Osprey to make combat debut in Iraq

[Blackadder1916]

Osprey to make combat debut in Iraq
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/04/marine_osprey_iraq_070413/

By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer  Friday Apr 13, 2007 13:51:32 EDT
 
The Corps’ MV-22 Osprey aircraft will make its combat debut in Iraq when Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 deploys to Al Asad Air Base in September, Commandant Gen. James Conway announced at the Pentagon on Friday.

Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, deputy commandant for aviation, said the Osprey’s primary job in Iraq will be “to take Marines into combat,” but that it will be used “for a variety of missions” currently performed by the Corps’ aging fleet of CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

“The commandant wants to provide the best equipment available to Marines in the greatest need,” Castellaw said. “It is our view that the V-22 right now can do the greatest amount of support in Iraq.”

With the Osprey, “what we have is an aircraft that goes twice as fast, it goes three times as far and it is the most survivable by about six or seven times what the aircraft it replaces is,” he said.

It’s more survivable because its engines having lower infrared and acoustic signatures, making it harder for the enemy to target. Plus, “it flies faster, higher and it was designed from the beginning to absorb hits from weapons.”

The Osprey can carry 24 combat-loaded Marines or 12 litters for casualty evacuation. It can transport 10,000 pounds of cargo externally and 20,000 pounds internally, Castellaw said.

It can also fly 900 miles without refueling, which means “it can go anywhere in Iraq from where we’re going to put it,” he said.

When the squadron arrives in Iraq, it will represent about 30 percent of the medium-lift capability available to commanders there, Castellaw said.

He said VMM-263 has participated in two training exercises in a desert environment similar to that of Iraq — Exercise Mojave Viper at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Exercise Desert Talon, run by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 in Yuma, Ariz.

“And there’s a lot of dust out there,” Castellaw said.

 

[GAP]

Osprey Aircraft to Make Combat Debut in Iraq
By John J. Kruzel American Forces Press Service
Article Link

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2007 – A Marine aircraft with dual personalities -- part airplane, part helicopter -- will soon buzz and hover above Iraq’s deserts, providing assault and medical support.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway announced at the Pentagon this morning that the MV-22 Osprey aircraft will make its combat debut in Iraq this September, when Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, with 10 Ospreys and 171 personnel, deploys to Al Asad Air Base.

“This deployment directly supports our Corps’ number one priority, the Marines and sailors in contact at the tip of the spear,” Conway said. “This is a great day for our Corps and for my aviation folks in particular.”

The Corps’ tiltrotor MV-22 alternates between fixed- and rotary-wing capabilities, a unique attribute that gives U.S. fighting forces the versatility of a helicopter, with the 300 mph speed and increased altitude of an airplane, reducing the threat from small-arms fire.

“It goes twice as fast, three times as far, it’s more survivable by six or seven times (than) the aircraft it replaces,” Marine Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, deputy commandant for aviation, told reporters at the Pentagon. The MV-22, which can travel up to 900 miles before refueling, is set to phase out the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter introduced in the 1960s.

In 2000, the Osprey came under controversy when an MV-22 crashed, killing 23 Marines.

Castellaw said the accident resulted from rapid descent in “helicopter mode,” a risky tactic not normally used by pilots. Newer models are equipped with warning systems to help prevent a similar situation, he said.
More on link

 

[observor 69]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/business/14osprey.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

April 14, 2007
Combat, With Limits, Looms for Hybrid Aircraft
By LESLIE WAYNE
The Marine Corps said yesterday that the V-22 Osprey, a hybrid aircraft with a troubled past, will be sent to Iraq this September, where it will see combat for the first time.

But because of a checkered safety record in test flights, the V-22 will be kept on a short leash.

The Pentagon has placed so many restrictions on how it can be used in combat that the plane — which is able to drop troops into battle like a helicopter and then speed away from danger like an airplane — could have difficulty fulfilling the Marines’ longstanding mission for it.

