A senior defence official at the Pentagon has concluded that the naval variant of the Bell-Boeing V-22 tiltrotor is unsuitable for the mission of resupplying aircraft carriers at sea.
In its 2023 annual report, the office of the Director for Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) says the CMV-22 Osprey is “not operationally suitable” for the carrier-resupply mission.
The DOT&E, whose current director is Raymond O’Toole, describes its mission as supporting the “credible evaluation” of the effectiveness of Pentagon weapon systems in combat.
The office’s latest report attributes its assessment of the CMV-22 to the “failures of many subsystems”, with the tiltrotor’s ice protection system accounting for 44% of operational failures.
The report comes as all Osprey variants across the US military remain grounded following a fatal November 2023 crash.
The DOT&E says the CMV-22’s required maintenance hours per flight hour do not meet programme requirements. Only 45% of logged maintenance hours were related to normally scheduled maintenance – with more than half of repair time apparently arising from unexpected issues.
The US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), whose V-22 joint programme office manages Osprey fielding, did not respond to a request for comment about the DOT&E report.
The navy’s Osprey variant is significantly modified from the standard V-22 configuration to provide 50% greater fuel capacity and more range. The CMV-22 is meant to replace the ageing Northrop Grumman C-2A Greyhound fixed-wing turboprop for the navy’s carrier onboard delivery (COD) role.
The Osprey’s greater range, larger cargo bay and vertical take-off and landing capability add a great deal of flexibility compared with the legacy Greyhounds, despite the tiltrotor type having less payload capacity.
Notably, the CMV-22 is capable of carrying a replacement engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35C, giving the navy significantly improved sustainment capability at sea for the advanced stealth fighter.
The US Navy plans to acquire 44 CMV-22s, according to NAVAIR. The programme reached initial operational capability in 2021, with full operational capability expected this year.
Despite the critical review from the DOT&E, the navy appears to be fully embracing the CMV-22 for the COD mission. Senior USN leaders expressed strong satisfaction with the CMV-22’s operational performance at the 2023 Sea Air Space conference.
Then-navy air boss Vice Admiral Kenneth Whitesell, who has since retired, described the Osprey as a “game changer” for the service, suggesting its role will likely expand to include theatre logistics support.
