Will Soon Start Seven-Month Combat Tour

The first V-22 Osprey combat squadron left for Iraq this week onboard a Navy amphibious assault ship, marking a pronounced shift in military aviation technology.

Marine Corps spokesman Major Eric Dent told McClatchy Newspapers 10 Ospreys left Monday aboard the USS Wasp, in a surprisingly low-key deployment made with little fanfare... though under extremely tight security.

"It was just another workday for the squadron," Dent said. Citing "operational security," Dent would not discuss when the Ospreys were due to arrive in Iraq.

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 -- nicknamed "The Thunder Chickens" -- will base its MV-22s (the Marine verison of the Osprey) at the Al Asad Airbase in western Iraq. The squadron is scheduled to conduct at least seven months of combat operations.

As ANN reported, announcement of the Pentagon's plan to deploy the Ospreys was met with criticism earlier this year, from those who say the tiltrotor Osprey -- plagued by a series of technical problems and a string of fatal accidents early in its development -- is still too tempermental to reliably perform in combat situations.

In a January 2007 report by Washington-based think tank, the Center for Defense Information (CDI), recommended the military scrap the entire Osprey program, due to what it termed "operational, aerodynamic and survivability challenges that will prove insurmountable -- and lethal -- in combat."

The entire Osprey fleet was briefly grounded one month later, due to a software problem. Four fatal accidents have occurred in the tiltrotor's development, claiming the lives of 26 military personnel and four civilians. The military grounded the program for nearly two years following a December 2000 crash in Arizona.

Representatives with Bell Helicopter and Boeing -- which partnered to manufacture the Osprey -- reply the aircraft, though beset by difficulties early on, has since proven itself worthy, and safe. In March, the entire Osprey fleet surpassed 25,000 flight hours; The Marines announced the probable summer deployment of the Osprey in April.

Bell-Boeing spokesman Bob Leder said workers at the company's facilities in Texas weren't aware the Ospreys they helped assemble were heading to Iraq, until he posted a copy of a Marine Corps Times article on the deployment.

"There was a feeling of great excitement and at the same time we were praying for the safety of all the Marines," he said. "It's like 'OK, this is the real thing.'"

The Marines acknowledge issues likely remain for the Osprey, as situations will arise in the combat environment not seen throughout the aircraft's 20-year development and earlier test deployments. But the Corps stood firm in its decision to deploy the aircraft.

Supporters of the aircraft say the Osprey can "self-deploy" into combat situations, arriving and departing the scene much more quickly than conventional helicopters.

The "Thunder Chickens" have 28 pilots -- including two women -- who volunteered for the job, and were chosen by a Marine Corps selection board, according to McClatchy. The squadron commander is Lt. Col. Paul J. Rock, Jr., who has flown Ospreys since the 1990s.

A full third of the squadron's 100 members have previous combat experience in Iraq.

FMI: www.2maw.usmc.mil/MAG29/VMM263/default.asp