In Iraq, the V-22 will begin to replace the Vietnam-era helicopters that are increasingly facing enemy fire. The limitations on the V-22, which cost $80 million apiece, mean it cannot evade enemy fire with the same maneuvers and sharp turns used by helicopter pilots.

As a result, the craft could be more vulnerable to attack, and may result in the Marines keeping it out of the thick of battle, using it instead for less dangerous tasks.

“They will plan their missions in Iraq to avoid it getting into areas where there are serious threats,” said Thomas Christie, the Pentagon’s director of operations, test and evaluation from 2001 to 2005, who is now retired. The V-22’s debut in combatends a remarkable 25-year struggle for the Marines to build a craft they could call their own.
“It’s like a bad poker hand, and the Marines have been investing in it for 20 years,” said Philip Coyle, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester from 1994 to 2001. “They might have been better if they invested in brand new helicopters.”

The plane’s most widely cited design problem is that one of its propellers can get caught in its own turbulence as it comes in for a landing, and that can cause the V-22 to roll over and head into the ground.

For that reason, V-22 pilots are trained to steer clear of their own turbulence by rules prohibiting them from making the quick maneuvers used by helicopters to evade enemy fire. Instead, the V-22 must land at speeds as slow as nine miles an hour and in a fairly straight line.

A 2005 Pentagon report said these limitations “may prove insufficient” in protecting the V-22 from ground fire. As a result, that Pentagon evaluation said the V-22 was suited only for low- and medium-threat environments, and is not “operationally effective” in high-threat environments.

Some critics say that in the heat of battle, V-22 pilots could forget these restrictions and move in ways that could bring the craft down.

“The V-22 cannot do radical evasive maneuvers” said Lee Gaillard, author of a report critical of the V-22, “Wonder Weapon or Widow Maker” for the Center for Defense Information, which studies weapons programs. “But that’s what it will need for combat.”

The Marines defend the V-22 by saying it provides a margin of safety a helicopter cannot because it can fly faster, farther and higher.

They say it can get to wounded troops quicker and speed them to medical care in what is called the “golden hour” when life can hang in the balance. Because the V-22 flies with a lower “acoustical signature,” it can enter a battlefield less noisily than a helicopter.

Officials add that the Osprey can do more evasive maneuvers than currently permitted — and further testing will prove that.

“If flies twice as fast as the CH-46 that it is replacing,” said Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, head of the Marine aviation program. “It carries three times the payload; it goes five times as far; it’s six times as survivable. So what you’re deploying is an asset that increases the combat capability of the Marines.”

Should the V-22 lose power, it can not “autorotate” like a helicopter and allow the updraft of air to rotate its propellers for a hard, but survivable, landing. Because of this, according to the 2005 Pentagon report, emergency V-22 landings without power at altitudes below 1,600 feet “are not likely to be survivable.”

“If you lose power on a V-22, you just burn and crash,” said one Pentagon official involved in testing the craft but who was not authorized to speak publicly. “There is no way to survive. ”

The cabin is not pressurized, even though the craft can fly at altitudes of 10,000 feet and above, where breathing is difficult and it is not climate-controlled.

Pentagon reports also say the V-22 is too cramped for the 24 marines it can carry. The marines are so packed into the windowless cabin that they can become airsick, their legs can grow numb and leaving the plane quickly is difficult.

There is no bathroom on board and marines have criticized the “piddle packs” they are to use as insufficient. And, there is no place on board to store them once they are full.

V-22 downdraft is so strong, and moves in so many directions that it can create “brownout” conditions, making it difficult for pilots to see and potentially knocking down marines on the ground.

As a result, when rope ladders are used, the V-22 must hover at higher altitudes, making marines more vulnerable to fire.

“Safety is a big issue,” wrote one V-22 crew chief, in a questionnaire filled out for the Pentagon’s 2005 operational evaluation. “If we had went down in the water we would have most likely lost at least 24 troops because of restricted egress. I felt like I was in a coffin.”

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