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Loren B. Thompson directs the defense studies program of the Lexington Institute and teaches in the National Securities Studies Program at Georgetown University.

So uncharted is the national security landscape in the first decade following the end of Cold War that the Pentagon has declared "uncertainty" the enemy. What is clearly known is the effect this uncertainty has had on U.S. defense planning. Since 1989, the U.S. defense budget has been cut by more than a third--as has been the size of the U.S. military. Today's smaller force has scarcely had a moment to relax in what had been predicted to be an era of "strategic pause." Instead, it has experienced an unusually high operational tempo as it has swung between missions across the spectrum of warfare--from strikes against terrorists to peacekeeping to forward presence to deterrence of renewed conflict against such foes as Iraq and North Korea. The resultant demands on the smaller but more widely used post-Cold War force have driven the U.S. military to embrace the concept of "efficiency" like never before.

That has been a challenge. The problem is determining how to meet the widest range of possible missions with a smaller, budget-restrained force largely based in the United States. The operational burden has fallen disproportionately on the forward-deployed Navy and Marine Corps, primarily because the waning of America's Cold-War alliances and overseas network of ground and air bases has necessarily shifted much of the U.S. global force-projection mission to sea-based forces. The two sea services are continuously searching for creative ways to accomplish their growing responsibilities both efficiently and expeditiously.

Fortunately, the Pentagon already has in hand a key tool to help meet that challenge, even though planners do not seem to have yet fully recognized its potential. That "tool" is the V-22 Osprey--the revolutionary new tilt-rotor aircraft that can take off and land like a helicopter and fly long distances at high speeds like a fixed-wing aircraft. The Pentagon thus has in one airframe an aircraft that can replace a costly variety of single-mission helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft while meeting the rapidly expanding spectrum of traditional and new mission requirements that mark the uncertain post-Cold War era.

Effectiveness and Survivability

The "V" in V-22 is military shorthand for "vertical"--but it would just as accurately be translated as "versatile," thanks to the Osprey's ability to efficiently carry out the broad range of real-world missions facing the U.S. military today. Several specific missions already are planned for the V-22, but the plane's unique combinations of speed, range, and flexibility suggest that those might be only the beginning.

In the lead as the largest single purchaser of V-22s under the Pentagon's current buying plan is the Marine Corps, which is heavily committed to the Osprey because of the theaterwide flexibility inherent in the tiltrotor design. By 2001, Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., is projected to have a full V-22 squadron, VMMT-204, up and running. The Marine Corps plans to buy 360 V-22 Ospreys, replacing all of its dangerously aged CH-46 twin-rotor helicopters, most of which entered service before the pilots who fly them were born.

The principal mission for which the V-22 is now being purchased is to carry combat-loaded Marines swiftly and safely from ships at sea to landing sites ashore. Because of the exponential increase in capability it provides over the slower and more vulnerable helicopters now assigned to that mission, the Osprey will substantially boost the Marine Corps' combat effectiveness--and the survivability of its ground forces. With the Osprey, Marines will be able to sortie from sea-based ships stationed at greater distances offshore, well outside the range of increasingly lethal enemy antiship missiles. They also will be able to close faster on the landing zones of tomorrow's battlefields --which will be deeper into enemy territory than previously could be reached via helicopter.

The U.S. Special Operations Command also has recognized the Osprey's speed and range advantages over helicopters. The Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) intends to buy 50 CV-22Bs by 2010. Modified and armed for covert night-time infiltration and exfiltration missions, the CV-22s will replace three different AFSOC platforms: MH-53J Pave Low and MH-60G Blackhawk helicopters, and some MC-130 fixed-wing transport and refueling planes. AFSOC will use the V-22 not only for combat search and rescue, for which the CV-22 is particularly well-suited, but also for other missions ranging from strikes against terrorists to the evacuation of noncombatants from U.S. embassies overseas to direct-action and hostage-rescue operations.

Serious Cost Savings

Rounding out the U.S. military's currently planned Osprey purchase, the Navy plans to field about 48 HV-22Bs, which will be equipped to rescue pilots shot down at sea (Navy variant of the previously mentioned combat search-and-rescue mission). Navy V-22s also will transport Navy SEAL units for special-warfare strike, intelligence, and reconnaissance missions, and carry out certain fleet logistics tasks, such as the vertical replenishment of ships underway. Because of the V-22's sizable cargo bay, it also can be easily pressed into service as an aerial-refueling platform for carrier- and amphibious ship-based Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.

The Pentagon's current multiservice Osprey buying plan, a total of some 458 V-22s, looks impressive. But when the versatility of the V-22 is matched against other existing demands on the Defense Department, and with the requirement for increases in military efficiency and cost effectiveness factored in, it becomes evident, Osprey proponents say, that a larger purchase should be seriously considered.

From Coast Guard rescue missions to Army medevac and air assault, the V-22 can replace even more helicopters and planes than now planned. That would lower procurement costs, increase commonality, and boost multiservice cooperation around a single flexible platform.

Although the first V-22s are only now entering regular military service, Osprey can hardly be called a new program. On 4 June 1982, the Army, Navy, and Air Force agreed to cooperate in the development of what was then called a Joint-Services Advanced Vertical-Lift Aircraft. Early plans called for 1,100 of the aircraft to be built. In 1986, the Pentagon awarded a contract to the teamed Bell and Boeing helicopter companies to build the first six prototype V-22s.

