine military exposition in Quantico, Virginia.
BAE Systems to Provide All-Quadrant Interim Defensive Weapon System For CV-22 Osprey
JOHNSON CITY, N.Y.-- BAE Systems will develop an interim all-quadrant defensive weapon system for the CV-22 Osprey aircraft. The contract awarded by the U.S. Special Operations Command, calls for rapid development, installation, testing, and qualification of a weapon capability that provides defensive fire protection to all quadrants of the aircraft.
The belly-mounted system is remotely operated and capable of delivering accurate, sustained fire throughout the CV-22’s flight envelope. The contract is valued at $491,000, with a potential value of $16.3 million, including options.
"At BAE Systems, we pride ourselves on the work we do to protect those who protect us," said Clark Freise, vice president of defense avionics for BAE Systems in Johnson City, New York. "This system will provide vital protection to this aircraft, its operators, and the Special Operations personnel that it will carry.”
The weapon system is based on BAE Systems’ Remote Guardian System, a company-funded effort to develop a common airborne defensive capability. BAE Systems has been investing in the RGS for more than two years and unveiled the system in October 2007 at the Modern Day Marine military exposition in Quantico, Virginia.
Last edited by 21st Century; 18th Jan 2008 at 08:43.
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MV-22 ‘Osprey’ brings new capabilities to the sandbox
AL ASAD, Iraq(Jan. 23, 2008) -- The Marines of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 arrived at Al Asad to support air operations in the Al Anbar province on Oct. 4, 2007.
The ‘Thunder Chickens' took over the entire range of combat medium lift assault support missions in support of Multi-National Forces – West from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363 to include battlefield circulation, raid and Aeroscout operations, helicopter/tiltrotor governance,Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel alert and casualty evacuation alert, flying everywhere within MNF-West throughout the battlefield from Baghdad to Al Qaim providing an operational capability over distance and time that has effectively collapsed the battlespace. The squadron has completed more than 2,000 ASRs in the first 3 months of the deployment, keeping approximately 8,000 personnel off dangerous roadways and accruing approximately 2,000 flight hours. They have accomplished every mission and met every schedule while maintaining an average mission capable availability rate of 68.1%.
The New River based MV-22 squadron has experienced a higher operational tempo while deployed, with the squadron completing missions and accumulating flight hours at a sustained rate well in excess of anything they've done before.
“The area of operations has, in a number of ways, highlighted the performance of the aircraft,” said Lt. Col. Paul Rock, VMM-263’s commanding officer. “Our area of operations is large and the aircraft's speed and range has been much-appreciated by many of the folks the squadron has supported. In addition, the precision navigation and situational awareness systems in the aircraft have enhanced our ability to perform such tasks as desert landings in brownout conditions.”
In brownout conditions, the MV-22’s unique hover coupled capability significantly increases the safety of troops in the execution of combat missions enabling the Ground Combat Element to be safely and precisely inserted on the desired combat coordinates. No other helicopter or aircraft in the inventory has this unique operational capability and safety enhancement. It reduces and mitigates risk while significantly increasing both Ground Combat Element and aircraft survivability.
Cpl. Bob Cowan, a crew chief with VMM-263, believes the aircraft has performed better than expected. The normal wear and tear of the desert hasn’t been as harsh on the bird as was originally expected.
“The aircraft has performed better than expected,” said Cpl. Daniel Stratman, a ‘263 crew chief. “We haven’t had to replace any major parts like prop boxes or anything; the main problem out here is getting the parts for this aircraft. We can fix just about anything, the only thing that slows us down is getting the parts.”
As a new aircraft, the supporting logistics system is new and this deployment provides valuable maintenance and logistics lessons learned that will enhance support of the aircraft in the future.
The squadron, which was the Marine Corps’ first Tiltrotor squadron, has been training for this deployment since they stood up in March of 2006. Aside from the normal pre-deployment and Desert Talon training, the unit has completed two deployment-for-training operations to practice landings in brown out conditions and they also completed training with infantry Marines practicing inserting troops during raids and other ground operations.
“We had some snags at the beginning, but we’ve learned from our mistakes,” said Cowan, a Cookeville, Tenn. native. “We’ve done the training back in the rear, but performing the missions out here is different, so we’ve ironed out the wrinkles.”
The Marines of the squadron have kept their heads held high throughout the deployment and have done well at keeping the ‘Osprey’ mission ready.
