Ospreys will head to Afghanistan in coming weeks

[unhappycamper]

Up to 12 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft are bound for Afghanistan, the Corps announced Oct. 20.


Ospreys will head to Afghanistan in coming weeks
By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 15:28:25 EDT

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 from Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C. will be the first Osprey squadron to operate in Afghanistan beginning next month, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

The deployment will include about 200 Marines and up to 12 aircraft tasked with supporting ground forces in Regional Command-South, which comprises Helmand, Nimruz, Kandahar, Zabol, Urozgan and Day Kundi provinces, according to a news release.

Officials declined to say where the squadron will be based, but a spokesman for Marine Corps Forces Command said it will join the aviation element of Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan.

Brig. Gen. Jon Davis, the assistant deputy commandant for aviation, said earlier this month that he expects the Osprey to change the way Marines do business in Afghanistan, just as it did in Iraq.

When the first MV-22 squadron deployed to Iraq in September 2007, no one was certain how the aircraft would stand up in the harsh environment. To find out, the Corps kept the same aircraft in theater while rotating in three different squadrons over 19 months, allowing maintenance crews to determine which parts would wear quicker.


Rest of article about this $70 million dollar wonder at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/10/marine_ospreys_afghanistan_102009w/

[Sherman A1]

1. Thanks for Posting

While I am no fan of the MV-22 based upon it's costs, if the thing actually is better than what we have and becomes a force multiplier then it might go a way towards offsetting that cost per unit. I guess we will see........