Two MV-22B Ospreys, their big wingtip rotors facing forward in "airplane mode," are descending toward a Marine Corps outpost near the Syrian border when the second of the two tiltrotor transports shudders slightly.
"Hold on. Did you guys just see flares?" the pilot, Captain Newel Bartlett of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (VMM-263), asks his crew over the internal communications system.
"Yes sir," an enlisted crew chief in the back cabin replies. At about 3,600 feet over the orangish and empty western Iraqi desert, one of the Osprey's defensive systems has spit out some anti-missile flares.
This December morning, as has been the case ever since VMM-263 arrived in Iraq with ten Ospreys last October, there is no sign of any enemy missiles or other threats. False alarm. So Bartlett goes ahead and converts his Osprey to "helicopter mode," tilting the rotors upward to make a vertical landing on the dusty mats of Forward Operating Base Korean Village. As he does, the first MV-22B is already on the ground. The uncommanded launch of the flares—triggered perhaps by some electronic gear in use near the FOB, a ground officer later speculates—is insignificant. But it's an apt symbol for the initial stage of the much-anticipated first combat deployment of the Osprey, which the Pentagon has spent more than $22 billion and 24 years developing.
Bumps in the Road
Through the first three of VMM-263's scheduled seven months in Iraq, none of the squadron's Ospreys had come under hostile fire, as far as the pilots could tell. But the aircraft's electrical systems had produced some aggravating and, at times, somewhat anxious moments.
One of the squadron's Ospreys made a precautionary landing in Jordan after an electrical problem prompted automated warnings of flight control and hydraulic system faults as VMM-263 flew into Iraq from the USS Wasp (LHD-1) in the Gulf of Aqaba on 4 October 2007. Trouble-shooting and fixing the problem kept the aircraft on the ground nearly three days.
Various other electrical problems lowered VMM-263's readiness rates during the squadron's first weeks in Iraq and disrupted its initial attempt to take part in an airborne patrol carrying ground troops on 8 December.
At the same time, there were only "one or two days" during those first three months in Iraq when a lack of ready MV-22Bs led higher-ups to shift missions to other units, said the squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Rock.
"We've been flying the aircraft strong since we got here," Rock said.
Though the Marine Corps has tried to make sure parts and supplies are readily available in the logistics pipeline, keeping the aircraft ready has meant long hours for VMM-263's mechanics and technicians, who include 16 contractor mechanics and technical experts.
"We have two shifts working 12 hours a day, and when the kids go home, they're tired," said Chief Warrant Officer Carlos Rios, maintenance material control officer for the squadron.
Under a contract with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Boeing Co.'s helicopter division in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, and Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, who make the V-22 (as the basic model of the aircraft is known) in a 50-50 partnership, sent three technical representatives. Another was provided by the maker of the aircraft's engines, Rolls-Royce Corp. of Indianapolis, Indiana. NAVAIR spokesman James Darcy said the V-22 program office provides similar teams of civilian experts to all Osprey squadrons in the United States.
Another 12 Boeing civilian maintenance support personnel were brought along under a separate contract with the Marine Corps. Bell-Boeing spokesman Bob Leder said sending technical representatives with deployed squadrons is a routine practice for defense contractors.
VMM-263's Rios said the readiness rate has ranged from 50 to 100 percent on any given day. It averaged 76 percent in October and 65 percent in November, according to figures supplied by Major Eric Dent of Marine Corps Public Affairs at the Pentagon. The fleet readiness rate goal for the Osprey is 82 percent once it reaches 60,000 flight hours, or about double the flight hours it has now.
So Far, So Good
One pleasant surprise for VMM-263—the "Thunder Chickens"—has been that Iraq's sand, which has chewed up helicopter rotor blades and engines at astronomical rates since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, hasn't had as much effect on the aircraft as the grittier sand the squadron encountered when it deployed to Yuma, Arizona, last summer to train. As of early December, the mechanics had been forced to replace only one engine because of sand damage, fewer than they'd expected before leaving their home base at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the gruesome predictions of the V-22's most severe critics, who saw the Osprey's past as prologue, haven't come to pass. During its uncommonly long development, 26 Marines and four civilians died in crashes. The last occurred more than seven years ago, and the V-22 was redesigned and retested afterward. But the aircraft's most ardent foes predicted more death and destruction in Iraq.
