Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why America's Marines are Turning Their MV-22 Ospreys Into Assault Gunships
Scout Warrior ^ | Dec 22, 2015 | Kris Osborn

Posted on 12/23/2016 5:50:07 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last
To: Proyecto Anonimo
Actually, I don’t really believe they can fly. I think a frog is merely a fictive hologram of some sort.

They are "a mass of machinery that has been forced into the air against its will", a "collection of spare parts, flying in loose formation"!

(BTW, I've got about 10 hours CH-46 PIC time in my logbook, in addition to all the other helos. The Frog has a very nice, stable hover, and it will stop very quickly on a approach.)

61 posted on 12/23/2016 8:21:54 AM PST by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: BwanaNdege

Yep, now the kids at Whiting have touch screen multi function displays. The T-6B can boogie but we had to lengthen the runways for them before I retired.

No more “ma and pa airfields” on cross countries.


62 posted on 12/23/2016 8:26:34 AM PST by Proyecto Anonimo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: okie01

It would be a better thing if they could just do the job as they advertised; Lift 24 Combat loaded Marines!

They absolutely can not! You are lucky to get a Combat Loaded Rifle Squad to lift!

The Osprey has proven to be highly effective for VP transport and Mail delivery in a combat zone. Any real troop lift is left to the CH53!

Terry L Walker
CWO5
Marine Gunner
USMC Retired


63 posted on 12/23/2016 8:28:46 AM PST by Gunner TLW
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Gunner TLW
It would be a better thing if they could just do the job as they advertised; Lift 24 Combat loaded Marines! They absolutely can not! You are lucky to get a Combat Loaded Rifle Squad to lift!

My sole point was that the A-10 and Osprey have different jobs.

Whether the Osprey can actually do that job is a separate issue. I wouldn't know, but your expertise indicates that it can't.

64 posted on 12/23/2016 8:35:29 AM PST by okie01
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: ebshumidors

yup..Those replaced the loach......My loachs replaced the 23’s....Talk about a great improvement!....I just missed 58’s....I was with D troop 1st 10th Cav “Shamrocks” 67-69 out of Camp Enari........Welcome home brother!

Cav Ho...Scouts out!...”Eye of an eagle, Heart of a lion...Balls of a scout”


65 posted on 12/23/2016 9:22:04 AM PST by M-cubed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Proyecto Anonimo
That will really mess up a deck. What kind of cargo weight can you get on a typical COD hit? I would think it would be bigger than an Osprey.

I was in CAG-5 back in the Indy days in VF-21.

66 posted on 12/23/2016 9:35:12 AM PST by USNBandit (Sarcasm engaged at all times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: rodguy911

One of the good things about manpads is that require frequent maintenance if they aren’t maintained they don’t work.


67 posted on 12/23/2016 9:48:57 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: rodguy911

What a load of cockamamie BS. Even ignoring the science fiction technology, the author clearly has little to no comprehension of physics or chemistry totally screwing up concepts like mass, gravity, aerodynamics...


68 posted on 12/23/2016 10:13:44 AM PST by Flying Circus (God help us!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: CCGuy

It replaced the CH-46E (Phrog), that only had a door gunner for defense.


69 posted on 12/23/2016 10:22:06 AM PST by Garvin (The Fourth Estate is The Fifth Column.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: elcid1970

My hook transition IP at Rucker was a guns a go go pilot with 1st Cav. His one war story was about a scary mechanical between Phi Bai and DaNang.


70 posted on 12/23/2016 10:27:02 AM PST by Dustoff45 (Where there is smoke, there is someone playing with matches trying to start a fire.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: 9422WMR

While technically capable of autorotation if both engines fail in helicopter mode, a safe landing is difficult; in 2005, a director of the Pentagon’s testing office stated that in a loss of power while hovering below 1,600 feet (490 m), emergency landings “...are not likely to be survivable.” V-22 pilot Captain Justin “Moon” McKinney stated that: “We can turn it into a plane and glide it down, just like a C-130.” A complete loss of power requires both engines to fail, as one engine can power both proprotors via interconnected drive shafts.


71 posted on 12/23/2016 10:28:38 AM PST by Garvin (The Fourth Estate is The Fifth Column.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: 9422WMR
That thing still has no glide capacity in case of engine failure:-O

Sure it can glide.

Vertically.

72 posted on 12/23/2016 10:33:24 AM PST by SIDENET (My next tagline will be so awesome.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Dustoff45

Just reread your post #20. Wow, I thought all C-box failures on CH-47s were fatal.

True story: I set foot in a Chinook for the first time in 2005 during Armed Forces wkd at Ft Rucker. The pilots invited me at age 56 to join their USAR unit & transition (last flew in 1986). Went to a flight surgeon & by golly I got my up slip.

Told their CO I was honored, but flying was a young man’s game. Retired in 2011 at 62.


