You know the arguments against the V-22 may be thin and Time's reporting may
have been shabby, but this so called rebutal by some PhD kind of person is
nothing but bull**** - this is got be an example of some classic web-based
construction by twits ... PhD my ass
"Mike" wrote in message
ups.com...
V-22 EXPOSÉ: FURTHER EVIDENCE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S DECLINE. Lexington
Institute.
http://lexingtoninstitute.org/1183.shtml
V-22 EXPOSÉ: FURTHER EVIDENCE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S DECLINE
Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.
Issue Brief
Oct 4, 2007
There's sad news from our nation's capital this week friends. It
turns out that the Marine Corps has been run for a quarter century by
incompetent leaders who have worked closely with corrupt members of
Congress to put young Marines in aircraft that will get them killed.
The only thing that can save us from this cabal is courageous
investigative reporting that reveals the rot destroying our defense
establishment.
Oops -- my mistake! I just described the screenplay for Oliver
Stone's next movie. The sad news from Washington I meant to discuss
was the continuing erosion of Time Magazine's relevance in the modern
world, as reflected in its goofy cover story this week about the V-22
Osprey tiltrotor that the Marine Corps and other military services are
buying. Time Magazine used to be a major force in American
journalism, but now it is searching desperately for readers in a news
market crowded with more engaging alternatives. Faced with the same
extinction that claimed sister publication Life Magazine, Time is
resorting to an old journalistic tool to hold market share --
sensationalism.
Since it's hard to be sensational if you have to report all the facts,
Time reporter Mark Thompson has elected to include only the bad
stuff. Unfortunately, this results in an account of the V-22's
development that could only be true if the Marine Corps had been run
by idiots for the last 25 years -- idiots who don't care about the
fate of their fellow Marines in combat. It isn't really necessary to
rebut this ridiculous thesis, because the V-22 is deploying for combat
in Iraq and we will soon have unambiguous indicators of its
performance. But just for fun...
1. Time says the V-22 was so bad that even defense secretary Dick
Cheney wanted to cancel it. Actually, Cheney killed a hundred major
weapons programs in four years at the Pentagon, and V-22 was the one
program he couldn't convince Congress to eliminate.
2. Time says the V-22 has suffered half a dozen major mishaps during
development claiming 30 lives. That's true, but it fails to mention
that the CH-46 helicopter the Osprey will replace suffered 44 major
mishaps during its first five years of service.
3. Time says the V-22 should be equipped with a forward-firing gun to
perform its assault support role. That will come as news to the
military, since no assault support aircraft in the joint fleet carries
a forward-firing gun.
4. Time says V-22 lacks the "autorotation" capacity that allows
helicopters to descend to a survivable landing if engines fail. Well
duh: V-22 isn't a helicopter. However, it has more unpowered glide
capability than any chopper in the fleet.
5. Time says the latest version of V-22 is only ready to fly 62% of
the time. The real mission-capable rate is 70% -- not bad for a new
aircraft, and much better than the aging helicopters the Air Force
uses for search and rescue in Iraq.
I could go on, but what's the point? There's no market for good news
about weapons systems. But you're still going to be hearing a lot
about the V-22 in Iraq, because any aircraft that combines the speed
and range of airplanes with the vertical agility of helicopters will
change the way we wage war.