Posted on 01/14/2015 7:51:54 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Edited on 01/14/2015 8:08:37 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
In what is a highly controversial move, the US Navy has announced that it will procure tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys to replace its venerable C-2A Greyhound Carrier On-board Delivery (COD) aircraft. Here's why it's such a terribly bad idea.
The C-2 Greyhound replacement saga has gone on for many years, but it has come to head in recent months with three main proposals being put forward as solutions. One would be to rebuild or build new C-2 Greyhounds based on the Navy's updated E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Airborne Early Waring and Control (AEW&C) aircraft. The Grumman E-2 is a developmental cousin of the C-2 dating back to the 1960s. The other two proposals included procuring tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey and a novel plan by Lockheed Martin to rebuild a portion of the defunct S-3B Viking fleet into COD aircraft, bringing the COD mission finally into the jet age. You can read an in depth report on all these options in this past Foxtrot Alpha feature.
I pretty much stopped reading when I got to this paragraph the third time.
“Although the Greyhound is faster, flies much higher, is pressurized, has a much larger cargo hold capable of carrying the latest fighter jet engines and has a much longer range, all critical components that let the carrier operate further from shores even in bad weather, the V-22 has the ability to land and takeoff vertically. Although this feature has no value for the baseline COD mission , the Navy sees this capability as something that can change the way it does logistics for the Carrier Strike Group. “
Why use something practical when something that will cost 5 times as much to procure and 3 times as much to maintain is available?
Perfect match for the little crappy ships.
Ought make Obola quite happy.
On second thought, scanning up from the bottom, I think I’ll just hit the abuse button. And perhaps you can edit out the vulgarities next time.
We’ll have plenty of room at the Davis-Monatha Bone Yard for all the C2D’s to sit ready to be recalled.
Why did they take the F-35?
It can get bo in and out of remote golf courses.
Who forced the military to by these because they are built in his district ? It was a Republican
I’m not even going to go to the link after reading that.
Are the involved decision-makers brain-damaged?
One of the cases being made for the HV-22 is that it can directly fly payloads directly to other ships in the CSG, rather than do the hub/spoke thing by taking them to the carrier then using a helo to move them to the final destination.
This doesn’t make a lot of sense given that the only other ships in the CSG that can actually land a HV-22 are going to be the logistics support ships. The helo deck on a Burke and Tico isn’t going to be able to handle a V-22 in COD-mode since even if the HV-22 can physically land (I’ve never seen evidence of it having been attempted) it’ll have to land backwards so that cargo can be transferred off the aircraft’s ramp.
That means the direct-delivery to the escorts can only happen using underslung loads that are dropped off while the HV-22 is hovering. Underslung loads are ok for inter-strikegroup transfers, and for the Marines hauling equipment ashore and back during amphib ops, but I don’t see how anyone would want to do underslung from the kinds of distance involved in shore-to-ship transfers.
Now I understand that the V-22 can fill something of a gap between C-2 and helo. It might, therefore, make sense to do a mixed buy of upgraded C-2s AND HV-22s, with the latter operating from the logistics support ships and replacing the Eurocopter Cougars currently being used. BUT that would probably require using Navy and not civilian crews (as is currently done) for flying and maintaining the birds.
ping
What is going to be interesting is what will happen IF an honest man ever gets into the AG office. It's why RFK stopped a bullet. The slimy little shite didn't stay bought.
I've always wondered what would have happened if Papa Joe Kennedy hadn't had a stroke...
Compare the cruising speed and capacity of the two planes. Osprey wins on capacity, Greyhound wins on range (if you ignore aerial refueling) and they are pretty well matched on cruising speed. So at this point, I wonder what the writer’s agenda is.
The C2D is a simple fixed wing airplane. Far less to go wrong.
How many decades & crashes did it take to bring the V-22 into the inventory?
What’s the Class A/B/C/ accident rate of the V-22 compared to the tried & tested COD?
“Compare the cruising speed and capacity of the two planes. Osprey wins on capacity,”
Osprey 652 cubic feet. Greyhound 860 cubic feet. And greyhound flies over 500 miles further, faster, with the same load.
The fleet could use a few V22s, but it is no way a replacement for the Greyhound.
With their flight history...I could go with that.
I think the V-22 is produced in DFW area (?) and I’m guessing that the C-2 was produced and supported in the Northeast somewhere (Bethpage, NY maybe?).....
I’m wondering if politics are a factor...
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