Another update of DID's 'CH-53K: The U.S. Marines' HLR Helicopter'... is again publicly available (briefly ?) at
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...-updated-01724
Another update of DID's 'CH-53K: The U.S. Marines' HLR Helicopter'... is again publicly available (briefly ?) at
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...-updated-01724
DID has published a free updated report on the V-22 Osprey at: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...Program-04823/
Its ‘Contracts and Key Events’ section refers to fallout from the April 2010 crash of a V-22 in Afghanistan, at:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012...d-general/all/
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-07-2012 at 10:10 PM. Reason: Date changed at author's request
See http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...rotors-392483/The USA has agreed to sell six Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor aircraft to Israel, but US officials do not say which version of the aircraft Israel will receive.
In my opinion Israeli procurement of the precariously arranged V-22 Osprey is foolish. However, Israel receives about $US2 billion in military assistance from the USA each year. So the V-22s will come cheap although operating them is likely to prove costly.
Any force that paid real dollars for V-22s would seem doubly foolish, or simply stupid.
Israel has decided to cancel its (provisional) order for six V-22s and intends to use the freed-up (military assistance) funds to instead procure more Namer heavy APCs.
See http://www.janes.com/article/45442/i...ers-over-v-22s
The twin tilt-props of the V-22B Osprey are prone to excess disc loading and instability during rapid transition and vertical descent. Hence the slower short-range lower-flying UH-1Y Venom utility helicopter - supported by the AH-1Z Viper attack variant - is the preferred transport for air landing and recovery of lightweight USMC elements in contested situations. However USMC planners have proposed two promising new roles for its fleet of MV-22B aircraft.
Currently the F-35B Short Takeoff and Landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter is being worked up from interim to full operational capability from the same amphibious support ships which carry the MV-22B. But those ships lack both catapult and arrester gear. Without such gear - and preferably also an angled deck - the ships cannot be employed to launch and recover conventional fixed-wing aircraft heavily laden with air-to-air refueling kit and transfer fuel, nor the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft configured with an airborne early warning and control system. Consequently for those types of widely used support the USMC is still reliant on large CATOBAR aircraft carriers.
That reliance could be reduced by development of appropriate variants of the MV-22B. Proposals for such variants were reported during 2015 but there has not been any widespread news in 2016. Time will reveal if part of the MV-22B fleet can be productively employed in those less stressful support roles without displacing too many other aircraft. Time will also reveal if the capabilities of F-35B degraded to reduce weight and enable vertical landing are adequate for strike, close air support, and air combat.
Last edited by Compost; 10-23-2016 at 11:43 AM. Reason: add ref to angled deck
http://www.cobham.com/mission-system...-kit-for-v-22/, 25 Oct 2016;
https://news.usni.org/2015/07/29/dav...e-1-year-delay, 29 Jul 2015.
Better late than never but operation of the F-35B will still be handicapped by reliance on AWACS flown from USN CATOBAR carriers. Without AAR and AWACS aircraft on the same amphibious warfare ship the utility of the F-35B (and similarly of the JSF program) is less than dubious.
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