As of 4 January, VMM-263 had flown 1,752 hours in Iraq without a mishap, carrying 7,144 passengers and 686,047 pounds of cargo day and night around al Anbar province, the Marine Corps' area of responsibility, and in some cases to Baghdad and Kuwait. The Army is responsible for the rest of Iraq, except for small areas covered by allied troops.
In December, three of VMM-263's Ospreys largely sat idle around the clock as the squadron stood on alert for casualty evacuation calls but never got any. Still, in VMM-263's first three months in Iraq, the Thunder Chickens flew more hours, carried more passengers and hauled more cargo than the squadron of 11 CH-53D Sea Stallion transport helicopters they replaced at Al Asad. All but a handful of those flights, however, were "general support" missions—transporting passengers and supplies—or "VIP hops," such as taking generals to visit forward operating bases. The flights also were made at a time when, as one Marine Corps general put it recently, "Peace has broken out in al Anbar province."
Only a few months ago, al Anbar was one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq for U.S. troops. But by the time VMM-263 set up shop at Al Asad Air Base, the Marine Corps' aviation hub in Iraq, Sunni Arab insurgents once allied with al Qaeda had switched sides and were working with U.S. forces against the Islamic extremists.
As this issue of Proceedings went to press, a review of Defense Department news releases showed that the last Marine killed in combat in al Anbar died on 8 October, four days after VMM-263 got to Iraq. Another Marine was killed in a non-hostile incident on 11 January 2008.
No Combat Yet
Some critics contend the lack of combat proves the Marines aren't yet subjecting the Osprey to the ultimate test.
"They're babying it," said Winslow Wheeler of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington think tank often critical of the Pentagon that published a study this year calling the Osprey "an aircraft waiting to increase its casualty list single-handedly."
"After 25 years of development, you'd hope that when they proudly announce that it's going to war that it would actually go to war," Wheeler said.
Even some VMM-263 pilots have been disappointed in the lack of combat action. "I thought it was going to be a war," one young captain told me when I visited the squadron in December. "It's boring as hell."
As several pilots noted, the lack of hostile fire sightings isn't proof there hasn't been any, and if no hostile fire has been directed at an Osprey, the way the tiltrotor flies could be one reason.
The Osprey tilts its two 38-feet-in-diameter rotors upward to take off and land vertically but swivels them forward to fly like an airplane. That gives it about twice the speed and range of the CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopters the aircraft is replacing.
In addition, VMM-263's Ospreys have been using rapid descents into landing zones and quick jumps into a hover followed by a rapid conversion to airplane flight to gain altitude and avoid whatever threats may exist. They also have been cruising at altitudes well above the range of small arms, unlike helicopters in Iraq, which more often fly low.
"Are we not being engaged because of the tactics we're employing, or are we not being engaged because no one decided they felt like shooting at an aircraft that day?" Rock said. "I don't know. You can't prove a negative."
The Jury is Still Out
In any event, while VMM-263 has begun to get Marine ground troops and others accustomed to the tiltrotor, and in many cases enthusiastic about its speed and smooth ride compared to helicopters, the deployment has done little so far to settle the long debate over the Osprey and its substantial cost. The Marines are buying 360 MV-22s for use as transports and the Air Force plans to buy 50 and maybe more CV-22s, their version of the basic V-22, for special operations. The Marine version costs $69.3 million per aircraft, or $110 million if all development costs are averaged in, while the "flyaway" price of the Air Force version with its special ops gear is $86 million, according to NAVAIR.
"I think the Osprey will work just fine and they will use it like a truck, that is, ferrying troops and supplies from one relatively safe place to another relatively safe place," said Philip Coyle, a former director of Pentagon weapons testing and a frequent Osprey critic. "Of course, it's an expensive truck."
Still unclear, Coyle maintained, is how the Osprey would do in "the more serious kinds of maneuvering situations that might arise in combat that don't when you use it flying back and forth as a truck."
Osprey advocate Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a think tank with close ties to Pentagon leaders and the defense industry, said it was far too early to draw any conclusions.