“Our Marines are doing great; it’s incredible to watch them work,” said Sgt. Maj. Robert VanOostrom, the unit’s sergeant major. “The weather is getting worse everyday … but they have to ensure a certain amount of aircraft are prepared to fly every day. The amount of time and energy they put in every day to make sure the aircraft fly, is incredible.”
Almost every service member has heard of the new aircraft, but most Marines haven’t even seen the aircraft fly, not to mention fly in it. Now, many service members are getting their first flight in the Corps’ faster, farther traveling and heavier lifting aircraft.
“In North Carolina you see the ‘Osprey’ flying every single day and it’s just another aviation platform. ,” said VanOostrom. “It’s ironic to see the individual Marine who gets on the airplane for the first time and sees what it can do and says ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.’”
The ‘Thunder Chickens’ have transitioned from a trained squadron to an experienced combat squadron that has completed every tasking and succeeded in maintaining the deployed operations tempo. VMM-263 has flown 5 Aeroscout missions, 1 raid, more than 1400 combat sorties and maintained an average mission capable readiness rate of 68.1% during their current deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom 06-08.
Source: US Marine Corps
AL ASAD, Iraq(Jan. 23, 2008) -- The Marines of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 arrived at Al Asad to support air operations in the Al Anbar province on Oct. 4, 2007.
The ‘Thunder Chickens' took over the entire range of combat medium lift assault support missions in support of Multi-National Forces – West from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363 to include battlefield circulation, raid and Aeroscout operations, helicopter/tiltrotor governance,Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel alert and casualty evacuation alert, flying everywhere within MNF-West throughout the battlefield from Baghdad to Al Qaim providing an operational capability over distance and time that has effectively collapsed the battlespace. The squadron has completed more than 2,000 ASRs in the first 3 months of the deployment, keeping approximately 8,000 personnel off dangerous roadways and accruing approximately 2,000 flight hours. They have accomplished every mission and met every schedule while maintaining an average mission capable availability rate of 68.1%.
The New River based MV-22 squadron has experienced a higher operational tempo while deployed, with the squadron completing missions and accumulating flight hours at a sustained rate well in excess of anything they've done before.
“The area of operations has, in a number of ways, highlighted the performance of the aircraft,” said Lt. Col. Paul Rock, VMM-263’s commanding officer. “Our area of operations is large and the aircraft's speed and range has been much-appreciated by many of the folks the squadron has supported. In addition, the precision navigation and situational awareness systems in the aircraft have enhanced our ability to perform such tasks as desert landings in brownout conditions.”
In brownout conditions, the MV-22’s unique hover coupled capability significantly increases the safety of troops in the execution of combat missions enabling the Ground Combat Element to be safely and precisely inserted on the desired combat coordinates. No other helicopter or aircraft in the inventory has this unique operational capability and safety enhancement. It reduces and mitigates risk while significantly increasing both Ground Combat Element and aircraft survivability.
Cpl. Bob Cowan, a crew chief with VMM-263, believes the aircraft has performed better than expected. The normal wear and tear of the desert hasn’t been as harsh on the bird as was originally expected.
“The aircraft has performed better than expected,” said Cpl. Daniel Stratman, a ‘263 crew chief. “We haven’t had to replace any major parts like prop boxes or anything; the main problem out here is getting the parts for this aircraft. We can fix just about anything, the only thing that slows us down is getting the parts.”
As a new aircraft, the supporting logistics system is new and this deployment provides valuable maintenance and logistics lessons learned that will enhance support of the aircraft in the future.
The squadron, which was the Marine Corps’ first Tiltrotor squadron, has been training for this deployment since they stood up in March of 2006. Aside from the normal pre-deployment and Desert Talon training, the unit has completed two deployment-for-training operations to practice landings in brown out conditions and they also completed training with infantry Marines practicing inserting troops during raids and other ground operations.
“We had some snags at the beginning, but we’ve learned from our mistakes,” said Cowan, a Cookeville, Tenn. native. “We’ve done the training back in the rear, but performing the missions out here is different, so we’ve ironed out the wrinkles.”
The Marines of the squadron have kept their heads held high throughout the deployment and have done well at keeping the ‘Osprey’ mission ready.
“Our Marines are doing great; it’s incredible to watch them work,” said Sgt. Maj. Robert VanOostrom, the unit’s sergeant major. “The weather is getting worse everyday … but they have to ensure a certain amount of aircraft are prepared to fly every day. The amount of time and energy they put in every day to make sure the aircraft fly, is incredible.”
