Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

Read this, found it interesting. Interested to hear what the Americans on this forum think, it is their money after all.

Osprey OK'd
It took twenty years and $19 billion. But at 4pm today, I'm told, the Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board will announce its recommendation to go ahead with "full rate production" of the once star-crossed, accident-prone Osprey V-22 tiltrotor craft.

The fate of the hybrid aircraft has been very much in question, ever since a pair of Ospreys crashed in 2000, killing 23. This decision "gets the program off probation. It can't be summarily cancelled now," a source close to the program says.

It's not exactly clear how many of the hybrid aircraft will eventually be manufactured. The President proposed budget calls for 458 Ospreys to be built into the next decade, starting with 13 next fiscal year. The Marines are ultimately scheduled to get 360 aircraft, Special Operations Command are supposed to have 50, and the Navy is slated to have 48. "Pentagon budget documents show the cost of V-22s at about $100 million each," the Star-Telegram notes. Osprey makers Bell Helicopter say the figure is more like "$72 million and headed down."

Those prices and those plans could change in the years to come, of course. But this much is set: A squadron of pilots starts training on the V-22 next week. And an operational squadron of nine Ospreys will be ready to fly out of North Carolina's Marine Corps Air Station New River by 2007.

[Gopher]

The Osprey has been a highly-endorsed fast-insertion/unothodox-insertion concept in the Marine Corps since I was in the Corps fifteen years ago -- and according to this article, it goes back four years beyond this.

Your article calls the aircraft "accident prone." I'm not sure why the author calls it "accident prone," but setting whatever data he may have been citing aside for the moment, any helicopter currently in service is also "accident prone" -- they go down all the time. Great Toad would back me up on this if he were here.

And whatever your feelings about the Pentagon may be, the Marine Corps would not uneccessarily risk the lives of Marines.

If they are placing the Osprey in service, then, it is because they have deemed the Osprey fit for service.

[Summer Wine]

Gopher, go to "www.military.com", to read the full article. I haven't an opinion as of yet, except to say the concept is great. The working of the concept has recieved bad reviews in the past. Seek out further info, I would be interested to learn what you find out about it. The cost seems a little excessive as one decent $30,000 missile could take it out in minutes if not seconds.

[Gopher]

I doubt that command would send troops into such a hot area without sterilizing it first...but yes, everything is vulnerable in a combat zone. Still, there are quite a few layers of protection available to troop transports in a war zone. I'll venture to guess that such an expensive system probably has a rather sophisticated electronics package onboard.

So, again, the Osprey, as I understand it, is more flexible, reliable, and safer than the helicopters we're currently using, and by far.

[EFLtrainer]

[Bulsajo]

WIRED Magazine had a really good article about the program a few months back:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/osprey.html

[EFLtrainer]

[Tiger Beer]

I think the $19 billion dollars was an enormous waste of tax payer money. Would much rather prefer investment/research/subsiduaries, etc. into alternative energey sources.. or restructure the entire system into a non oil-related direction when it comes to fueling sources.

[Summer Wine]

I have to agree with Tiger Beer, 19 billion! Yes, it just rolls off your tounge, but damm, couldn't they have got it done cheaper.

Really, I calculate metal, wiring, labor, tech etc. I still can't see how they budget a $100 million a plane, but someone needs the profit I guess.

[Gopher]

[Tiger Beer]

[Gopher]

[Leslie Cheswyck]

Pictures, man, pictures!

[EFLtrainer]