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“Green Tops” MV-22 osprey tilt-rotor aircraft fly the President’s supporting staff and Secret Service agents. On May 23, Donald Trump traveled to New York City in one of the Presidential VH-3D helicopters operated by the U.S. Marine Corps HMX-1 (Marine Helicopter Squadron One). (video at link) The clip was probably filmed by one of the escorting U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. In fact, “Marine One” (when President of the U.S. travels aboard the VH-3D or any other chopper operated by HMX-1, the helicopter uses the radio callsign “Marine One” by which the aircraft is known) was escorted by...

The U.S. Marine Corps is progressing with a new project to arm its MV-22 Osprey aircraft with new weapons such as laser-guided 2.75in rockets, missiles and heavy guns - a move which would expand the tiltrotor's mission set beyond supply, weapons and forces transport to include a wider range of offensive and defensive combat missions, Corps officials said. "Currently, NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) Dahlgren explored the use of forward firing rockets, missiles, fixed guns, a chin mounted gun, and also looked at the use of a 30MM gun along with gravity drop rockets and guided bombs deployed from the...

The MV-22 Osprey gets $6.5 billion vote of confidence by "Defense Secretary" Chuck Hagel. Naval Air Systems Command has given Textron and Boeing Co. $6.5 billion for 99 Ospreys Israeli special forces want up to five Ospreys and will pay $70 million apiece, all of will come out of our + $3 billion Israel military U.S. annual assistance. More than 30 Marines and an un-known number of contractors have died in MV-22 use and development anomalies to date. Some lawmakers and Defense Department officials sought unsuccessfully to cancel the program. to date. Some lawmakers and Defense Department officials have sought...

One Marine was killed and 21 others were hospitalized Sunday after an Osprey... had a "hard-landing mishap" at approximately 11:40 a.m. local time. Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the Osprey program was nearly scrapped after a history of mechanical failures and two test crashes that killed 23 Marines in 2000.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE POTOMAC RIVER – A sharply painted hunter green MV-22 Osprey taxies up near a hangar at the sprawling Marine Corps Base Quantico in central coastal Virginia. It has been pouring down rain and the sky is a gray soup of fog. Yet in the time it takes to walk 100 yards to the awaiting hybrid aircraft, the slick, saturated tarmac beneath the massive idling propellers has become bone dry. It’s the first indication of the massive amounts of power employed by the Osprey – part helicopter, part airplane – that the passengers on this particular flight are...

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – The Marine Corps said it will delay the deployment of an Osprey aircraft squadron to Okinawa following (yet another) Air Force "helicopter" crash in a military training area Monday. The fiery crash of an HH-60 Pave Hawk sent plumes of smoke into the air near Camp Hansen in central Okinawa and left one crew member still missing early Tuesday.

President Obama is officially on vacation with his family in Martha's Vineyard but apparently, there just wasn't enough room on 4,000 square feet of Air Force One for their dog Bo. Naturally, the dog was put on a separate flight. Rooms have to be found for dozens of Secret Service agents, someone has to carry a selection of presidential basketballs, and of course the family dog needs his own state-of-the-art aircraft. Arriving in the idyllic coastal retreat of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, Mr Obama left behind him in Washington DC high profile debates over the budget, government surveillance and his...

Commercial flight with a pet carrier 99.7% cheaper... Although über-patriot Allen West first made clear to Mark Levin (on his radio show Monday 8/11) that he's loathe to engage in 'small ball' with some of the more petty White House scandals, he nonetheless was asked 'how do you justify' the latest Obama middle-finger-to-America -namely, the shipping of 'Bo' the dog to Martha's Vineyard via two exotic, VERY expensive-to-operate Marine VTOL aircraft... West responded 'You don't' justify it- labeling it 'an outrage'. With Obama -in West's eyes- 'It's not about serving... it's about being served.' He then described today's 'progressive' debt + money-printing-and-spending...

Interesting plane to view at 500 ft over your head....

The Phantom Badger isn't a children's cartoon superhero, or something that creeps up to your house at night and messes up your garbage. No, it's the latest ground tactical vehicle from Boeing, and it looks downright awesome, in a butch golf cart sort of way. The V22 Internally Transportable Vehicle, as the official nomenclature goes, has been developed with the help of MSI Defense Solutions, reportedly employing NASCAR racing technologies with the vehicle. It's Boeing's proposal for a vehicle able to be internally transported inside a V-22 Osprey tilt rotor, but is more capable and more sturdily built than an...

