The US Marine Corps used Farnborough to highlight the success of its new Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotors during combat operations in Iraq. Colonel Paul P Ryan, commanding officer of VMM-263, the first Osprey squadron to deploy to Iraq, outlined his unit’s achievements in the country.
Though the squadron mainly flew ‘general support’ transport missions, the V-22s were also used for about ten raids and air assaults, and flew casevac and ‘aero scout’ missions. For the latter, the V-22s carried a quick reaction force – a 24-man squad of Marines, primarily to hunt insurgents and deal with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). They operated with pairs of AH-1 Cobras (or mixed AH-1/UH-1 pairs) flew ahead acquiring targets, supported by UASs and fixed-wing assets overhead.
The V-22 proved to be something of a revelation in Iraq, returning the same 70% availability rate in theatre as it had done during the 18-month work-up in the States, with a better-than-expected utilisation rate of 65 hours per aircraft per month, and requiring just nine maintenance man hours per flying hour, compared to 22 hours for the CH-46.
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One of VMM-263’s pilots, Captain Sarah Faibisoff, noted that during training at Yuma, in Arizona, there had been problems with prop-rotors, thanks to the coarse sand. “The sand was finer and nicer in Iraq,” she says “and so we didn’t have any problems.”
Meanwhile, at the show USAF Special Operations Command says it has accelerated the procurement of a new M134 mini gun capability for its CV-22 Osprey force to complement the aft ramp gun. The BAE Systems Remote Guardian System (RGS) is also being readied for application to Marine Corps MV-22s and presents an impressive step forward in weapons capability for the Osprey.
Source: Flight International
