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....as the expression of the late 1990s would go,
"I don't think so......" to your post. I truly
believe the military and the U.S.' administration
is and consistently has withheld information about
both the Harrier and this dog, the Osprey....
what follows is from another website and is fairly
recent....facts are facts, unfortunately......
how many more Marines are gonna have to die so the
Corps can "prove" the effectiveness of this Osprey...??

"Over the last three decades, it [the USMC's AV-8B Harrier...] has amassed the highest rate of major accidents of any Air Force, Navy, Army or Marine plane now in service. Forty-five Marines have died in 143 noncombat accidents since the corps bought the so-called jump jet from the British in 1971. More than a third of the fleet has been lost to accidents.

"The toll has been little noted by the public and the media because the Harrier tends to kill pilots one at a time. In contrast, the V-22 Osprey, a problem-plagued troop transport plane, has killed as many as 19 Marines in a single crash.

"The Harrier and the Osprey are the first two planes the Marine Corps has acquired in pursuing its long-range vertical vision. A third plane is under active development and several others are being conceived.

"In the future, according to the vision, all Marine aircraft will combine the best traits of helicopters and fixed-wing planes, making the corps' flying force sharply distinct from those of the Navy, Air Force and Army.

"The price to be paid for that vision was first seen in the Harrier. The officers who died in it ranked among America's most accomplished aviators. They typically finished near the top of their flight school classes, often aspiring to become squadron commanders, generals or astronauts.

"Many of their deaths were preventable. The Marines have known for years they were flying a plane bedeviled by mechanical problems and maintenance mistakes. Yet they moved haltingly to fix known shortcomings that threatened pilots' lives.

"In [one pilot's] case, a mechanic incorrectly installed a part that led to failure of the temperamental engine. The ejection system that fractured [the pilot's] neck had previously killed two pilots.

"The Marine Corps initially sold the Harrier to Congress and the Pentagon for its ability to launch from a clearing as small as a tennis court, or a damaged runway near a remote battlefield, and then roar to the rescue of troops in trouble.

"In 31 years of flight, however, the Harrier's vaunted ability to take off vertically has never been used in combat -- only in training exercises, air shows and the 1994 film "True Lies," when Arnold Schwarzenegger commandeers a Harrier to save Miami from a terrorist attack."

Etc., Etc.......R.I.P. to all those who gave their lives.....

It should be noted that The Marine Corps has long been forced to fly Dogs that the Navy didn't want to fly because they were either too dangerous or performed too poorly for the Navy.

One would be the Brewster Buffalo......

Another would be the F4U.........

At least now Marines get to decide what they get to fly