Almost every service member has heard of the new aircraft, but most Marines haven’t even seen the aircraft fly, not to mention fly in it. Now, many service members are getting their first flight in the Corps’ faster, farther traveling and heavier lifting aircraft.
“In North Carolina you see the ‘Osprey’ flying every single day and it’s just another aviation platform. ,” said VanOostrom. “It’s ironic to see the individual Marine who gets on the airplane for the first time and sees what it can do and says ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.’”
The ‘Thunder Chickens’ have transitioned from a trained squadron to an experienced combat squadron that has completed every tasking and succeeded in maintaining the deployed operations tempo. VMM-263 has flown 5 Aeroscout missions, 1 raid, more than 1400 combat sorties and maintained an average mission capable readiness rate of 68.1% during their current deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom 06-08.
Source: US Marine Corps
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Osprey's assault vehicles can't haul ammo
Aircraft go to Iraq without them
The Growler, manufactured in Robbins, N.C., can't perform up to its original specifications.
Courtesy of American Growler
Joseph Neff, Staff Writer
When the Marines shipped their V-22 Osprey aircraft to Iraq last year, they had to leave behind the assault vehicles and mobile mortar system that fit inside the planes.
The Marines' new mortar system can't safely carry its ammunition.
That conclusion, from a government audit, is the most recent bad news for the Marines' attempt to ferry firepower inside the Osprey. The Defense Department inspector general is investigating the program, which is two years behind schedule and $15 million over budget.
The system consists of a jeeplike vehicle called the Growler that pulls trailers carrying mortars and ammunition.
The Growler, made in Robbins, N.C., costs $127,000 each and cannot safely pull its ammunition trailer, according to interviews and the report from the Government Accountability Office. The trailer has a tendency to bounce or tip over, which could crush a Marine riding in the back of the Growler. A Growler, not pulling a trailer, was reported to have tipped over last summer when it swerved to avoid a turtle in the road.
The Marines won't discuss the program, known as the Expeditionary Fire Support System, because of the Defense Department's investigation.
The problems were predictable, said Philip Coyle, who directed the Pentagon's weapons testing from 1994 to 2001. The Marines decided to start production before testing the vehicle and mortars, Coyle said.
"It is a sign of rushing to failure," he said.
The Osprey is a rotorcraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter and tilts its huge rotors forward to fly like an airplane. The aircraft, which costs $119 million each, has suffered cost overruns, a string of crashes that left 30 dead, and repeated watering down of specifications during its two decades of development. The Pentagon has declared that most of the Osprey's problems have been fixed, and the first squadron of 12 Ospreys went to Iraq in October.
In 1999, the Marines decided the Osprey program needed assault vehicles to carry men and mortars on the battlefield. Some Growlers will pull the mortar systems on trailers. Others will be outfitted with a machine gun. The Ospreys are designed to take off from ships and go inland faster than helicopters. Once they land, the Growlers would provide assault firepower or machine gun cover for Marines on foot.
In soliciting bids in 2004, the Marines announced they had "an aggressive schedule."
In November 2004, the Marines awarded the contract to General Dynamics, which produced the mortar system. The defense giant uses a company in Robbins, Carolina Growler, to build a modified dune buggy with a design that recalls Vietnam-era jeeps.
Gov. Mike Easley awarded Carolina Growler a $25,000 grant, and U.S. Rep. Howard Coble helped get a $300,000 grant and a $112,000 loan for the company from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Contract complaint
The contract award was controversial because the founder of Carolina Growler, Terry Crews, is a retired Marine colonel with strong connections. The Defense Department received an anonymous complaint claiming that Crews was a close friend of Brig. Gen. William Catto, who headed the agency that awarded the contract, Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va.
The complainant, who identified himself as a career procurement professional, said Catto steered the contract to Carolina Growler and General Dynamics.
After demonstrations from three companies, the selection committee recommended the contract go to a team of United Defense, which supplied the mortar, and Rae-Beck Automotive of Michigan, which built a new vehicle from scratch. According to the complaint, the United Defense bid was technically superior and cost less, while the Growler flunked crucial tests and was coupled to a much more expensive mortar system.
