Osprey exceeds expectations in Iraq test

Reuters/San Diego Union-Tribune:

Textron Inc and Boeing Co's MV22 Osprey, the world's first operational half-helicopter half-airplane, performed far better in its Iraq combat debut than had been predicted by critics, the general in charge of Marine Corps aircraft said Friday.

The hybrid aircraft is “just going to become more and more valuable across the board,” including for Air Force special operations, said Marine Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation.

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“Most of the critics are just plain wrong in many of the things they say,” Trautman told a Pentagon briefing marking the return from Iraq last week of the first Marine Corps operational Osprey squadron.

He said Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 did “every single mission that they were asked to do” during a seven month deployment.

The Marines were just starting to exploit the tilt-rotor aircraft's “new and revolutionary technology,” he added, and therefore would seek training opportunities outside the battlefield as well as continuing deployments in Iraq.

Trautman predicted the MV-22 would outperform the CH-46 if higher-ups decided to send it into the more challenging altitudes in Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps is due to receive 30 MV-22 aircraft a year under a $10.4 billion Pentagon contract with Textron's Bell Helicopter unit and Boeing signed in March.

The deal covers production of 167 Ospreys through 2012, more than 140 of them for the Marines. The Corps already has 59 Ospreys in three squadrons, including 12 deployed in Iraq with the second squadron to fly it there, Trautman said.

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“As an operational aircraft now, it works absolutely wonderfully,” said Capt. Sara Faibisoff of Lake Havasu, Arizona, who has 500 hours in the Osprey as a co-pilot. “For me, it's very easy” to fly.

Lt. Col. Paul Rock, the squadron's commander, reported two apparent enemy attempts in Iraq to target the Osprey, involving small arms and a rocket.

“More guns is good,” he said when asked about criticism of the lack of an onboard gun that can shoot in all directions, a weight-saving trade-off. The Marines are studying adding a gun that would be mounted in the aircraft's belly, controlled by a gunner and capable of firing in all directions.

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I think the craft is even better suited for operations in Afghanistan. With less than 3,000 Marines in Afghanistan it is not clear when it will be tested in that environment. They do need to add guns and some Hellfire missiles too. I am sure the sweep of the rotors make firing in the forward direction difficult. In World War I when guns were mounted between the pilot and the propellers initially they armored the props to keep them from being destroyed by the planes own guns, then eventually they were able to develop a machine gun whose wire rate was sequenced to the prop and fired after each pass.