The Osprey Goes to War

[unhappycamper]

The Osprey Goes to War
December 07, 2009
Knight Ridder

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan -- When a couple of VM-22 Osprey tilt rotors joined a fleet of CH-53 helicopters, dropping out of the predawn darkness Friday in the northern end of the Now Zad valley in Helmand Province to deliver the first of more than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops, it marked not only the first large assault since President Obama's announcement that the U.S. would be sending more troops here, it also was the first major combat operation for the Osprey.

The Marines are hoping that the operation - a sweep to begin to secure the area around the city of Now Zad dubbed Cobra's Anger - will become a key step toward resuscitating the image of the Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter, but in the air can tilt its motors forward to fly like a fixed-wing plane.

"It certainly passed its first big test here with flying colors," said Maj. William Pelletier, a spokesman at the Marine Corp's main base in Afghanistan and Helmand Province, Camp Leatherneck.

The Osprey suffered through a star-crossed development period that took more than 20 years and included several fatal crashes and huge cost overruns. Then, after production models entered service, on its only other combat deployment so far, in Iraq's Anbar Province in 2007 through 2009, the complicated aircraft was panned by the Government Accounting Office and critics in Congress because of various maintenance problems and questions about its performance.

In a report released June 23, the GAO essentially said that it wasn't worth the cost and that its ability to fly at high altitudes and to carry the number of troops it was supposed to with their gear was questionable.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/the-osprey-goes-to-war.html

[msongs]

1. its been attacking the US treasury and taxpayers for many years nt