The MV-22 a Waste of Potential

Until recently I never understood why some people hated the MV-22 Osprey so much. Well several people who do not like it have informed me as to why. One dislikes it because he thinks it is a half baked concept that is simply a deathtrap. Granted he has a point more Ospreys have crashed due to malfunctions than there has been UH-60s shot down. Its true the MV-22 has had 14 crashes due to malfunctions that has resulted in 72 deaths since 1991. There have only been 4 UH-60s shot down since it entered service in 1979 2 in desert storm and 2 at the battle of Mogadishu.

Another a (blogger Solomon check out is blog SNAFU!) when asked why he didn't like it he said:  because they're not delivering what was promised. we thought we would be getting an airplane that is in every phase of flight superior to the CH-46 but that isn't the case. additionally the thing puts out so much heat on deck that its changing the way we operate, its ungainly and takes up more room, its slow in the landing phase and its just not as versatile as the helicopter it replaces. Additionally all this branding is starting to piss me off. a tilt rotor enabled ground force? really? its a fucking modified helicopter that flies to fast for escort, can't sling load to save its fucking life and is more vulnerable than the old birds. i hate it and i hate the fact that USMC leadership is acting like its the second coming.

My personal opinion on the MV-22 is that it is a colossal waste of potential. Where they could have made a family of tiltrotor aircraft to support the MV-22 like a Gunship variant for escorting it in and a heavy lift variant for carrying the heavier loads such as vehicles they just made the MV-22 and did a hash of the job neglecting to give it anything to defend itself. No flares, armor, nose gun, missiles or rockets just a ramp gun. Also it apparently gives off a hell of a heat signature. It is a huge glowing target in the sky that carries 24 troops and has nothing to defend itself but its speed.

Also the Marines are not the service that should be using it. The Marines need an aircraft that can be easily stored on their amphibious warfare ships. The MV-22 is really not that. It is too big. The Marines were probably better off with the CH-46 or maybe a variant of the UH-60. The Service that should be using tiltrotors and specifically a family of tiltrotors in utility, attack, transport and heavy lift roles its the Army. 

The Army would be able to make such better use of the MV-22 for air assault. If the Army's main air assault unit the 101st airborne division operated it they could send almost twice as many men into the combat zone that they can now operating the UH-60. 

So far the only thing the marines are doing right with the MV-22 right now is they want to put a nose gun on it and give it the capability to use air to surface weapons anything from hellfire missiles to 250lbs bombs. they want to turn it into a troop transport with teeth. I think they should possibly even slap some armor on that bitch to make it a little more resilient to ground fire.