The Marine Corps inspector general corroborated much of the complaint but concluded that Catto did not influence the contract award or create a sense of impropriety. Its investigation was separate from the Defense Department's investigation, which is continuing.
Catto, who has been promoted to the U.S. European Command, could not be reached. Crews declined to be interviewed.
Jerry Bazinski, who owns Rae-Beck, said he designed his vehicle to meet all the original specifications. Most important, Bazinski said, his vehicle carried the mortar and ammunition. He said his system was faster, safer and more stable because it avoided using a trailer.
"Anybody worth their salt will tell you when you introduce a trailer, you have greatly diminished mobility and stability," Bazinski said. "You've increased the probability of rollover by multiple times, especially behind an extremely narrow 60-inch vehicle."
Specs diluted
Before the contract was awarded, the Marines eased critical requirements. The vehicle had to reach only 5 mph off the road, the equivalent of a brisk walk. The requirement to climb a 12-inch obstacle, such as a downed telephone pole, was dropped. A Growler pulling a trailer could never have met the original requirements, Bazinski said; the changes allowed the Growler to stay in the running.
A change that has Bazinski fuming concerned the Marines' requirement that the vehicle be capable of "driving onto/off the aircraft in both forward and reverse directions."
At the demonstration in the summer of 2004, Bazinski's vehicle had trouble backing up the ramp into the Osprey with a full load of ammunition. The Marines told him he had 48 hours to fix it or fail the test.
A colleague flew in from Michigan with a larger gear for reverse, and Bazinski and his crew installed it. The vehicle passed the test within the 48-hour frame, he said.
The Growler, however, could not drive in and out of the Osprey with its trailer attached. In August 2004, the selection committee recommended Bazinski's vehicle and the United Defense mortar.
Two months later, the Marines gave the Growler a second chance by reinterpreting the requirements: Trailers should be loaded separately instead of being driven on or off the aircraft by the vehicle. The trailer could be pushed or winched onto the plane.
Within a week, the Growler passed after being allowed to take the test again.
"From what I've seen," Bazinski said, "the performance specs were chasing the vehicle, rather than the vehicle being built to fit the specs."
Bill Crisp, the president of American Growler, disagreed.
"There has been no watering down of functional specs as far as I know," Crisp said.
Crisp, however, would not answer specific questions, referring questions to General Dynamics or the Marine Corps.
Tends to tip over
David Best, an investigator with the Government Accountability Office, said that three times during testing the trailer tipped over or ran up on the vehicle. There could have been serious injuries had someone been in the back of the vehicle, where a third Marine sits.
In September, as the Marines were poised to give final approval to the full order of 66 mortar systems and 600 Growler assault vehicles, Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked the Marines to postpone the decision so the Government Accountability Office could investigate.
Levin wrote the letter after complaints from Bazinski and after a Detroit television station reported that a Growler traveling at 22 mph, without a trailer, had rolled over at Camp Lejeune when it swerved to avoid a turtle.
Crisp, the Growler executive, wouldn't discuss the turtle report, saying the accident report was classified: "That may or may not have been true."
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/900148.html
Aircraft go to Iraq without them
The Growler, manufactured in Robbins, N.C., can't perform up to its original specifications.
Courtesy of American Growler
Joseph Neff, Staff Writer
When the Marines shipped their V-22 Osprey aircraft to Iraq last year, they had to leave behind the assault vehicles and mobile mortar system that fit inside the planes.
The Marines' new mortar system can't safely carry its ammunition.
That conclusion, from a government audit, is the most recent bad news for the Marines' attempt to ferry firepower inside the Osprey. The Defense Department inspector general is investigating the program, which is two years behind schedule and $15 million over budget.
The system consists of a jeeplike vehicle called the Growler that pulls trailers carrying mortars and ammunition.
The Growler, made in Robbins, N.C., costs $127,000 each and cannot safely pull its ammunition trailer, according to interviews and the report from the Government Accountability Office. The trailer has a tendency to bounce or tip over, which could crush a Marine riding in the back of the Growler. A Growler, not pulling a trailer, was reported to have tipped over last summer when it swerved to avoid a turtle in the road.
The Marines won't discuss the program, known as the Expeditionary Fire Support System, because of the Defense Department's investigation.
The problems were predictable, said Philip Coyle, who directed the Pentagon's weapons testing from 1994 to 2001. The Marines decided to start production before testing the vehicle and mortars, Coyle said.
"It is a sign of rushing to failure," he said.
