Is the Osprey a failed weapon's system?
Earl Evleth
The Osprey is a case in point with regard to the
anti-missile system.
1) The Osprey has been under development for some 20 years.
2) It has gone through it development stage without
yet succeeding in the manner designed. BUT AT LEAST
IT HAS NOT YET BEEN DEPLOYED, WITH ADDITIONAL BILLIONS SPENT.
3) People are very committed to it succeeding
"A subsequent scandal involving doctored maintenance
records resulted in three Marine officers' being
found guilty of misconduct."
Being lower down on the pecking order, these guys could
be punished for their "misconduct".
But what if the President, the Vice President and the
Secretary of Defense conspire to make the anti-missile
system "work"? Their underlings will be protected, no
court of inquiry will be called.
4) So far the system for protecting the taxpayer
seem to be working in the case of the Osprey.
Well it work in the same fashion with the anti-missile system?
Many do not have that kind of confidence in Herr Bush.
Earl
*****
Next year's tests could make or break the Osprey
By Thomas E. Ricks
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The future of the V-22 Osprey, one of the most controversial
aircraft in U.S. military history, likely will be decided over the next year
or so in a series of unusually rigorous tests at the Patuxent River Naval
Air Station.
"This is really the 'make or break' time for the V-22," Gen. James Jones,
the Marine commandant, said in a recent interview.
The Marine Corps is deeply committed to the novel hybrid aircraft, which can
take off and land vertically like a helicopter but, when in flight, can tilt
forward its two big rotors and fly like a regular airplane. Compared with
the workhorse CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, said Marine Col. Dan Schultz, the
V-22 program manager, it can fly twice as fast, at more than twice the
altitude, with three times the payload and four times the range. What's
more, it boasts aircraft-like acceleration, going from zero to 220 knots in
18 seconds, handy for getting out of a hot landing zone. To the Marine
Corps, the plane is absolutely essential to operating in the 21st century.
The problem is that the Osprey, after nearly two decades in development,
suffered two high-profile crashes in 2000, killing 23 Marines and casting
grave doubt over the future of the program. A subsequent scandal involving
doctored maintenance records resulted in three Marine officers' being found
guilty of misconduct.
In addition, the program has been financially costly. Current plans call for
the Marines, Special Operations Command and Navy to buy a total of about 450
Ospreys at cost of about $40 billion, for a cost per plane of about $80
million, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a defense consulting group.
To prove that the aircraft isn't a misbegotten and expensive experiment, the
Marines, Navy and Air Force are working together at Patuxent River to
conduct flight tests.
Some are designed to ensure that problems such as troubled flight-control
software have been fixed. Other tests, such as flying in formation, are
aimed at proving to critics that perceived problems such as the concern
that the planes cannot descend closely together in safety actually don't
exist. The program is also testing changes that resulted from studies of the
crashes, which found, among other things, that parts of the engines were
difficult for maintenance crews to reach and that chafing rendered some
hydraulic lines dangerously thin.
"We have spent a lot of time trying to fix what's wrong with this airplane,"
Col. Schultz said in a recent interview. "We have front-loaded the test
program. We have all of the really hard stuff up front."
Probably the most important series of tests will be the "high rate of
descent" program that is, coming in toward the ground fast. "This has had
more press than just about anything," Col. Schultz said.
An excessive rate of descent also was found to be a major cause of the April
2000 crash in Arizona that killed 19 Marines. The V-22 that crashed was
descending at about 2,500 feet per minute when one of its rotors was caught
in a phenomenon called "vortex ring state," when it wasn't getting any lift,
Col. Schultz said. When the other rotor continued to gain lift, he said,
"the aircraft rolled over and inverted."
Next year the Osprey will be put through months of testing of fast descents.
Eventually some will be flown downward at 1,500 feet per minute while
maneuvering. Then, to answer the concern of critics that the dangerous
vortex ring state can be caused by the wake turbulence of one V-22 flying in
front of another a view Col. Schultz rejects there also will be
multiaircraft tests of fast descents. "No one has ever done a year of high
rate of descent testing on helicopters," he said.
A review of the December 2000 crash that killed four Marines in part blamed
an error in the flight control software. Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Gross, the
chief government test pilot, said that all the software has been reviewed,
and some has been redesigned or modified.
Some skeptics have expressed concern that the V-22 would only be deemed
airworthy by placing new constraints on its operations that would reduce its
usefulness. But Lt. Col. Gross said they are not finding new limits on how
it is flown. "I believe we will take the already large flight envelope and
expand it further," he said.
Addressing another concern, they also are finding ways to make the aircraft
less of a target for the enemy. Col. Schultz said the V-22's engines have
heat suppressors. He also disclosed that newer versions of the aircraft are
being painted with a new kind of paint that disperses heat and reduces the
ability of heat-seeking missiles to acquire them as targets.
At the end of the testing, the Marines are confident they and their partners
will have convinced skeptics that the aircraft is safe and capable of
conducting combat operations.
The most important of the doubters is Pentagon acquisition czar Edward
"Pete" Aldridge, an aerodynamicist by training who is said still to have
grave doubts about the feasibility of the aircraft. Mr. Aldridge said at a
Pentagon briefing last month that the V-22 now has "a good flight test
program," but he quickly added, "I am still as concerned about the program
as I have always been."
The next year's intense series of tests raises the question why it wasn't
all done before, in 1997 through 1999, when the Osprey supposedly was tested
and certified ready to go and then had two high-profile crashes. Col.
Schultz said he does not try to answer that question. "My job is: What is
wrong, and how do you fix it?"
Gen. Jones, the Marine commandant, said that "there are several things that
in hindsight we wish we had been done better." Among other things, he said,
"we weren't quite as rigid as we should have been, in hindsight, in
demanding that the quality be there."
This time, Col. Schultz said, they are aware that the program is on the
razor's edge. "There's no margin of error for us," he said. "We've used up
all our chances."
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Bill Heyman
news:BA33A8FF.4823%evl...@wanadoo.fr...
|
| The Osprey is a case in point with regard to the
| anti-missile system.
No, it isn't.