The United States is sending a force of 200 Marines supported by two aircraft to Italy as a precaution against unrest in Libya. The force would deploy in case of an attack similar to the one on the US consulate in Benghazi last year. On Wednesday Italy’s Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said that the Marines were being transferred to Sigonella air base in Sicily. "It is taking place in accordance with bilateral agreements," Bonino told a joint session of the House and Senate foreign commissions. "This is a reinforcement for the security of US personnel in Libya or for possible...

WASHINGTON — The Marine helicopter squadron responsible for flying President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, cabinet members and other VIPs has a new aircraft: An MV-22 Osprey. HMX-1’s tilt-rotor aircraft is painted green and will be used in a support role, transporting the president’s staff and the media, Marine spokesman Capt. Richard Ulsh confirmed. Helicopters that transport the president are typically painted white on top and referred to as “white tops.” “The Osprey is a staple within our fleet. It has proven itself in the most difficult environments as a capable and reliable asset,” Ulsh said, noting that including...

Thousands of people have rallied against American deployment of Osprey military aircraft on a southern Japanese island amid escalating anti-U.S. military sentiment following recent crimes. Protesters gathered Sunday at a Tokyo park demanding removal of 12 MV-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft from Okinawa. Ospreys were deployed in October despite local opposition over safety concerns following two crashes elsewhere. They chanted, "Ospreys out! Marine Corps out!"

Neighbors say Osprey landing anything but 'precautionary' the plane narrowly missed the tree line in their backyard was smoking on the way down. It brushed the top of the trees, the belly of it did. You could see pinecones falling 1st Lt. Kristin Dalton said the smoke was the result of “fluid leaking onto hot parts of the aircraft similar to if you spilt oil on a hot lawn mower. But she added that “just because the aircraft was smoking and there was a fluid leaking does not mean that (the pilots) lost control of the aircraft in any way....

U.S. Defense Department on Friday announced it is moving forward with deployment of the "accident-prone" MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in Japan beginning in August, despite local resistance. The Pentagon; Ospreys will replace CH-46 helicopters It acknowledged MV-22 and a CV-22 aircraft by the governor of Okinawa. On April 11 in Morocco, an MV-22 crashed, flight data indicates the aircraft performed as expected untill it crashed. The Pentagon said there were no problems with the aircraft's safety. Earlier this month, a CV-22 crashed during a training mission in Navarre, Florida, leaving five crew members injured. A preliminary review uncovered no information...

HONOLULU — The Marine Corps will base two squadrons of its latest transport aircraft, the Osprey, and one light attack helicopter squadron at Kaneohe Bay, the Department of the Navy said Wednesday. The MV-22 Osprey takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. The Marine base will have 24 Osprey aircraft in total. The Marines won't use Ospreys to train at Kalaupapa on Molokai as earlier proposed, out of concern the aircraft could affect archaeological resources next to the airport, the Navy said in the document announcing the decision. The Navy made the decision after issuing an environmental...

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.

Marine aviator of the year recalls historic mission in Libya 4/24/2012 By Cpl. Brian Adam Jones, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. — The magnitude of the moment came to him over the radio, in a hoarse whisper. Maj. J. Eric Grunke sat in the cockpit of an AV-8B Harrier at just past midnight March 22, 2011, thousands of feet above the Mediterranean Sea, and speeding toward the Libyan coastline. Grunke was serving as a Harrier pilot assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit on the third day of Operation Odyssey Dawn, an...

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...

Landing a V-22 Osprey helicopter-style on the sprawling flight deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush was a snap, says Marine Corps test pilot Capt. Dan McKinney. With Lt. Col. David Weinstein, McKinney did it a dozen times on March 20 – six landings in daylight, six at night. After their first two touchdowns, sailors perched in the carrier's superstructure to watch the helicopter-airplane hybrid Osprey's first-ever carrier qualification landings, conducted off the coast of North Carolina, started giving the pilots "a lot of thumbs-up." Marine leaders hope the Osprey's "carrier quals," scheduled to continue in May...