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Ospreys to stay grounded for now Pentagon chief bans test flights until Japan OKs aircraft's safety WASHINGTON — The United States will suspend all flight operations by MV-22 Ospreys in Japan until Tokyo confirms the tilt-rotor aircraft's safety, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Two U.S. Marines were killed and two severely injured in the crash of a hybrid aircraft in Morocco on Wednesday, officials said. The Marines were taking part in joint U.S.-Moroccan military excercises located in the south of the country based in Agadir, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Rodney Ford in Rabat, who gave the toll. Capt. Kevin Schultz, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon in Washington, confirmed that the aircraft involved was an MV-22 Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. The aircraft was participating in a U.S.-Moroccan military exercise...

Marine Corps’ NC air base undergoing big expansionPosted on: 10:05 am, March 5, 2012, by Ryan Sullivan MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. — The military’s big expansion in North Carolina continues as the Marine Corps builds a $140 million mega-hangar to hold four squadrons of a revolutionary aircraft. **SNIP** ...preparing to break ground on one of the Marine Corps’ largest single structures. The super hangar will house dozens of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

India sizes up V-22 Osprey By:Greg Waldron Singapore India has shown interest in the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, although it has not stated a formal requirement for the tiltrotor aircraft. Boeing confirmed that it was "invited in-country to provide more information" on the V-22, but that it has not received "an official, written [request for information] from India". In addition, Indian officials visited the V-22 aircraft during the Dubai air show in November 2011, where they asked questions about the aircraft. The V-22 would be well suited to operations along India's vast Himalayan frontier, where high altitudes and long distances...

Occurring on every continent except Antarctica, the osprey is the one of the most widespread birds of prey...

2/22/2011 IDEX: Bell Courting Middle Eastern Customers for V-22 Osprey ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Bell Helicopter has not had a booth here at the IDEX defense trade show in a decade. The company, part of the Textron group, did not have military aircraft to sell before. But now it is back with one main product to offer: the $67-million-per-copy Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey. The booth was not busy when National Defense dropped by on the second day of the show. The tilt-rotor aircraft has been approved for foreign military sales for about four years now, but so far there...

USAF officers disagreed over the cause of the first combat loss of a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, according to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with a senior general ultimately overruling the investigation team and declaring the cause to be pilot error. The April 9 accident killed four people, including the pilot, and injured 16. The full report is here. A major complicating factor was that the CV-22B wreckage was bombed hours after the accident to prevent sensitive equipment from being removed, and the flight incident recorder was never recovered. The CV-22B unit had ferried its aircraft into Afghanistan eight...

An Air Force investigation has concluded that the fatal crash of a CV-22 Osprey aircraft in Afghanistan last April resulted from a number of factors, largely flight crew mistakes. But the official conclusion runs counter to the opinion of the Air Force officer who led the crash investigation, who concluded there was strong evidence to indicate the $87 million-plus aircraft probably had engine trouble in the final seconds leading up to the crash. Crash site evidence showed the pilot attempted a straight, roll-on landing rather than a standard vertical landing or making a second pass. The only reason the CV-22...

Marine Medium Tiltrotor squadron 561 became the first MV-22 “Osprey” squadron on the West Coast to begin from scratch during a squadron activation ceremony held here Dec. 2, 2010. A crowd of Marines and spectators gathered at the ceremony as Lt. Col. Warren J. Curry, the VMM-561 commanding officer, took control of the new squadron. “These Marines are making history today and are a part something special,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Conant, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general. “They are part of a great legacy.” The ceremony commenced with a performance by the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Marching...

November, President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform released a stunning report detailing areas where commission members say they found $200 billion of proposed cuts in the federal government—and although the report was released on the Marine Corps’ 235th birthday (Nov. 10), the USMC took a beating. The commission, whose full report was to be released Dec. 1, called for cancellation of the troubled V-22 Osprey program, capping it at 288 aircraft, while substituting MH-60 helicopters to meet some of the Osprey’s planned missions. The commission also called for cancellation of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) and...

