Higher, Farther, Faster: Osprey in War
Military.com | By Christian Lowe | January 22, 2008
Al ASAD, Iraq - The Marine Corps moved heaven and earth to get them here. An amphibious assault ship was commandeered specifically to carry the New River, N.C.-based squadron halfway around the world to the most dangerous war zone on the planet.
And there was a lot riding on this deployment. Billions of dollars were spent over nearly three decades on a technology that many said would never work. And its track record -- at least in the early years -- wasn’t very good.
But the Corps’ most high-profile program is finally deployed, and from the looks of it, the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor transport is living up to its promise.
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"There’s nothing in the inventory that can keep up with the Osprey," said Lt. Col. Paul Rock, commander of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, which deployed here in late September. "This aircraft can scream across the ground."
And that’s a big deal in a war zone still simmering with insurgents and terrorist-inspired upheaval. The more an aircraft can stay out of the danger zone the better.
Over the last five months, the Osprey has flown myriad missions. But most of its hops have consisted of run-of-the-mill logistics runs: shepherding troops to widely scattered forward operating bases, flying in supplies and mail, shuttling commanders to meetings with tribal leaders and Iraqi security officials.
But, while officials here don’t like to put it in such terms, the MV-22 has been put through its paces with an array of missions intended to push its limits and see just how much the helicopter/airplane hybrid can do.
The Osprey squadron was tasked late last year with supporting a new mission dubbed "aeroscout," where a flight of Ospreys would swoop into an area with little U.S. military presence, drop off its load of Marines and wait there until the troops had scoured the area for enemy fighters and weapons caches. This was a tasking previously left almost exclusively to a squadron of shorter-range CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters, but commanders wanted to see how the Osprey -- which is in part being purchased by the Corps to replace the 53D -- would perform on such a mission.
But sometimes the mission is less "kinetic," as commanders here like to say. For more than a month during the November-December timeframe, the Osprey was tasked with medivac missions in support of Army UH-60 Blackhawks. Since the Osprey has much greater range and speed than other helos, it can pick up and drop off wounded much more quickly than the CH-46 Sea Knight, the Corps’ primary medivac lifter.
In once instance, an Osprey was dispatched to a remote outpost in western Iraq to pick up a Soldier with a routine, but serious, medical condition and flew the 130 mile round trip in less than an hour.
"We can get that patient back during that critical ‘golden hour’ " during which medical attention can mean the difference between life and death, Rock said.
Sure, commanders are singing the Osprey’s praises, but what do the pilots think?
Though it took a little getting used to for Capt. Lee York, a former CH-46 pilot, the smoother controls and better situational awareness afforded by the advanced flight computers and navigation suite makes the job of flying the Osprey a lot easier.
"In the Phrog, you had to stay on top of it constantly," York said during a daytime mission to a half dozen forward operating bases as far away as the Syrian border. "Phrog" is a term Marine pilots use to describe the CH-46 Sea Knight.
"With all the technology [the Osprey] gives you … it makes it much easier to fly," York said.
Pilots can set the Osprey on autopilot -- inputting speed, heading and altitude -- and sit back and almost relax for a while during the flight. The crew also feels a lot safer at the higher altitudes and speed the Osprey flies, staying out of range of most handheld surface to air missiles and small arms fire. And in sandy, brownout conditions and night operations with low-light, pilots can "hover couple" the Osprey and fly it into the LZ without touching the stick.
But, like any aircraft deployed to a combat zone, the Osprey is not without its maintenance hiccups.
Earlier in the deployment several of the squadron’s aircraft had a key part fail. At one point "there were a couple of days when we didn’t have an aircraft in the air" because of a shortage of replacement parts, said Lt. Col. Evan Leblanc, the squadron’s operations officer.
After some arm-twisting at the top, Osprey manufacturers Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing sent over replacement "slip rings" to get the birds back in the air.
"Sometimes it seems like we need to send up a red star cluster when we need spare parts," Leblanc said. "But when we do, they just seem to materialize out of nowhere."
In the maintenance hanger there was the usual grumbling about this part wearing out quicker than expected or surprise at that part holding up better than expected. One surprise for Osprey maintainers, however, is that the Moon-like dust here is less of a problem than the gritty sand of Arizona where a lot of MV-22 desert testing was conducted. The finer sand of Iraq is easier to blow out of engine parts and other tight spaces, maintainers said.
But like any aircraft in a war zone, the Osprey has its good days and bad days.
"It seems like these planes all talk to each other," said Sgt. Robert McGregor, a flight-line mechanic with VMM 263. When a part goes bad on one of them it goes bad on all of them, he said.
Though most squadron Marines recognize the pressure they’re under to make this first combat deployment with the high-profile plane a success, leathernecks in the maintenance bays and airplane crews say their commanders have done a good job of keeping them focused on the mission rather than the scuttlebutt back home.
One nine-year veteran of the program said he’s seen it all, and that while the Osprey does have its limitations, he’d rather be flying on this plane than the alternative.
"The Osprey’s always going to have its critics," said Gunnery Sgt. Mike Brodeur, a crew chief with VMM 263, as he leaned through the cockpit door during a flight to al Rutbah. "When we first got these birds they were a nightmare … Now they’re a whole lot better."
"This program’s come a long way," he added
------------------------------------------------------------ Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC
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