73 posted on 12/23/2016 11:21:05 AM PST by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: USNBandit

Indy centurion here, VF-21 was before my time though. The COD could stuff 6000 pounds inside before it cubed out. Technically we could haul 10K pounds of trash. We could trap with 30 people including 2 pilots, 2 crew.

The cool think about the COD was the ability to fly 1000 miles in 3.8 hours with 6000 pounds of pony and ice cream, and then get clear of the LA like any other airplane in CAG 5.

AND... since our two airplanes were too big to spend the night on the boat, we could tell all the chicas on the beach that we flew F-14s -— and there were no Tomcat guys around to tell them we were lying.


74 posted on 12/23/2016 12:17:05 PM PST by Proyecto Anonimo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: elcid1970
thought all C-box failures on CH-47s were fatal.

As you know, the x-box or combining box in a hook, same as in a 46 (Frog) connects forward and rear rotor transmissions so the blades are always in synch.

I was carrying an external load in '69 out of LZ English, Master caution lit up, x-box temp way up, x-box oil pressure way down. Trouble!!

Punched off the external load and made a maximum effort descent. I focused on a dark green spot for some reason and when I flared, discovered it to be a canal overgrown with weeds.

I asked the flight engineer if we had 10 seconds to move it to the right. He is 40 feet back where the action was and he replied "Sir, put it down"

Remembering that the hook will float I put it into the water. I forgot the hatch to the cargo hook was still open and sure enough the CH-47 proceeded to sink right there.

We shut down and climbed on top and were soon rescued by a slick. A couple of days later, a CH-54 Skycrane came and drug it out of the canal where it drained water until it was light enough for the ride home.

Maintenance later told me one of the shafts in the X-box was crystallized, meaning it was red hot and ready to let go

So Yes, i survived a failure of the combining transmission failure by seconds.

All this to say "So what if the transmissions on the Osprey are linked, things can and will go south in a hurry!"

75 posted on 12/23/2016 2:31:14 PM PST by Dustoff45 (Where there is smoke, there is someone playing with matches trying to start a fire.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Proyecto Anonimo
In fall of 97, I was in VF-154 and the morning of the flyoff my chief pulls me aside and advised me to walk really early to my jet. The sea state had been too high over night to run the elevators and a bunch of our jets were still downstairs. My RIO and I hung back while everybody headed down to breakfast, and then we bolted for the PR shop. As we cruised through Maint. Control all the chiefs, including mine were all smiles. It turned out my chief had changed the lineup, as well.

When we got up to the deck, it was a complete mess, high winds, high waves and a COD trying to bring parts aboard. After a couple wave offs for pitching deck and a sketchy hookskip bolter they sent him home. At that point the Boss tossed the launch plan in the circular file and told anybody that was ready to call up. We were closest to the cat and got to go 2nd behind an S-3 off the waist. As we taxied up to cat 4, I saw the skipper's head pop up from the cat walk. He seemed stunned to see us getting ready to launch and my RIO gave him the ultimate Forrest Gump wave.

That was winning. -Benny

76 posted on 12/23/2016 5:51:16 PM PST by USNBandit (Sarcasm engaged at all times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Dustoff45

“...one of the shafts in the X-box was crystallized, meaning it was red hot and ready to let go...”

Wasn’t your time yet, Someone was watching over you.

What caused the fluid leak? Glad you made it.


77 posted on 12/23/2016 6:31:06 PM PST by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam. Buy ammo.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: USNBandit

Sounds familiar. Only time we never got aboard in Japan. But it was Nov 1996 during the typhoon off Iwakuni, right? Bud Light tried twice. I tried 5 times. We only dragged hook once, but saw the Indy screws a few times. Only time that I ever saw them out of the water. The seat cushion was nowhere to be found, pucker factor emergency. Code brown. LSO’s saved us all 7 times.

I heard the popcorn machine dislodged and fell & broke in the wardroom due to high seas, right? Biggest tragedy of the day.

My airplane was destroyed from hail, and after we hobbled the plane airborne from Iwakuni back to Atsugi, we saw Elmo’s Fire jump around in the cockpit for about 20 minutes in an ice storm.

We had a prop fire and had to be vectored around Fuji because we could no longer hold altitude. The prop fire kept returning when we were trying to deice the blades, so we were trapped in an alternating cycle of severe icing and fire.

I vaguely remember that a Tomcat slid across the deck in the typhoon, was that you?


78 posted on 12/23/2016 8:09:29 PM PST by Proyecto Anonimo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: phormer phrog phlyer

“Transmissions are linked in event of an engine failure.”

Isn’t that like being a Siamese Twin when one of them dies...


79 posted on 12/23/2016 8:16:10 PM PST by PLMerite (Lord, let me die fighting lions. Amen.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: captain_dave

Damn that makes sense.


80 posted on 12/23/2016 8:28:03 PM PST by Redcitizen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson