Osprey Chief Backs Marines’ Hybrid Craft

The commander of a U.S. Marine Corps squadron testing the V-22 Osprey defended development of the revolutionary tilt-rotor aircraft Monday despite two fatal crashes and a series of setbacks that have tarnished the program.

Col. Richard Dunnivan, brought in to head up the squadron and a military investigation into falsified maintenance records, remains convinced that the Osprey should replace the Marines’ fleet of Vietnam War-era helicopters.

“This aircraft is head and shoulders above any aircraft we have out there right now,” Dunnivan told reporters at Marine Corps Air Station New River near Jacksonville, N.C., where the squadron is based.

The Osprey, a hybrid aircraft designed to take off like a helicopter and fly like an airplane, was involved in two crashes last year that killed 23 Marines.

Although the aircraft have been grounded since the latest crash in December, Marine pilots have continued training on simulators while engineers modify flight software and hydraulic lines blamed in at least one of the crashes, Dunnivan said.

Squadron members remain committed to the $40-billion Osprey program despite the setbacks, he added.

“This squadron has been sucker-punched in the past year. We’ve been staggered, but we haven’t gone down. We believe in this technology,” he said.

Although the Pentagon said last week that the Osprey would not be rushed into the U.S.-led war on terrorism being waged in Afghanistan, Dunnivan said the aircraft appears better suited for ferrying special forces than existing troop transport helicopters.