"First of all, we've never deployed a tiltrotor to a combat zone before," Thompson said. "Second, the initial days of a first deployment always are ginger and hyper-careful, because people don't know entirely what to expect. Third, this war is very different from any other war we've ever fought in, so we're sort of feeling our way as to how the tiltrotor should be employed."
Rock noted that hauling people and supplies is the main mission for any medium lift assault support squadron, and doing that helps prevent casualties by "keeping people off the roads."
The squadron's passengers have included Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, civilian contractors, Iraqis, and a range of VIPS, from Marine Commandant General James Conway and Navy Secretary Donald Winter, to various other generals and even a performance troupe called The Purrfect Angelz.
"I have yet to meet anybody who doesn't really dig the ride," Rock said.
He and the rest of his squadron's pilots also have been eager to take on more complicated missions, and in November and December, they gradually began doing that.
In late November, VMM-263 was put on 24-hour standby to evacuate casualties throughout Anbar during the Hadj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. That meant keeping three Ospreys and six pilots on alert for two 12-hour shifts each day, ready to fly out on a moment's notice to pick up anyone—American or Iraqi, military or civilian—needing transport to a medical facility.
This "casevac" duty turned out to be a source of boredom for some of the pilots and actually reduced the squadron's flying hours, for no calls to pick up casualties came through in December. But that was good news, Rock noted.
"It's one of those things where it's not that much fun to stand and you're certainly not getting much flight time, but you certainly feel bad about wishing for anything else, because if you're busy, that means somebody's hurt, which of course you don't wish on anybody," he said.
In December, two VMM-263 Ospreys were used for the first time in a raid, carrying 24 Marines and 24 Iraqi troops to an area in northern Iraq to search for suspected insurgents. None were found, but the Ospreys inserted their troops and flew back to Al Asad without any problems.
Aeroscout Debut
The squadron also flew three Aeroscout missions, an airborne patrol that usually involves a package of aircraft including AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships, a UH-1 command helicopter, two CH-53E helicopter transports to carry a scout team of troops and fuel for the smaller helicopters, plus fighter jet escorts with a KC-130J aerial refueling tanker overhead.
VMM-263 pilots said it took some discussion to persuade ground commanders the Osprey could add anything to the Aeroscout mission, especially because the CH-53Es typically carry both troops and fuel. On top of that, the MV-22B's Aeroscout debut on 8 December was marred when one of the two Ospreys taking part suffered a generator failure as the mission began. Rather than wait for the pilots to fly back to Al Asad and get another aircraft, the ground commander scrubbed the mission.
Aircraft breakdowns aren't uncommon in the military, and on crucial missions, planners often send extras. Still, VMM-263 pilots were frustrated by the outcome of the first Aeroscout mission, for one of their tasks in this first V-22 deployment, they say, is to get the "grunts" interested in using the Osprey and thinking of new ways to do so.
"The aircraft is still largely an unknown quantity to a lot of people outside of the squadron and the [V-22] community," Rock said. "I've always maintained that we will only get the most out of the airplane when the people we support ask us to do stuff."
The squadron's participation in two Aeroscout missions later in December suggests ground commanders weren't overly discouraged by the aircraft's generator failure on 8 December.
VMM-263 pilots said using the Osprey in Aeroscout and similar missions also could become easier after January, when the squadron was to receive fuel bladders that fit into the back cabin, making it possible to refuel other aircraft on the ground.
How much VMM-263 will be able to expand the Osprey's repertoire of missions in Iraq will depend largely on higher authorities, and in part on whether all remains quiet on the western front of the war in Iraq.
How reliable and easy to maintain the Osprey proves to be in Iraq also remains an open question. Another Osprey squadron from New River, VMM-162, is to replace VMM-263 at Al Asad this spring and stay seven months, when far hotter weather is likely to make it harder to keep the Osprey flying. The war in Anbar could heat up again as well.
"I fully expect that the people who succeed us will do more, a broader mission set, fly more hours," Rock said. "No one's going to come at the end of our deployment and go, ?Okay. All questions answered. Now we are going to stop talking about the V-22.' It's a test, but it's not a final exam."