Dallas Morning News
April 5, 2007
V-22 Marine squadron is expected to go to Iraq this fall
By Richard Whittle, Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – The moment of truth for Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.'s much-debated V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor troop transport is approaching, the Marine Corps colonel in charge of the program said Wednesday.
After 24 years and about $22 billion spent developing the unorthodox helicopter-airplane hybrid, the Marines are expected to send a squadron of 10 Ospreys to Iraq this fall, though no official decision has been announced.
"We are ready for deployment," Col. Matthew Mulhern, V-22 program manager, told reporters at a Navy League conference. "How it does in combat is the real test, and I think we're real confident that it's going to do well."
About 2,500 Texans work on the Osprey in Fort Worth and Amarillo for Bell, which builds the V-22 in a 50-50 partnership with the helicopter division of Boeing Co., based outside Philadelphia.
A mistake by a mechanic who incorrectly reattached a hydraulic line during an inspection led to a fire that slightly damaged an Osprey last week at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., where the first V-22 squadron scheduled to deploy is based, Col. Mulhern said.
At the same time, the program is rewriting part of the Osprey's computer software and making changes to the nacelles – large pods that hold the engines and tilt the rotors – to prevent fires such as a more severe one in December that damaged an Osprey at New River, he said.
In that case, a worn-out bearing caused vibration, which led to a hydraulic fluid leak, program spokesman James Darcy said. A computer shut down that hydraulic system in 5.5 seconds, but enough fluid leaked to start the fire.
Col. Mulhern said, meanwhile, that unsuitable computer chips that led the Marines to ground all Ospreys for several days in February were quickly replaced and all aircraft returned to flight.
Critics have predicted that sending the V-22 into combat will result in disaster. Two crashed in 2000 during testing and training flights, killing 23 Marines and nearly leading the Pentagon to cancel the V-22.
The Marines, who have redesigned and retested the V-22 since then, expect the aircraft's revolutionary ability to take off and land like a helicopter but fly as fast and far as an airplane to save lives.
Col. Mulhern said the V-22's speed and ability to fly higher than the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter it will replace would make it far less vulnerable to enemy fire. The Osprey also will get wounded troops to medical care far more quickly, he said.
"The first Marine that we save, that lives because he rode into a first-level treatment facility" will make the Osprey "a successful program," Col. Mulhern said.
Col. Mulhern dismissed as uninformed a recent report by the Center for Defense Information, a Washington think tank, which said the Osprey had "fundamental design flaws that may cost even more lives."
The issues the report raised were resolved long ago through design and training changes and retesting of the V-22, he said.
Marine Corps Commandant James Conway recently said it was certain another V-22 would crash at some point, however.
"That's what airplanes do over time," Gen. Conway told a group of defense reporters. "And we're going to have to accept that when it happens."
The heat and sand of Iraq and Afghanistan wear out helicopter parts, especially engines and rotors, at a rate U.S. repair depots have had trouble keeping up with. Insurgent attacks are also a major hazard.
"If it deploys into Iraq, it's going to get hit," Col. Mulhern said. Helicopters there are "taking a lot of fire in some of those landing zones," he said.
Insurgents typically fire on helicopters with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and shoulder-fired missiles, he said.
The Osprey can avoid much of that by flying from point to point at altitudes of 10,000 to 12,000 feet, much higher than helicopters can, he said.
The V-22's triple-redundant computerized flight control and hydraulic systems also provide insurance in case enemy fire disables one or even two such systems, Col. Mulhern said.
The V-22 also carries "all the counter-measures those helicopters have," such as flares to fool heat-seeking missiles.
"There is no countermeasure for RPGs," Col. Mulhern said. "It's either got your name on it or it doesn't. And it's a big bang when it hits you.
"But when you've got the speed we have and ability to fly at altitude, you're going to be outside of that threat pretty rapidly."

Everyone have a moment of silence and put in an extra prayer for all our brave soldiers who are going to have to ride in this thing.

You're telling me. I wouldnt't even want to fly it.

Unfortunately, we should just go ahead and get the boxes ready. I hate this thing, it is another needless death(s) waiting to happen.

not only is it impractical and unsafe, but it's as ugly as heck.

it will probably be an easy target for the insurgents to shoot down

How do you say "Ugly flying Fish" in Iraqi?

derka, derka, mohammad jihad...