Marine Corps Col. Matt Mulhern, head of the V-22 Osprey program at NAS Patuxent River, Md., told reporters in Washington Wednesday that he expects DOD and Marine Corps leadership to sign off on an overseas deployment for the MV-22 as soon as this fall. However, he said the decision to go ahead remains the call of Commandant Gen. James Conway, who last month sang the aircraft’s praises but was not ready to commit publicly to a date.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.