The Osprey is a rotorcraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter and tilts its huge rotors forward to fly like an airplane. The aircraft, which costs $119 million each, has suffered cost overruns, a string of crashes that left 30 dead, and repeated watering down of specifications during its two decades of development. The Pentagon has declared that most of the Osprey's problems have been fixed, and the first squadron of 12 Ospreys went to Iraq in October.
In 1999, the Marines decided the Osprey program needed assault vehicles to carry men and mortars on the battlefield. Some Growlers will pull the mortar systems on trailers. Others will be outfitted with a machine gun. The Ospreys are designed to take off from ships and go inland faster than helicopters. Once they land, the Growlers would provide assault firepower or machine gun cover for Marines on foot.
In soliciting bids in 2004, the Marines announced they had "an aggressive schedule."
In November 2004, the Marines awarded the contract to General Dynamics, which produced the mortar system. The defense giant uses a company in Robbins, Carolina Growler, to build a modified dune buggy with a design that recalls Vietnam-era jeeps.
Gov. Mike Easley awarded Carolina Growler a $25,000 grant, and U.S. Rep. Howard Coble helped get a $300,000 grant and a $112,000 loan for the company from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Contract complaint
The contract award was controversial because the founder of Carolina Growler, Terry Crews, is a retired Marine colonel with strong connections. The Defense Department received an anonymous complaint claiming that Crews was a close friend of Brig. Gen. William Catto, who headed the agency that awarded the contract, Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va.
The complainant, who identified himself as a career procurement professional, said Catto steered the contract to Carolina Growler and General Dynamics.
After demonstrations from three companies, the selection committee recommended the contract go to a team of United Defense, which supplied the mortar, and Rae-Beck Automotive of Michigan, which built a new vehicle from scratch. According to the complaint, the United Defense bid was technically superior and cost less, while the Growler flunked crucial tests and was coupled to a much more expensive mortar system.
The Marine Corps inspector general corroborated much of the complaint but concluded that Catto did not influence the contract award or create a sense of impropriety. Its investigation was separate from the Defense Department's investigation, which is continuing.
Catto, who has been promoted to the U.S. European Command, could not be reached. Crews declined to be interviewed.
Jerry Bazinski, who owns Rae-Beck, said he designed his vehicle to meet all the original specifications. Most important, Bazinski said, his vehicle carried the mortar and ammunition. He said his system was faster, safer and more stable because it avoided using a trailer.
"Anybody worth their salt will tell you when you introduce a trailer, you have greatly diminished mobility and stability," Bazinski said. "You've increased the probability of rollover by multiple times, especially behind an extremely narrow 60-inch vehicle."
Specs diluted
Before the contract was awarded, the Marines eased critical requirements. The vehicle had to reach only 5 mph off the road, the equivalent of a brisk walk. The requirement to climb a 12-inch obstacle, such as a downed telephone pole, was dropped. A Growler pulling a trailer could never have met the original requirements, Bazinski said; the changes allowed the Growler to stay in the running.
A change that has Bazinski fuming concerned the Marines' requirement that the vehicle be capable of "driving onto/off the aircraft in both forward and reverse directions."
At the demonstration in the summer of 2004, Bazinski's vehicle had trouble backing up the ramp into the Osprey with a full load of ammunition. The Marines told him he had 48 hours to fix it or fail the test.
A colleague flew in from Michigan with a larger gear for reverse, and Bazinski and his crew installed it. The vehicle passed the test within the 48-hour frame, he said.
The Growler, however, could not drive in and out of the Osprey with its trailer attached. In August 2004, the selection committee recommended Bazinski's vehicle and the United Defense mortar.
Two months later, the Marines gave the Growler a second chance by reinterpreting the requirements: Trailers should be loaded separately instead of being driven on or off the aircraft by the vehicle. The trailer could be pushed or winched onto the plane.
Within a week, the Growler passed after being allowed to take the test again.
"From what I've seen," Bazinski said, "the performance specs were chasing the vehicle, rather than the vehicle being built to fit the specs."
Bill Crisp, the president of American Growler, disagreed.
"There has been no watering down of functional specs as far as I know," Crisp said.
Crisp, however, would not answer specific questions, referring questions to General Dynamics or the Marine Corps.
Tends to tip over
David Best, an investigator with the Government Accountability Office, said that three times during testing the trailer tipped over or ran up on the vehicle. There could have been serious injuries had someone been in the back of the vehicle, where a third Marine sits.
