Osprey set to fly again, but with clipped wings

Insight on the News, June 17, 2002 by Sean Paige

The V-22 Osprey soon will take to the skies again as the U.S. Marine Corps attempts to salvage an experimental-aircraft program that offers the promise of revolutionizing military operations but also shows the perils of rushing weapons systems to the field before all the bugs have been worked out of them.

The experimental tilt-rotor aircraft, which hover like a helicopter but fly like a plane, were grounded several years ago after crashes claimed the lives of 22 Marines. Reports surfaced that Corps officers papered over V-22 technical and reliability problems in an effort to hurry the badly needed planes into production. But, to get the aircraft off the ground again, the Pentagon may be compromising its operational capabilities, according to published reports.

The progress of the $46 billion program is being closely (and worriedly) watched within the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill in the wake of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's recent decision to cancel another big-dollar procurement project--a mobile artillery system called the Crusader. The Army, which worries about being outgunned in a conventional land war, reportedly has resisted that decision, as have members of Congress from states or districts that would benefit from the Crusader project. Many see the Crusader case as a test of whether Rumsfeld actually can overcome congressional resistance and halt a major weapon system. Rumsfeld says the action is critical at a time when resources are scarce and a "transformation" of the military to meet new kinds of threats is required.

Though Navy Secretary Gordon England recently stated that "problems with the [Osprey] program have been fixed," they may have been fixed by watering down the aircraft's original performance specifications. Among other changes, the aircraft no longer will be required to land without power when in helicopter mode; its combat-maneuvering capabilities will be reduced; planned protections against biological and chemical agents will be eliminated; and reliability standards have been downgraded.

Arguments perhaps could be made that the Osprey was asked to do too much from the beginning. The Pentagon long has had a nasty habit of piling so many bells and whistles on its war machines that they eventually become a burden rather than a boon. But expecting a tilt-rotor aircraft to be capable of hovering while soldiers repel to the ground on ropes isn't asking too much, given the changing nature of warfare. Yet that requirement, too, has been eliminated. And even the service's old helicopters offer crews and commandos some hope of survival in the event of a descent without power. Alas, its designers now concede that such "autorotation" landings will be impossible with the Osprey.

The Marines desperately need a replacement for their decrepit fleet of helicopters. Whether that desperation has driven them to gamble on a fatally flawed aircraft remains a disturbing possibility.

SEAN PAIGE IS A WRITER FOR Insight MAGAZINE.