The first Osprey flew on Sunday, 19 March 1989; in December 1990 it went to sea for shipboard testing aboard the amphibious warship USS Wasp. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney tried several times to kill the program, saying the Pentagon could not afford such a revolutionary plane at a time, in the wake of the Cold War, when the defense budget was declining annually. Congress balked at Cheney's cutback attempt, and the Bush Administration relented in its waning months. The Clinton Administration has supported the program, and in late 1994 awarded contracts for more V-22s; almost a dozen have been built to date. So far, testers have accumulated more than 1,200 hours of flight testing in over 1,000 separate flights.

The Threshold of Success

The V-22 has met or exceeded all its requirements to date. In fact, it is currently about 800 pounds beneath its planned empty weight--a key threshold that often presents problems to aircraft designers.

This progress indicates that the V-22 should with little difficulty meet the challenge of taking on missions beyond those already planned for the Marine Corps and Navy, and the Air Force's Special Operations Command. V-22s provide the qualities of agility and mission adaptability traditionally sought by Special Operations Forces (SOF), remarks Rey Maduro Sr., head of Research Planning Inc., a company with long involvement in the special ops field. Special Operations planners seek every opportunity to leverage service-common platforms and systems that can be modified for SOF mission requirements. The V-22 seems to its supporters, in Congress as well as the military, to be an excellent example of a cost-effective and versatile platform that might easily be adapted for other missions.

Because it already is destined for service with the Air Force as a special operations platform, there would be little modification required for the V-22 to serve the Army in the same role. Today, the Army relies upon twin-rotor MH-47E Chinooks and modified MH-60K Blackhawks for the insertion and recovery of special operations troops. Just as the Air Force plans to replace its MH-53Js and MH-60Gs with the V-22, the Army could without difficulty do likewise. Because of its much greater speed and range, the V-22 could provide a higher sortie rate for night-time SOF raids than can conventional rotorcraft, according to a 1990 study by the Institute for Defense Analysis.

Meeting the Medevac Need

The V-22's internal cargo space, big enough to accommodate 24 combat-equipped special operations or conventional troops, also could carry 12 litters, making the Osprey an optimal medevac transport for the Army. It is, perhaps, this role which is most compelling. The V-22 could land vertically to pick up wounded soldiers, then transport them at high speed for surgical treatment. Studies carried out during the Vietnam War showed that survival from combat trauma increases in inverse proportion to the time it takes to get a wounded soldier to a field hospital. Replacing standard Army UH-60s with V-22s for the medevac role could save numerous lives on tomorrow's battlefields.

The Osprey also can fulfill another important Army requirement: air assault. Today, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) relies upon a mix of CH-47D and UH-60 helicopters to transport soldiers into landing zones in the enemy's rear, a mission that is similar in most respects to the ship-to-shore lift for which the Marine Corps is purchasing its MV-22s.

The 101st conducted a real-world air assault as recently as 1991, during the Persian Gulf War. If executed with V-22s, that airlift could have allowed the division to begin combat operations much farther from the Iraqi lines, greatly decreasing the chance of detection. A faster closure rate on the landing-zone objective also enhances in-air survivability against the increasing proliferation of man-portable air-defense missiles. Moreover, the V-22's greater range--480 nautical miles--significantly stretches the reach of air assault troops over that which can currently be achieved solely with helicopters.

Like the Marines, Army troops stand to benefit from the greater survivability afforded by the V-22. The V-22's acoustic signature at cruise speed and altitude is only a fraction of that of conventional helicopters. Analysts say, in fact, that because of the V-22's greater speed and reduced acoustic signature an enemy would have only about one-eighth the audible warning time provided by standard helicopters.

"A More Cost-Effective Force"

It is not only intra-theater medical or air-assault lift that could be carried out by V-22s. Indeed, one of the plane's greatest strengths is its ability to self-deploy from the United States. As the U.S. military increasingly refashions itself into a CONUS-based force, less reliant on forward bases, the V-22 could speed the dispatch of U.S.-based forces directly into semipermissive and/or semisecure landing zones overseas. In that respect, the V-22 would be an ideal platform for the Air Force's newly announced restructuring into 10 Air Expeditionary Forces poised for rapid deployment.

The Pentagon may not be the only beneficiary of the V-22's versatility. The Coast Guard and other federal law-enforcement agencies operate an assortment of aircraft for various rescue and surveillance missions. The Coast Guard's rescue-at-sea missions are today carried out primarily by conventional helicopters. The V-22 is twice as fast as the USCG's helicopters, and has more range, arguably making it better suited for such missions.

The Pentagon's current plan to purchase 458 Ospreys is the strongest endorsement of the versatile tiltrotor to date. Those Ospreys will provide the Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force Special Operations Command with strong increases in capability over several different types of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft now in the inventory. But today's buying plan does not extend the V-22 Osprey's range of capabilities to other DOD components that now are forced to rely on older and less capable equipment. With the nation's service chiefs and the defense committees in Congress agreed on the need for a more cost-effective force, the Osprey's advantages in speed and range over the existing mix of helicopters and fixed-wing planes distributed throughout the U.S. military argues for a reconsideration, at least, of the current acquisition plan.

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