Osprey sets its sight high...

With production of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor now reaching three per month and more than 150 delivered to the US Marine Corps (USMC) and Air Force, Bell-Boeing says it now has the capacity to market the aircraft to international customers.

It used November’s Dubai Airshow to give the region’s procurement staff the chance to get a first-hand look at the new aircraft type.

In marketing the aircraft overseas, the challenge for prospective customers is to realise that the V-22 is neither a helicopter nor a normal fixed-wing aircraft, explained the USMC’s Colonel Greg Masiello, the V-22’s joint programme manager.

“The challenge is for everyone to understand this is a unique aircraft, realising what its attributes are and how they can best be used.”

Compared to helicopters, said Masiello, the V-22 is the most survivable asset in the inventory.
“The V-22 was very well received by the international community in Dubai,” said Masiello.

“With its unprecedented range, speed and survivability, the Osprey is perfectly suited to many of the missions that Middle Eastern forces require.”

The USMC plans to order 360 MV-22 aircraft for the amphibious assault role, while the Air Force is taking 50 CV-22s for long-range special operations and combat search and rescue missions.

Still to be ordered are a proposed 48 for the US Navy: “They’ve always said they wanted them,” said Scott McGowan of Bell Helicopters, “and are looking at the possibility of using them to replace the Grumman C-2 Greyhounds”. The elderly C-2 operates shore-to-ship supply missions in the carrier on-board delivery role.

The USN is also looking at remanufacturing the C-2 to prolong its life or designing a new aircraft from scratch – an increasingly unlikely scenario with the US armed forces facing a $1 trillion reduction in funding over the coming years. Bell-Boeing makes the point that, unlike the C-2, which can only land on aircraft carriers, the V-22 can operate from any vessel with a flight deck.

The next major developments in the V-22 story will be the first overseas deployments, with the USAF setting up a unit at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom this summer and the USMC following with a unit in Okinawa, Japan, shortly afterwards.

In 2013, the aircraft is likely to leap in public visibility when some are deployed by the USMC to the Presidential Support Unit, flying VIPs around the Washington DC area.

The V-22 has already seen operational use in both Iraq and Afghanistan, with some examples making an epic 15-hour flight, topped up by air-to-air refuelling, from Afghanistan to a ship off the Libyan coast as unrest erupted in the North African nation.

Boeing is enjoying a boost in interest of its rotary-wing products from the region.

At the time of going to press, Boeing was close to concluding a firm contract with Jordan for the first export sale of its AH-6i light attack/reconnaissance helicopter. The American manufacturer took one of the helicopters to the Dubai show.

Jordan signed a letter of intent for an unspecified quantity of the AH-6i at the SOFEX special operations exhibition in Amman in May 2010. It already operates six predecessor MD 530F Little Birds in the special forces support role.

The AH-6i is optimised for the counter-insurgency role and has a glass cockpit with two multi-function displays that draws heavily on the instrumentation of the larger AH-64 Apache, using around 80% of the latter’s software. “From the pilot’s bulkhead forward it’s basically Apache Block III technology,” said Brad Rounding, manager, attack helicopters business development. “From the pilot back, it’s basically MH-6 Little Bird.”

Other modifications include a six-bladed main rotor, the ability to triple its normal 61 US gallon (231 litre) fuel tank with additional cabin and external fuel tanks and the possibility of fitting it with a multi-sensor turret.

“There are around 4,000 ageing day-only capability light scout helicopters in operation worldwide and we are focusing this aircraft on countries that might not need a full-up Apache capability,” explained Rounding.

The US Army is about to go to Congress shortly for its new Armed Aerial Scout programme – something that has seen several projects aborted over the past decade – and Boeing hopes that the AH-6i will displace the current Bell Kiowa Warrior. The AH-6i’s support costs, claimed Rounding, are around half of those of the incumbent aircraft.