Inside The Pentagon is out with a report this morning about a design flaw in the V-22 Osprey aircraft that has been known about since 2006, caused a serious mishap in March 2009 and still has not been fixed on 40 percent of the Marine and Air Force Ospreys in service. The report is based on a long delayed Air Force mishap report of the mishap at Kirtland Air Force base after a CV-22 made an emergency landing after losing an engine on takeoff. ITP says the Air Force report "blames the accident on a design problem associated with the...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Wildlife officers want to know who shot five federally protected ospreys in Jacksonville and Nassau County. Four of the birds died and one survived and is being rehabilitated. Lt. Paul Graham of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the birds have been killed in more than one area.

Three US service personnel and one civilian were killed when a US Air Force Bell Boeing CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor crashed in southern Afghanistan’s Zabul Province on 8 April. “Numerous other service members” were also injured in the mishap, according to a statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. “The cause of the crash is unknown at this time,” it says. The incident, which happened near Qalat City, represents the first crash to have involved an operational version of the V-22, which is also used by the US Marine Corps in the MV configuration. The Osprey programme suffered three fatal...

t's now official. The new generation of high-tech hovering aircraft - namely the famous V-22 "Osprey" tiltrotor and the upcoming F-35B supersonic stealth jump-jet - have an unforeseen flaw. Their exhaust downwash is so hot as to melt the flight decks of US warships, leading Pentagon boffins to look into refrigerated landing pads.g Stories of buckled flight decks caused by Osprey exhaust have been circulating for a while, but confirmation that the issue is seen as serious comes with the issue of a military request for proposals yesterday for "thermal management systems (TMS) for aircraft landing decks". The proposal makes...

During Operation Cobra’s Anger in early December 2009 — in which 1,000 U.S. Marines and a handful of Afghan soldiers — stormed the Now Zad valley in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, the Corps hit a major milestone. It was the first time the controversial tiltrotar V-22 Osprey was used in a combat situation. The operation was conducted in keeping with coalition chief Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s counterinsurgency guidance, in which major population centers must be cleared of Taliban influence, with coalition soldiers moving in to small outposts in neighborhoods, much like the “Surge” in Iraq in 2007-2008. The assault kicked off...

If you're a fish danger can come from any direction. Those claws are almost as long as a man's finger and needle sharp.

The U.S. Marine Corps today released video of its V-22 Ospreys arriving in Afghanistan. Ten MV-22s flew from the USS Bataan and are now operating in southern Afghanistan. The video is of MV-22Bs with the Marine Medium tiltrotor Squadron 263, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit taking off in three waves from the flight deck of the Bataan. And here is video of the arrival and flight of the first Osprey to be use in Afghanistan.

In this file photo, MV-22 Ospreys with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron-162 land in Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008. The deployment of the MV-22 Osprey in Operation Iraqi Freedom is coming to a close as the final Marine Medium Tilt-rotor Squadron prepares to head home this spring. Photo by Cpl. George Papastrat, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. AL ASAD AIR BASE — The presence of the MV-22 Osprey in Operation Iraqi Freedom is coming to a close as the final Marine Medium Tilt-rotor Squadron prepares to head home this spring. The Marines of Marine Medium Tilt-rotor squadron (VMM)-266, also known as the...

On the flight deck of the amphibious ship Bataan, the hybrid aircraft known as the V-22 Osprey has taken roost. Lined up on the deck with its wings folded, the tilt-rotor aircraft hides its unique gift - it lifts off and hovers like a helicopter and flies like a plane.Almost 20 years after its first test flight, and a decade since two fatal crashes grounded it, the Osprey is poised for its first full deployment with a Navy amphibious group.Marines and sailors are now training with about 10 Ospreys aboard the Norfolk-based Bataan, off the coast of North Carolina, doing...

Beautiful blue skies, not too hot, not too cold. The young Ospreys are all over the place, the older birds are paired off, the new guys are on their own. The cross is stainless steel, 208 feet tall. It is on the grounds of Mission Nombre De Dios, next to Hospital Creek. This is said the be the site of the first mass said in the New World. Makes no difference if you are Catholic or not, it is a beautiful place to visit, sit, and contemplate.