WAR DEPARTMENT

PENTAGON'S TROUBLED WONDER CRAFT CLEARED FOR USE DESPITE QUESTIONS

DEFENSE TECH - More than 20 years after beginning development, and
seven years after a spate of crashes that killed 30 people, the
$130-million-per-copy Osprey is finally prepping for its first combat
deployment. One of the Marines' two operational squadrons will head to
Iraq or Afghanistan sometime this year. Meanwhile, deliveries continue
to the Marines and the Air Force, with more than 50 aircraft in service
against a planned total of 410.

Despite the Osprey program's advanced state, critics are still calling
for its cancellation. None have been more vociferous than the wonks at
Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C. On January 18,
freelance writer Lee Gaillard presented his CDI-backed report V-22
Osprey: Wonder Weapon or Widow Maker. "This glitch-plagued program . . .
is poised to reveal fundamental flaws that may cost even more lives."

- The Osprey is prone to stalling while descending at 800 feet per
minute or faster

- The cabin is too small to haul the advertised two squads (around 26
Marines)

- The cabin isn't pressurized, limiting how high it can fly with troops

- Its range is no greater than that of many heavy helicopter designs

- Lacking guns, it's vulnerable in hot landing zones

Many of these flaws were revealed in the military's operational
evaluation that wrapped in 2005. Still, the Pentagon cleared the Osprey
for service. Gaillard chalks this up to "unstoppable political momentum"
resulting from the Bell/Boeing team lining up contractors in 45 out of
50 states.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003212.html

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