In September, as the Marines were poised to give final approval to the full order of 66 mortar systems and 600 Growler assault vehicles, Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked the Marines to postpone the decision so the Government Accountability Office could investigate.
Levin wrote the letter after complaints from Bazinski and after a Detroit television station reported that a Growler traveling at 22 mph, without a trailer, had rolled over at Camp Lejeune when it swerved to avoid a turtle.
Crisp, the Growler executive, wouldn't discuss the turtle report, saying the accident report was classified: "That may or may not have been true."
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/900148.html
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Marines Continue To Rave About Osprey
Friday, February 1, 2008
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Hybrid copter-airplane doing well in first wartime deployment, officials say
For years, critics attacked the Marine Corps' Osprey as an overpriced, unreliable and unsafe aircraft.
In its first four months of combat duty in Iraq, however, the service says its combination helicopter-airplane is meeting all of its expected goals and is starting to prove its detractors wrong.
"We are just scratching the surface on what the Osprey can do," said Maj. Eric Dent, a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon. "When you examine all of its capabilities and what it will do in the future, we will show that it is a lot more than just another helicopter ---- it's a revolutionary aircraft."
Dent's comments this week came after the Marines reported that the first 10 V-22 Ospreys to be put into action have logged more than 2,000 hours over Iraq, flying more than 2,000 missions.
The Ospreys from the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing in North Carolina have taken part in five combat missions, one raid and maintained a "readiness rate," or ability to fly on a moment's notice, of 68 percent. That's comparable to other aircraft in Iraq, Dent said.
The Osprey also has been able to move 8,000 troops safely around Iraq and out of the reach of roadside bombs, the weapon responsible for a majority of deaths and injuries, the Marine Corps says.
Two Ospreys recently helped evacuate casualties to medical care 85 nautical miles away in less than an hour ---- a feat, Dent said, "no other platform could have accomplished."
"If I were a ground commander who needed to move a force, I would be very happy to know that I had an Osprey," Dent said in a telephone interview.
The Osprey takes off and lands like a helicopter, using a tilt-rotor system. Once in the air, it can fly at more than 400 mph, carrying up to 24 troops.
Its long and costly development, however, was punctuated by a series of accidents that took the lives of 27 Marines, including 14 from Camp Pendleton and four from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
Those accidents and other mishaps during testing ---- as well as the Osprey's $20 billion development cost, incidents involving stalled engines and software problems ---- made the aircraft intended to replace the Marine Corp's CH-46 Vietnam-era helicopters a ripe target for critics.
The lack of a forward-mounted gun is also seen as potential weakness in combat.
One of the Osprey's most vocal critics, Phil Coyle, who served as an assistant secretary of defense for testing and development at the Pentagon from 1994 to 2001, continues to challenge the viability of the Osprey.
"If they continue to use it pretty much as a truck hauling people around, they will be OK," Coyle said Tuesday. Coyle is now a senior adviser for the Center for Defense Information, a Washington group that monitors and analyzes defense policy. "As long as they don't get into situations requiring sudden maneuvers that have caused trouble in the past, they will keep being OK."
Dent said Coyle's criticism is becoming outdated as the Osprey performs more missions in Iraq, including flights involving combat situations.
"Critics have the easiest job in the world," he said. "They only have to be right once."
Dent maintained that the Osprey has been flown throughout Iraq without any significant problems.
"It is performing as we expected it would," he said. "It's doing the same missions all our other aircraft are called upon to do."
Top Marine Corps officers, as well as Army Gen. David Petraeus, the overall commander in Iraq, have praised the Osprey after flying in it in Iraq.
According to a Jan. 23 report filed on the Marine Corps Web site by a public affairs correspondent in Iraq, generals aren't the only ones pleased with the Osprey's performance.
"We haven't had to replace any major parts like prop boxes or anything," Cpl. Daniel Stratman, a mechanic, was quoted as saying. "The main problem out here is getting the parts for this aircraft. We can fix just about anything ---- the only thing that slows us down is getting the parts."
The "Thunder Chicken" Osprey squadron that has been flying in Iraq since October is scheduled to complete its assignment in April and will be replaced by another East Coast squadron, Dent said.
The Osprey will eventually fly in Afghanistan, Dent said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in January ordered 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan this spring to quell what military planners say is an expected uprising by the Taliban.
