It is Vital For V-22 and JSF Programs To Stay On Course For Marine Corps, Official Says

[Defense Daily, Nov. 2, 2006]

It is important for the Marine Corps to stick to a transition plan of two V-22 Osprey squadrons per year to keep pace with training as well as remaining on track to begin taking delivery of the Short Take-off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 Lightning II that will replace the service's fleet of F-18D Hornets, according to a Marine Corps official.

"The path we are trying to maintain is to transition two squadron per year. It's important when you get into a transition, or you stand up a new capability, that you do it in a measured way," the official, told Defense Daily on Tuesday

"Why? Our training will be baselined and we will have level loading on all our training and we will produce the same number of pilots and the same number of maintainers and then marry them up with aircraft on the flight line," he added. "Once you get into that rhythm, you can do it efficiently and training doesn't suffer."

But to do that, the Marine Corps needs to buy the Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT]- Boeing [BA] V-22 tiltrotor aircraft at a certain rate, the official said. "That's what the program of record does for us right now."
The only issue is that in FY '06 the Pentagon's Cost Analysis Improvement Group (CAIG) estimated that the cost of the V-22 was $1.1 billion less than what the Navy had estimated.

"The CAIG estimate has not turned out to be quite as accurate," the official said.

"There is a shortfall of money to buy the number of aircraft to keep this two per year going," the official added. "Right now we are debating how to get that money up to fund; but our goal has been and always will be to produce two squadrons a year."

In combat or in the Global War On Terror (GWOT), standing up two Osprey squadrons per year is important to the Marine Corps because they can plan for it, the official noted.

"You can take down the [CH-46] squadrons and stand up V-22s and once you get this going, we'll have a level number of squadrons you can source for combat operations and all the other global commitments," he said. "If we don't do that then, that will exacerbate the problem. We might stand down one or two early and you'd be short."

It's a complex equation that the Marine Corps is trying to manage, the official added. "I think in the end it will be done right. It's a money issue right now. We are trying to make sure we have the right dollars in the program to buy the right number of aircraft and the right number of years to continue this transition."

The program of record for the Marine Corps ramps up to 30 V-22s per year for the Marine Corps in the 2010-2011 time frame, the official added.

Another issue is that the aircraft the V-22 will replace, the Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight, is running out of its service life, the official said. "We are doing all the things we need to do to keep them flying until we complete the V-22 buy."
The CH-46 was designed back in the 1960s to carry 20 to 24 troops, but the age of the aircraft, wear and tear on the engines and the need to enhance the CH-46's structure to keep it flying impacted the engine's ability to provide lift. "It can carry eight [troops] on a good day," the official said.

The Marine Corps is facing a similar problem with its fixed-wing aircraft. Boeing's F-18s are being heavily used in Iraq, leading to extensive wear and tear, the official said. "We are flying our fixed wing aircraft into an early grave. We are utilizing them to the point now where it is critical that we replace them."

"The Hornets are doing well. Like every other aircraft we have, we are flying them more than we planned. That's why [the Joint Strike Fighter] is so important to us that we get it on time and we get it like we want it," the official said.

The F-18s will eventually be replaced by Lockheed Martin's [LMT] F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The first flight of the STOVL variant is planned for 2008. However, contractual obligations have to be met to achieve a flight before signing of a procurement contract for the follow-on aircraft, the official said.

While the Navy and Marine Corps are looking at the possibility of a service life extension program (SLEP) for the Hornet as well as Northrop Grumman's [NOC] EA-6B Prowler, the official said the Marine Corps will be able to continue flying Hornets until 2012, which is the initial operational capability (IOC) date for JSF.

“We need the JSF program to come in on time. If it doesn't, we will have mitigations, but those mitigations cost money," the official noted.

While the JSF procurement plan originally called for first replacing Boeing's AV-8 Harrier, efforts undertaken by the Marine Corps led to a decision to alter that plan. Now, the first F-35s the Marine Corps will get will replace the F-18D.

"The Marine Corps made a very good decision seven to eight years ago when we upgraded it to the Harrier B. We had open architecture embedded in it. You can plug and play with its software, you can add capability there, you can put more enablers in there and it will be transparent," the official said. "We bought an open architecture backbone for that aircraft. Whatever is the requirement, it will be very easy to match the requirement up to that aircraft."

But in the end, what the Marine Corps wants is to make sure its program for getting the F-35 stays on track. That is because STOVL translates into expeditionary, the official said.

The F-35 STOVL variant will not only enable the Marine Corps to land its jets on smaller deck ships, but Marine aviators will be able to put it wherever they want to operate and provide support, the official said.
And, with its advanced avionics and netcentric capability, JSF will be much more than a "bomb truck," the official added.

In an environment where adversaries no longer obey the rules of engagement, having the ability to gather information and pass it along to anyone who needs it will be vital in future operations, the official said.

"Being able to put something up in the air in which information can be passed through a multitude of sensors and passed around to everybody who needs it, that's critical," he said. "Even if you fly this thing around and it doesn't kill one bad guy, the fact it enables the Lance Corporal or the machine gun team or the tanker or [Light Armored Vehicle] to put his round where he wants, that's a great value. And because it flies high and flies fast and is survivable, that is a benefit [too]."

While the JSF will play a critical role in intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions for the Marine Corps, the service is also looking at the potential for JSF to play a role in Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA).

"A significant portion of AEA can be handled by the basic JSF, but we'll have to enable it with more capabilities to cover us. We are studying what the MAGTAF (Marine Air-to- Ground Task Force) and the Joint Forces will need in the realm of airborne electronic attack," the official said. "There are studies going on now on how best to do that."

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Wow! I worked on the System Integration part of the V-22 back in the late 80's before it was sent to Phili for implementation. That is one complex bird but when it works it's awesome and now that software, computers and micro miniature components (Think of the size of a hard drive in your Ipod.) have now caught up to the mission requirements of the plane I bet that thing is a modern marvel and very mission capable of replacing the venerable 46 that has been a great platform in it's own right.


On a side note it sounds like the long term mission requirements of the war in the gawd awful environment of the sandbox is going to be very good for Defense Contractors in the very near future. I may have to buy some defense stock before it spikes.

I'm still trying to figure out why the V22 is still so "essential" based on it's track record and costs....

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Here is one reason:

During the landing of troops via naval boats, the troops are both vulnerable and limited to how far inland they can project. Helecopters provide a short range means of force projection. They are slow in level flight and restricted in the number of effective troops that can be carried.

The V22 also has its limits. It is capable of faster flight and longer range missions. Of course it too is limited by its size as to how many effective troops it can carry.

The only way to deliver troops to the range the V22 is capable of is to use paratroopers or overland march.

In the end, the V22 provides a short to mid-long range delivery option that can vertically deploy and fast transit. Troops don't need to jump in to a hot LZ and are in much better shape on landing. Also, troops can be vertically recovered from the LZ, something not possible with the C17, C130 or C141.

Overall, despite its costs, it is flexible and effective. Unfortunately much of its costs came from new technology, reduced order numbers, and in some sad cases, poorly written software.

Red

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Here is an update to this thread:

http://www.gizmag.com/go/6486/

From the article, I am further impressed with the utility of the V22 and its place in modern force projection.

Red

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2005 Titan KC SE, Helwig, True-Track, ARE MX Canopy