Any major military acquisition program, from the M1 Abrams tank, to the FA-18A Hornet, to the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft may reliably depend upon a vocal critic within the Pentagon to decry its lack of war fighting effectiveness and operational suitability. Defense acquisition is necessarily a zero-sum game, and a funded program is a fierce temptation to those whose own programs and preferences remain unfunded, or underfunded.
That critic can reliably depend upon the editorial pages of the New York Times to give his perturbations a full-throated national voice, the editors comprehensively convinced that any dollar spent in the defense of the nation is a dollar that ought to be spent preventing war-crazed Rethuglicans from cold-heartedly throwing babies into the snow.
High tech is a force multiplier, but it is definitionally complex. Complexity engenders risk, developmental testing takes time, and in the case of the V-22 program, it took lives. Reasonable people had room for doubt.
No longer, according to Richard Whittle:
Once upon a time, the evil ogres of the military-industrial complex spawned a mutant flying machine, a freakish helicopter-airplane hybrid so dangerous and costly it deserved to die. Yet tribes of pork-addicted toadies and blind intellectual dwarfs shielded the beast from knights in shining armor who sallied forth tirelessly — heavily armed with GAO reports — to slay it.
That’s the fairy tale the V-22 Osprey’s bitterest critics like to believe, but the facts about the tiltrotor transport, which the Marines fought a quarter of a century to get into service, tell a far happier story. This ugly duckling is turning out to be a swan.
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The result is that Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., unwittingly spoke the truth in May when she futilely tried for the umpteenth time to cut the V-22 from the defense budget by arguing that the “Osprey’s mishaps have become practically the stuff of legend.”
“Legend” is the right word. Since Dec. 11, 2000, the Osprey has suffered one fatal accident – one in 11 years.
Whittle goes on to state that the operators of the V-22 aircraft love the machine and its capabilities, while the safety record of the expensively re-designed aircraft is superior to the conventional rotary-wing aircraft it replaces.
This is all useful to remember as new programs like the F-35 moves through developmental testing.
All depends on where the stake is pounded as to how the survey turns out. Over it’s lifespan thus far, there have been 5 crashes.
Shamelessly copied from Wikipedia>>
On 11 June 1991, the left nacelle of a pre-production Osprey struck the ground while the aircraft was hovering 15 feet (4.6 m) in the air, causing it to bounce and catch fire; subsequent investigation found miswired flight control system to be responsible The pilot, Grady Wilson, suspected that he may have accidentally set the throttle lever the opposite direction to that intended, exacerbating the crash if not causing it.
On 20 July 1992, a leaking gearbox led to a fire in the right nacelle of a pre-production V-22, causing the aircraft to drop into the Potomac River in front of an audience of Congressmen and other government officials at Quantico, killing all seven on board and grounding the aircraft for 11 months. Boeing later denied speculation that pressure to perform had been a factor in the accident.
On 8 April 2000, a V-22 loaded with Marines to simulate a rescue, attempted to land at Marana Northwest Regional Airport in Arizona, stalled when its right rotor entered vortex ring state, rolled over, crashed, and exploded, killing all 19 on board.
On 11 December 2000, after a catastrophic hydraulic leak and subsequent software instrument failure, a V-22 fell 1,600 feet (490 m) into a forest in Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four aboard. This caused the Marine Corps to ground their fleet of eight V-22s, the second grounding that year.
On 9 April 2010, a CV-22 crashed near Qalat, Zabul Province, Afghanistan, killing four. It has been suggested the crash was caused by a loss of situational awareness and aerodynamic control. Both Brownout conditions and enemy fire were ruled out by the USAF investigation.
That is just the crashes.
Talked to the pilots from a Marine unit just returned from Afghan with their V-22 at the MCAS Beaufort airshow this year. They loved it – the speed, the new capabilities, the reliability – even in that God-forsaken dustbowl of shi_. And they admitted they did NOT go into kind of hot LZ with troops. Don’t know that we will buy the planned 348 (not including USAF) but I’m betting the support budgets get whacked.
But with the USMC getting V-22s, the new UH-1, the new Cobra, and a planned buy of new CH-53k’s their rotary wing program looks to be solid. The F-35? dunno
One would certainly hope that a brand new $44 million airframe would be somewhat safer than 40 year old ‘phrogs.
But that doesn’t mean the decision to procure it was the right one.
http://tinyurl.com/yg6qlng
Having spent a number of years helping to shepherd the V-22 program through the Congress it is most satisfying to see how successful the program has been.
