Ospreys head to Iraq for combat deployment

[unhappycamper]

Ospreys head to Iraq for combat deployment
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 18, 2007 7:49:23 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — The first MV-22 Ospreys to make a combat deployment are on an amphibious assault ship heading for Iraq, according to a Marine Corps headquarters spokesman.

Ten Ospreys and roughly 200 leathernecks and sailors with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 flew out of Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., and landed aboard the Wasp on Monday, Maj. Eric Dent said.

He did not know where the Norfolk, Va.-based ship was when the Ospreys boarded. The ship was diverted from an international exercise in Panama on Sept. 5 to the Nicaraguan coast to assist with disaster-relief efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Felix.

VMM-263 is heading for Al Asad Air Base for a seven-month deployment; the Ospreys will provide tactical assault support for Marines and soldiers.

The Corps decided to deploy the tilt-rotors via ship, in part to allow the aircraft to do shipboard integration operations. Corps officials would not say where the Ospreys will leave the ship and move into Iraq.

~snip~

Ospreys will become the Corps’ new troop transport aircraft, flying faster and farther between refuelings than the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters they’re replacing. There are three operational MV-22 squadrons — VMM-263, VMM-162 and VMM-266 —all based at New River.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/marine_osprey_deployment_070917/




uhc comment: The Osprey has had a troubled past since the programs inception since 1986. Yup, this baby is 21 years old.

According to Wikipedia:

The V-22's development processes have been long and controversial. When the development budget, first set at $2.5 billion in 1986, had reached $30 billion in 1988,<8> then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney zeroed out the budget, but was overruled by Congress. The first flight occurred on March 19, 1989.<9>

Additionally, the V-22 squadron's former commander at New River, Lieutenant Colonel Odin Lieberman, reputedly instructed his unit that they needed to falsify maintenance records to make the plane appear more reliable. A crew member's recording included him stating that "We need to lie or manipulate the data, or however you wanna call it".

Incidents

There have been four significant failures during testing:<8>

* On June 11, 1991, a miswired flight control system led to two minor injuries when the left nacelle struck the ground while the plane was hovering 15 feet in the air, causing it to bounce and catch fire.

* On July 20, 1992, a leaking gearbox led to a fire in the right nacelle, causing the plane to drop into the Potomac River in front of an audience of Congressmen and other government officials at Quantico, killing all seven crewmen and grounding the plane for 11 months. The seven crewmembers were Brian J. James (copilot), Sean P. Joyce (crew chief), Gary Leader (crew chief), Gerald W. Mayan (instrumentation engineer), Robert Rayburn (flight test engineer), Anthony J. Stecyk, Jr. (mechanic), and Patrick J. Sullivan (pilot). James, Joyce and Leader served in the US Marine Corps. Mayan, Rayburn, Stecyk and Sullivan were employees of The Boeing Company.

* On April 8, 2000, a V-22 loaded with Marines to simulate a rescue, attempted to land at Marana Northwest Regional Airport in Arizona. It descended unusually quickly (over 2,000 feet per minute) from an unusually high altitude with a forward speed of under 45 miles per hour when it suddenly stalled its right rotor at 245 feet, rolled over, crashed, and exploded, killing all nineteen on board. The official cause was determined to be vortex ring state (VRS), a fundamental limitation on vertical descent which is common to helicopters. At the time of the mishap, however, the V-22's flight operations rules restricted the Osprey to an 800 feet per minute (240 m/min) descent at lower than 40 knots (74 km/h) airspeed (restrictions typical of helicopters, as well); the crew of the aircraft in question exceeded this operating restriction threefold. Another factor that may have triggered VRS was their operating in close proximity, which is believed to be a risk factor for VRS in helicopters. Subsequent testing has shown that the V-22, and the tiltrotor in general, is less susceptible to VRS, the conditions are easily recognized by the pilots; recovery from VRS requires a more natural action by the pilot than recovery in helicopters, the altitude loss is significantly less than for helicopters, and, with sufficient altitude (2000 feet or more), VRS recovery is relatively easy.<8> As a result of testing, the V-22 will have a descent envelope as large or larger than most helicopters, further enhancing its ability to enter and depart hostile landing zones quickly and safely. The project team also dealt with the problem by adding a simultaneous warning light and voice that says "Sink Rate" when the V-22 approaches just half of the VRS-vulnerable descent rate.

* On December 11, 2000, a hydraulic leak caused by a wiring bundle chafing and wearing through a hydraulic line feeding the primary side of the swashplate actuators to the right side rotor blade controls; a previously undiscovered error in the aircraft's control software caused it to decelerate each time in response to the pilot's eight attempts to reset the software as a result of Primary Flight Control System (PFCS) alert,the uncontrollable aircraft fell 1,600 feet into a forest in Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four aboard. The four Marines aboard were Lt. Col Keith M. Sweaney, Maj. Michael L. Murphy, Staff Sgt. Avely W. Runnels, and Sgt. Jason A. Buyck. The wiring harnesses and hydraulic line routing in the nacelles has been modified.

Minor problems

* In the spring of 2006, a V-22 experienced an uncommanded engine acceleration while ground turning at MCAS New River. Since the aircraft regulates power turbine speed with blade pitch, the reaction caused the aircraft to go airborne with the Torque Control Lever (TCL, or throttle) at idle. It was later found that a miswired cannon plug to one of the engine's two Full Authority Digital Engine Controls (FADEC) was the cause. The FADEC software was also modified to decrease the amount of time needed for the switch between the redundant FADECs to eliminate the possibility of a similar mishap occurring in the future.<17>

* On July 11, 2006, a V-22 experienced compressor stalls in its right engine in the middle of its first transatlantic flight to the United Kingdom for the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough Air Show.<18> It had to be diverted to Iceland for maintenance. A week later it was announced that other V-22s had been having compressor surges and stalls and the Navy had launched an investigation into it.<19>

* On February 10, 2007, the Air Force and Marine Corps temporarily grounded their entire fleet after discovering a glitch in a computer chip that could cause the aircraft to lose control.<20>

* On March 29, 2007, a V-22 experienced a hydraulic leak that led to an engine-compartment fire before takeoff.<21> It was also reported at that time that a more serious nacelle fire occurred on a Marine MV-22 at New River in December of 2006.<21[br />




That's just the stuff we know about. I suspect we'll be hearing more as these machines kill our troops.

[Kelvin Mace]

1. Great!

Wonderful! Since we don't have near enough soldiers dying at the hands of Iraqi insurgents, we need to start killing more of them with crappy aircraft which congress has kept alive as welfare for defense contractors.