Land Warfare: V-22 makes combat debut | ADM Mar 08

1 March 2008

By Gregor Ferguson

At the time of ADM's visit to the Boeing rotorcraft facility in Philadelphia the first operational deployment of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor to Iraq was imminent.

The US Marine Corps squadron VMM 263 was due to arrive in Iraq in September, its 10 MV-22A Ospreys replacing a squadron equipped with the CH-46E Sea Knight and CH-53D helicopters.

This represents a significant milestone in a program which has seen more than its fair share of troubles but which Boeing believes is expected to repay handsomely its customers' faith in the concept.

The MV-22 offers twice the speed and five times the range of a CH-46, according to Boeing, which designed both aircraft.

At US$58 million each once in Full-Rate Production (FRP - the Low Rate Initial Production, LRIP, aircraft cost closer to US$100 million each), the Ospreys aren't exactly cheap but they offer a completely different and superior package in terms of operational productivity - their blend of payload, speed, basing flexibility and operating cost.

The V-22 is designed to cruise at 250kt, has a maximum speed of 305kt, and has achieved 345kt in a dive.

In vertical take-off mode it has a maximum take-off weight of 54,000lb; in Short Take-Off (STO) mode it will get airborne in 100-200ft of runway at 60,500lb.

It carries 24 troops in crashworthy seats (or 30 sitting on the floor) or 19,500lb of internal cargo, or 15,000lb underslung, and has an unrefuelled combat radius at maximum weight in the amphibious assault role of about 100nm.

Its self-ferry range, however, is 2,290nm.

One important feature of the Osprey is that with its wings and rotors folded it occupies the same flight line or flight deck footprint as a CH-46.

A joint venture between Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron, the V-22's fuselage and all subsystems, digital avionics, and fly-by-wire flight-control systems are manufactured in Philadelphia by Boeing.

Bell is responsible for the wing, transmissions, empennage, rotor systems, engine installation and final assembly in Amarillo, Texas.

At the time of ADM's visit to Philadelphia the partners had delivered 45 production aircraft with a further 85 under construction.

US funding
The Pentagon is still acquiring the V-22 family in successive yearly lots, but the current requirement is for 360 MV-22Bs for the US Marines, 50 CV-22s for US SOCOM (this may grow to 70 - the first was delivered last year) and 48 MV-22s for the US Navy, which aren't yet funded.

Boeing and Bell are urging a five-year multi-year purchase by the Pentagon which would meet half of the current requirement at a steady or reduced cost, much as occurred with the multi-year buy of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.

The MV-22 as already delivered to the USMC are now being modified to MV-22B configuration.

The inherent strengths of the V-22, says Boeing, are its ship compatibility, its basing flexibility (ashore and afloat), its survivability and its sheer versatility.

The aircraft also, says Boeing, has better combat damage tolerance in its rotor blades, machinery and fuel tanks than any current helicopter carrying out similar tasks.

The propulsion system employs twin podded Rolls-Royce AE1107C engines, each driving an 11.58m diameter rotor but cross-coupled to maintain power to both rotors should one engine be damaged.

The rotors can be tilted from zero degrees (horizontal thrust in conventional flight) to 3 degrees aft of the vertical for braking and reverse flight.

Frequently the Osprey will take off and land vertically like a helicopter with its rotors vertical at 90 degrees; but the thrust vectoring capabilities of the tilt rotor mean that at an angle of around 60 degrees they can provide a combination of vertical and forward thrust to build up airspeed over the wing and get airborne at maximum take-off weight with a take-off roll of about 70m.

Plus, the aircraft is much quieter than a helicopter, which has advantages in the assault and special forces roles.

Platform of choice
For the US marines the MV-22B will become the platform of choice for amphibious assault.

Its self-deployment capabilities make the USMC far more responsive and flexible.

SOCOM will use the CV-22 for long-range special operations on land and sea, replacing the MH-53E Pave Low helicopter while the US Navy will use its MV-22s for a range of missions.

It could replace the Grumman COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) logistics support aircraft in the logistics role as well as the S-3 Viking in the anti-submarine warfare role.

And it could become an airborne command post for UAVs and UCAVs or an early warning platform.

Boeing believes that as the aircraft grows in service it will absorb more missions - and attract more customers.

While operators understand fixed and rotary wing missions well, nobody has really begin to explore the ultimate potential of a hybrid aircraft offering the ship compatibility and runway independence of a helicopter with the speed, range, endurance and altitude of a fixed-wing aircraft.

The Concept of Operations for the Osprey family is still quite conservative, but this will change with time, believes Boeing.

Australia is one of four countries that have expressed informal interest in variants of the Osprey - the others are the UK, Japan and Israel.

While Boeing and the ADF remain tight-lipped it's widely understood that Australia's Special Forces have long been interested in the capability; the introduction of the RAN's two LHDs from about 2012 onwards might provide the sort of seagoing platform which the SAS Regiment or 4 RAR(Cdo) could exploit to the full using a V-22 variant.

However, Defence sources in Canberra say there are no plans at present to acquire the osprey for the ADF.

Disclosure: ADM visited Boeing's Philadelphia plant as a guest of The Boeing Company.