Osprey learning sea borne deployment

The crew of the US Bataan and its Marine air wing have become the Navy’s premier experts at operating the MV-22 Osprey aboard ships, mostly by making it up as they go along.

“It’s always something new, different and unexpected,” said Cmdr. Dan Olson, the ship’s air boss. “We are constantly trying to figure out stuff we don’t have published guidance for, and we’re always writing notes, e-mails off to spread what we know.”

When the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit sailed in May, they became the first ARG and MEU to deploy with Ospreys only — and none of the Corps’ old-standby CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and his entourage climbed aboard one of Bataan’s 10 Ospreys on Aug. 7 in Kuwait to experience the rocket-ship liftoff and silky fixed-wing flight out to the underway Bataan.

Olson said the ships in the ARG have become good at working the Ospreys into air operations, but unexpected things still crop up. “It can slow down operations, it’s cumbersome, it takes up more space on the flight deck than other aircraft,” he said.

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 and the crew of the Bataan have added more safety observers to keep an eye on the Ospreys and the flight deck crew members who work under the cyclonic downwash from their massive rotors.

Managing Ospreys on Bataan is just one part of the challenge. The tiltrotors also must take off and land from the other ships in the ARG, both of which have much smaller flight decks than Bataan. Capt. Sara Faibisoff, an Osprey pilot with VMM-263, said the small-deck gators could accommodate two Ospreys comfortably.

“It’s not that bad at all,” she said. “You make a slow approach, put it down and there’s plenty of space.”

The main difference with landing on small-deck gators is the damage its engine exhaust does to flight decks. An Osprey’s twin nacelles blast heat downward when a V-22 is in helicopter mode. Crew members aboard the small-deck amphibs have taken to setting up metal pads, known as “hot plates,” underneath the nacelles while an Osprey’s engines are running on the flight deck.

“We touch down, they run them in, and then they take them away before we launch,” Faibisoff said.

The Osprey had many skeptics aboard this ship and in Iraq’s western Anbar province, where it deployed last year, because of the controversy surrounding the aircraft’s quarter-century of development, its high cost, and crashes that killed more than two dozen Marines.

“When we were first flying up there, people didn’t want to fly in them — they were scared,” Faibisoff said. “It takes getting used to.”

 

V22 Under Fire at Home – again

In the 20 or so years I’ve been following the V22, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen V22 followed by the word “troubled”. It seems that no matter how well things go there’s a pack of detractors ready to cry for cancellation. Even after a successful deployment in Iraq there is still a firestorm of debate over whether the aircraft should be kept in the US inventory. The following just represents a snapshot of the Thunderdome like battle going on concerning this technologically advanced war bird.

The V-22 Osprey, military tilt-rotor built by Boeing and Bell, might see its operational life interrupted after a report issued by the GAO (Government Accountability Office), according to which not only this aircraft had shown serious problems in the difficult environments of Iraq, but it had also reached unacceptable production and maintenance costs.

The GAO recommended that the Defense Department analyze the Marine Corps’ needs against the V-22’s capabilities and costs against other helicopters and aircraft. “This analysis should be conducted within the context of future budgetary constraints, and the services should then adjust total V-22 procurement and annual production and acquisition plans accordingly,” the report said.

The V-22 had also created problems to shipboard operations, due to its dimensions and to the huge quantity of spares.

Maybe it was just growing pains, but the Osprey’s downwash threw equipment around the deck. The GAO notes that in one case, sailors had to hold each other to the deck as the Osprey hovered overhead. More damning: The Osprey is bigger than helicopters that it was meant to replace, so fewer are available. The large inventory of repair parts—and the Osprey needs lots of attention in the field, the GAO found—also takes up valuable room on board, and some of the Ospreys must be pre-positioned on shore, which does not mesh with the Marine Corps’ ethos of supporting ground actions from the sea.

For this reason Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a proposal to halt the production of this aircraft. “It’s time to put the Osprey out of its misery. On the other side, Marine corps officials defended the V-22 and its usefulness, even if they recognized that the parts’ reliability would have to be bettered. In any case the military would want these tilt-rotors in Afghanistan in September. “It is a crucial, critical necessity”, said lieutenant general George Trautman. Colonel Karsten Heckl then added: “This criticism is disturbing, and some of it is blatantly inaccurate”.

The Marine Corps, Boeing and U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak defended the Osprey following sharp criticism of the military aircraft from government auditors at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. Maj. Eric Dent, a spokesman for Marine Corps public affairs in Washington, said the Marines are proud of the Osprey’s performance. “The performance of the Osprey in Iraq has given ground commanders everything they’ve asked for. It’s done those missions faster and farther and safer than any helicopter could do,” said Dent, adding the Marines are aware of 13 troublesome components and they are developing plans to address the situation.