Inside the Navy
MARINE CORPS TEAM PREPARES MV-22 OSPREY FOR HARMFUL DUST IN IRAQ
Date: June 25, 2007
LE BOURGET, FRANCE -- A team of experts is developing tactics,
techniques and procedures to help safeguard the MV-22 Osprey from dust
and sand particles when the tiltrotor deploys to Iraq in September,
according to the program manager. Parts of the Osprey that draw in air
will likely ingest sand and dust, too, causing wear and tear, Marine
Col. Matt Mulhern told InsideDefense.com on June 18 at the Paris Air
Show. "We think anything that's going to suck air into the airplane is
going to wear out," he said. The MV-22 Osprey achieved initial
operational capability this month. The certification allows the
aircraft to deploy to Anbar province in Iraq -- a desert region -- for
seven months, starting in September. The Osprey is a tiltrotor
aircraft that takes off vertically like a helicopter but has the speed
and maneuverability of a fixed-wing plane once airborne. Bell
Helicopter Textron and Boeing developed the aircraft. A few months
ago, officials from Bell-Boeing, engine-maker Rolls-Royce and the
Marine Corps formed a "dust team" that is determining the types and
quantities of filters required to protect the Osprey from the
environment, Mulhern said. "The challenge," he said, is identifying
the "right" parts to store in the inventory for deployment. The team
also monitors lessons learned from the Air Force's 71st Special
Operations Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base, NM. The squadron,
which operates in desert conditions, provides combat ready CV-22
aircrews to the service's special operations command. The CV-22 is the
Air Force's variant of the Osprey. The dust team was created, in part,
because "what we're not doing well is transitioning our lessons from
Marine Corps to the Air Force and Air Force to the Marine Corps,"
Mulhern said. "It'll never be a 100 percent solution until you
actually get there, but it's given us some insight into which
components are going to be bad actors, which filters we need to plus
up" and how to better clean and reuse filters, he added. The team is
also importing these lessons to Marines participating in the "Desert
Talon" training exercise at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, AZ, Mulhern
said. When in Iraq, the Marine Osprey squadron VMM-263 will bring
speed and survivability to U.S. forces, Mulhern said. Besides being
"physically more survivable," the tiltrotor will be out of the range
of rocket-propelled grenades and small arms during transit, he said.
The U.S. military has lost more than 50 helicopters in Iraq since
invading the country in 2003. The international community will be
closely watching the Osprey's first deployment to gauge the
tiltrotor's value on the battlefield, Mulhern said. The aircraft,
which was showcased at the Farnborough Air Show in England last year,
was not displayed here because Marine Corps officials are focused on
preparing the deploying squadron for combat, Mulhern said. Several
nations have "informally" requested a chance to have their military
operators fly in the Osprey, Mulhern said. The requests came after the
Marine Corps held an "embassy day" on May 14 at Naval Air Station
Patuxent River, MD, where representatives from 16 nations -- including
France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and
Saudi Arabia -- inspected the tiltrotor, he added. During the visit,
the foreign officials rode in an Osprey, spent time in a flight
simulator, examined electronic training equipment and watched the
tiltrotor externally lift a humvee, Mulhern said. "I think,
realistically, everybody's watching the first deployment. . . . They
want to see the airplane perform," he said. "All eyes are on the
deployment." Meanwhile, program officials are also involved in the
"fact-finding phase" of a multiyear production deal. The Pentagon and
Bell-Boeing may ink the deal by December, Mulhern said. The $10
billion deal would buy 167 Ospreys between fiscal years 2008 and 2012.
Discussions on the multiyear proposal are centering on aligning
Defense Department schedules with Bell-Boeing's projected time lines,
Mulhern said. There is a "little bit of a disconnect on rate tooling,"
and "we need to work on the phasing of the dollars," he said. Osprey
program officials are also preparing for the CV-22 to begin initial
operational testing in late fall, as well as the airframe's first
shipboard deployment next year on an LHA large-deck amphibious assault
ship, Mulhern said. Despite improvements to the Osprey, critics still
express concern about its reliability. In 2000, two fatal V-22 mishaps
nearly ended the program.