There were huge obstacles to be overcome, some on Capitol Hill, and some in the various administrations (Dick Cheney springs instantly to mind.) Some of the opposition was probably well intended, and some was just plain Luddite. In the end it was battle worth making, and a victory worth winning.
Sure glad we didn’t need Lt. Col. Odin “Fred” Leberman to LIE or Col. James Schleining to be derelict in his duty. Also don’t forget Capt. Christopher Ramsey he did his part to see things didn’t get reported. Yes great aircraft need a few officers to disgrace the uniform they wear just so it can fly.
A retired Army Warrant rotorhead attends my church, who also involved with the V-22 program, told me that pre-positioning of spares is all that’s kept the program going. Given how the military get’s it’s tail twisted about these things, and how broken the procurement process is, I wouldn’t bet on the military’s propaganda on the machine.
The F-35 program is still a mess, and I would still bet it never makes it into service.
Greetings:
I live in the San Francisco Bay area, a couple of soviets south of what the locals like to refer to as “The City” for some reason obscure to immigrants. A week or two ago, I caught part of a public affairs interview program on one of our local Progressive (neé Public) Broadcasting System stations. The interviewees were the the Captain of an aircraft carrier and a Marine Colonel in charge of a Marine Expeditionary Unit. They spoke about the Libyan campaign and the jet that went down in its earliest days. An Osprey cum Marines was sent to extract the pilots and both commanders agreed that the bird’s speed and capacity were integral to the success of that limited venture, The Marine seemed way pleased; the Navy type pleased in a commanding officer kind of way..
I betcha nothing will convince Bill.
The F-35 was supposed to be cheap because the F-22 was a “cold war gold plated jet”. Missile defense doesn’t work and Iran is not a threat. If you were to act 100% opposite these MSM beliefs, you would be better off than if you listened to the wisest sage.
The problem is that to the journos who cover defense, every program is expensive. These idiots hate the military and slant their coverage so that every program looks bad. They never bother to do their research, never bother to ask the service members who use the kit. The Washington Post and POGO had a conniption when the Stryker soldiers defended the program. Positive feedback from downrange didn’t fit the narrative. No soldiers calling it a deathtrap, no complaints. No soldiers scared of riding in a stryker. The “stryker is bad” meme died.
A Marine V-22 carried President Obama around Iraq and still the press beats this deceased equine. Israel and Norway are looking at bying V-22′s, maybe that will learn the MSM. Maybe.
In the meantime, expect more lumps from our progressive overlords.
[...] Military acquisition from Lex. [...]
I don’t know. I still wouldn’t get on an Osprey. Its still the Pinto of the rotary wing world.
The real test of the program is yet to come – Longevity and the maintenance load that goes with it as the airframes age. Mechanically, it’s probably the most complex piece of aviation machinery we have put into production. Mechanical complexity and longevity, to date, have not played well together. Even less complex rotary wing AC can become maintenance bears. Most of us here know what happens to older fixed wing AC, and Osprey is several orders of magnitude more complex.
I agree with Cupojoe on this as well.
Eggs-ACTLY, QM! Complexity & maintenance were two of the major reasons the F-14 (a sterling bird) was discontinued while the F-15, F-16, and F-18 are still going.
Not to mention we haven’t seen how an Osprey behaves under real-world conditions after suffering major damage. No auto-rotation, for starters.
Not only that, they’ll have to be maintained by Marines, who, with the best will in the world, and the most earnest intentions, will have to suffer the short end of the Naval budget, and the temptation to use a hammer instead of a wrench.
No, really, that flying machine is a very complicated gizmo, and all parts of it have to work exactly right for it to work right as a whole. I do hope that everybody who works on those things and works the flying controls on those things is quite serious about doing his job exactly right. [makes Sign of Cross]
One of the Marines that was lost in the V22 crash in Arizona was a classmate and good friend of mine.
Cpl. Eric Martinez, Marine Wing Communications Squadron 38, Marine Air Control Group 38, stationed in Miramar.
I am glad to see that the majority of the bugs have been worked out of the system, to prevent incidents like this from happening again. A bit more personally, I am in the course of getting my FAA airframe and powerplant license, and I hope to get a chance to see one of these machines up close.
Whittle goes on to state that the operators of the V-22 aircraft love the machine and its capabilities…
…even though they’re orders of magnitude *less* than the capabilities they were purchased for. They still have to operate from prepared areas, they’re prohibited from making approaches with a rate of descent in excess of 300 feet per minute, they can’t haul a mixed load of troops and cargo, and they have no autorotative capability.
The only reason the V-22 has a good safety record is because the Marines haven’t been using it the way they said they would be — the way they used the CH-46.