The Marine Corps aging heavy-lift helicopters lack a high-hot capability, limiting where Marines can operate in Afghanistans mountainous terrain. To provide Marines fighting there with greater mobility, the service will deploy a squadron of V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to Afghanistan, said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway. By the end of the year, youre going to see Ospreys in Afghanistan.
The Osprey, which had a rather troubled development period, has proven itself in combat conditions in Iraq, where it has been operating with the Marines for the past year. It has gone from a wounded duck to a poster child, in terms of what aircraft with that leap-ahead technology can do, Conway said, and the Osprey will greatly expand the range of missions the Marines can conduct and territory where they can operate in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has almost no road network and helicopter, soon the Osprey, is really the only way to get around faster than a marching pace.
One Osprey squadron is still in Iraq, but will be returning in a couple of months. The next Osprey squadron to deploy will be going aboard ships with a Marine Expeditionary Unit, Conway said, to test the aircrafts ability to handle salt and sea and give crews shipboard operating experience. The Osprey was developed to lift Marines from ships offshore and rapidly carry them deep into contested territory. The squadron that follows in the deployment line up will then go to Afghanistan.
Marine units have been sent to southern Afghanistan largely because they lack a helicopter that can lift troops or cargo in what are called high-hot flying conditions. We couldnt handle the north, we couldnt do what the Army is doing today up in RC East because of the dramatic terrain thats up there. Our (CH) –46 has seen age and elevation and temperatures catch up with it, Conway said, speaking at a defense industry conference in Washington on Wednesday. During the hot summer months in Afghanistan the CH-46 could only carry 5 or 6 fully loaded Marines.
The Marines must lighten up and get back to their expeditionary roots, he said. The past five years spent in Iraq as Americas second land army forced the Marines to buy heavily armored MRAP vehicles that do not fit the services expeditionary mission. Even personal body armor has gotten too heavy, he said, so the Marines are developing a family of protective equipment that will be scalable, according to the threat environment.
Conway gave a rather lukewarm endorsement to the troubled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program, intended to provide the Marines with a replacement for their Amtrack amphibious personnel carrier. The EFV is rumored to be on a list of possible program cancellations under consideration by the Obama administration. Conway said he hoped the program would not be cancelled. We make our best case and then its out of our hands.
Well, the V-22 should be able to handle the hot and high conditions in Afghanistan and the troops will also like the Ospreys’ abilities to reach out and touch Taliban/OMF elements faster and at longer ranges than current CH-47/-53s in theatre.
Wrong again… Above 6000ft the Osprey turns into a pig… (but yes, it is faster…)
JJ,
Do you have any facts, or are you just running lip service. No offense, but I like the facts and not your opinions. Are you an expert on the matter?
Assualt landing on a real target? This platform has still not landed an assualt force next to any built up area for an immediate assualt. Its limited D.A missions are still all fluff.
Good luck finding a spot in Afghanistan with no bad guys.
J.J. You are an idiot.
This may be kinda stupid but I’m curious to see how well it handles landing in rough terrain. For some reason is doesn’t look very capable of landing on something not perfectly flat and smooth.
I’m glad the Osprey is finally getting the opportunity to prove itself in other countries, maybe we should look more to these type of aircraft and off helicopters alltogether while nice to have helicopters are too vulnerable in this day and age. Also has anybody though of making the Osprey a gunship, with the firepower to cover landings and troop movements?
I think we need to see what capabilities the aircraft has to give the warfighter. Enough of the rhetoric of this thing being a piece of junk or being a joke or any of that. The system is in place, its time to put your money where your mouth is, and if the CH-46 can only land 5–6 fully loaded marines, then what option do we have.
I say instead of placing your opinions out here, lets see what this system can do!
The advantages of the Osprey are obvious. It can fly at a maximum altitude of 26,000 feet, about 15,000 feet higher than a helicopter. This innovative aircraft can also fly nearly twice as fast and three times farther than a helicopter and needs less runway length than a traditional airplane
There is no better vehicle for delivering mail in Afghanistan than the osprey. Those that criticize it don
Why Tiltrotors fail — http://www.g2mil.com/tiltrotors.htm
Explains why the editors are so keen on the Osprey
Chuck,
That gunship question has been beat to death on this site. Check out the Osprey archives if you want to know more.
I find it funny that after 20 years of development and 2 years in the operating force, the Corps is just now seeing if the Osprey can handle salt water? WTF? You’d think that’d be the first thing they’d test after getting this thing in the air.
“I find it funny that after 20 years of development and 2 years in the operating force, the Corps is just now seeing if the Osprey can handle salt water? WTF? You’d think that’d be the first thing they’d test after getting this thing in the air.“
I think this a “test” along the lines of how the Iraq deployment of the aircraft was a test to see how it handled dust. Yes they tested this stuff before but you can never get a real handle on how the stuff really affects the aircraft and which parts wear out until you get a full deployment of beating the airframe to hell.
There are test flights of flying A-10s with V-22s. While A-10 has advantages to fly at slow speed that is a good harmony with V-22, and may fly at high altitudes, it is still not a VTOL that may land at a same spot. F-35B may be an alternative with VTOL capabilities, but its survivability at low altitudes remains a question. X2 is one of the possible future option as a gunship for escort, but while a VTOL, it is slightly slower than Osprey, and the capabilities at high altitudes are unknown, but with potentials to fly in mountainous regions. A-10, F-35B, and X2 are the three candidates of V-22 Ospreys. However, I believe a gunship version of this would be the best, with a rocket launcher unit and light vulcan in front.
Al,
I can accept a teething period for maintenance and operational deployment matters. I’ve defended the Osprey’s “safe” Iraq deployments on this premise. IMO, the article is worded to imply they don’t know what salt water will do to the bird.
To all of the osprey nay sayers, what do you propose then. What can the corps do right this second to fill the tactical airlift gap? I read a lot of messages saying that the osprey is junk, well what better alternative do they have at the current? Blackhawks weren’t the best in the high hot altitude either, maybe the M model is, but there aren’t any ready to deploy this year. It may take several years. The superhawk is expensive also, more conventional yes. How long would it take to field them. Would you prefer they keep using the vintage ch-46? Complaining with no solutions is useless.
Put the Ospreys in. See what happens.
But be prepared for people to say “I told you so” and start thinking about alternatives now. In spite of all the lipstick smeared on it, the deployment in Iraq was less than impressive.
This is a massive PR effort to justify the continued billions being spent on procuring the Osprey. Let’s just hope it doesn’t cost any more lievs.
It wont need gunship support, because it will not be used to assualt any objective… Yes it fly fast but it still cant get into congested HLZ’s. It will due just what it always does, fly cicles around MEGA-bases for the military channel.
@lad
Well what do you propose then?
Like satctech I urge everyone to go look at the 140 pages of Osprey press releases (most by satctech himself obviously in Osprey PR) that comprise the “vigorous discussion“
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5671946761/m/591104612/p/136
For those who still doubt that Osprey they need to listen to satctech’s press release of Marine Gen. George Troutman
“the mere presence of the V-22 in Iraq, because of its speed and range, helped the Marines pacify Anbar province by making it much harder for insurgents to operate.“
The osprey won the war in Iraq! I’m convinced now.
I’ve read where there’s a 4-engine version of the Osprey in the works. Somebody must like them.
I’ve never been a marine, but if I was to be flown off an amphibious ship to prepare for a battle, DEEP inside some territory, I’m pretty sure I’d prefer to get there and get set up as quickly as possible. I suspect that’s what the Osprey will be used for.
Also, if injured, I suspect I would prefer to be medivac’d out just as quickly as possible.