That assignment is the first large-scale presence of Marines in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion of that country.
It will be two more years before the first Osprey unit is established on the West Coast. Current planning calls for basing a squadron at Camp Pendleton or Miramar following an environmental impact assessment and as more of the aircraft are produced, Dent said.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008..._501_31_08.txt
By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
Hybrid copter-airplane doing well in first wartime deployment, officials say
For years, critics attacked the Marine Corps' Osprey as an overpriced, unreliable and unsafe aircraft.
In its first four months of combat duty in Iraq, however, the service says its combination helicopter-airplane is meeting all of its expected goals and is starting to prove its detractors wrong.
"We are just scratching the surface on what the Osprey can do," said Maj. Eric Dent, a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon. "When you examine all of its capabilities and what it will do in the future, we will show that it is a lot more than just another helicopter ---- it's a revolutionary aircraft."
Dent's comments this week came after the Marines reported that the first 10 V-22 Ospreys to be put into action have logged more than 2,000 hours over Iraq, flying more than 2,000 missions.
The Ospreys from the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing in North Carolina have taken part in five combat missions, one raid and maintained a "readiness rate," or ability to fly on a moment's notice, of 68 percent. That's comparable to other aircraft in Iraq, Dent said.
The Osprey also has been able to move 8,000 troops safely around Iraq and out of the reach of roadside bombs, the weapon responsible for a majority of deaths and injuries, the Marine Corps says.
Two Ospreys recently helped evacuate casualties to medical care 85 nautical miles away in less than an hour ---- a feat, Dent said, "no other platform could have accomplished."
"If I were a ground commander who needed to move a force, I would be very happy to know that I had an Osprey," Dent said in a telephone interview.
The Osprey takes off and lands like a helicopter, using a tilt-rotor system. Once in the air, it can fly at more than 400 mph, carrying up to 24 troops.
Its long and costly development, however, was punctuated by a series of accidents that took the lives of 27 Marines, including 14 from Camp Pendleton and four from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
Those accidents and other mishaps during testing ---- as well as the Osprey's $20 billion development cost, incidents involving stalled engines and software problems ---- made the aircraft intended to replace the Marine Corp's CH-46 Vietnam-era helicopters a ripe target for critics.
The lack of a forward-mounted gun is also seen as potential weakness in combat.
One of the Osprey's most vocal critics, Phil Coyle, who served as an assistant secretary of defense for testing and development at the Pentagon from 1994 to 2001, continues to challenge the viability of the Osprey.
"If they continue to use it pretty much as a truck hauling people around, they will be OK," Coyle said Tuesday. Coyle is now a senior adviser for the Center for Defense Information, a Washington group that monitors and analyzes defense policy. "As long as they don't get into situations requiring sudden maneuvers that have caused trouble in the past, they will keep being OK."
Dent said Coyle's criticism is becoming outdated as the Osprey performs more missions in Iraq, including flights involving combat situations.
"Critics have the easiest job in the world," he said. "They only have to be right once."
Dent maintained that the Osprey has been flown throughout Iraq without any significant problems.
"It is performing as we expected it would," he said. "It's doing the same missions all our other aircraft are called upon to do."
Top Marine Corps officers, as well as Army Gen. David Petraeus, the overall commander in Iraq, have praised the Osprey after flying in it in Iraq.
According to a Jan. 23 report filed on the Marine Corps Web site by a public affairs correspondent in Iraq, generals aren't the only ones pleased with the Osprey's performance.
"We haven't had to replace any major parts like prop boxes or anything," Cpl. Daniel Stratman, a mechanic, was quoted as saying. "The main problem out here is getting the parts for this aircraft. We can fix just about anything ---- the only thing that slows us down is getting the parts."
The "Thunder Chicken" Osprey squadron that has been flying in Iraq since October is scheduled to complete its assignment in April and will be replaced by another East Coast squadron, Dent said.
The Osprey will eventually fly in Afghanistan, Dent said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in January ordered 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan this spring to quell what military planners say is an expected uprising by the Taliban.
That assignment is the first large-scale presence of Marines in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion of that country.
It will be two more years before the first Osprey unit is established on the West Coast. Current planning calls for basing a squadron at Camp Pendleton or Miramar following an environmental impact assessment and as more of the aircraft are produced, Dent said.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008..._501_31_08.txt
