The “Incredible” Osprey

Despite claims that the Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey fell short in mission capability rates in Iraq, Gen. James Conway, told Pentagon reporters Tuesday that the new tilt-rotor is “an incredible capability.” MV-22s are in Afghanistan now. The Marine Corps Commandant said the Government Accountability Office simply portrayed “old news” and failed to include the “fixes that were in place to the very issues that they cited.” Conway said the Osprey is no different than other new platforms, experiencing lower availability rates initially, but then it “climbs the ladder to the point we’re at 92, 93, 94 percent, and we think that the Osprey is on that trajectory.” He explained that the deployments are fleshing out things like the slip ring that wore out in the “unique kind of Iraqi talcum dust” where it hadn’t in US desert tests. (USAF’s CV-22 just returned from its first combat deployment.) (Pentagon transcript)