A few years ago, Rep Murtha was a passed-over has-been anachronism, out of touch and out of style. Today he is a very powerful member of the party in power. I may not agree with every one of his positions, but I think he is honest and sincere. Ruse? I don’t think so!

Outside his office in the Congressional Office Building are two flags: the State of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Marine Corps. That said, he does not shy from calling the USMC on the carpet when he thinks it’s appropriate.

As with the Harrier (although it was developed in large part by the UK) — this is an overwhelmingly Marine program. It’s not buying something already developed by another service (F-4 Phantom, M-1 Abrams, F/A-18 Hornet, C-130, etc.).

The Marine brass better be prepared to to all the grubby congressional/pentagon mud-wrestling of advocating and defending their program.

They also need to tell the truth to Rep Murtha about the Osprey — whatever it is — warts and all.

The V-22 does have around 40% more cruise speed. The V-22’s average cruise speed (depending on gross weight and altitude) is around 210 knots, 270 is its top speed at ideal conditions. They did cram 24 Marines with only rifles in for the OPEVAL, but then you can put 10 people in a phone book too. There are 24 troop seats, but the cabin is 6 inches narrower and 6 inches lower and 4 feet shorter than the Phrog.

Here is the latest update from http://www.g2mil.com It seems 40 V-22s are missing.

June 26, 2009 — The V-22 Scandal Explodes

In May, Marine Generals refused to provide Congress with an inventory list of V-22s, which Congress sought to dispel allegations from G2mil that dozens of damaged V-22 are hidden in hangars. In his prepared testimony, the head of Marine Aviation, LtGen George Trautman stated that: “We have accepted delivery of 91 Ospreys, a quarter of our program objective of 360 aircraft.” The requested status list was not provided. After threats of subpoena, his staff said they had 105, when they must have known that simple check of budget documents would reveal they should have around 145. That just happened, as the Congressional Research Service released a report that says Congress has funded 156 V-22s for the Marines from FY1987 through FY2009.

Since Bell stated that V-22 production is on schedule, the last of these 156 should be delivered by Oct. 1, 2009. Therefore, the Marines should have had around 145 V-22s on June 3, 2009, the date they reported that only 105 had been delivered. Since these cost around $100 million each, it seems the Generals misplaced $4 billion worth of new aircraft. Maybe I can find some missing V-22s on E-bay! Looks like we’ll see a lot of dancing Generals this year.

Congressmen Jack Murtha said he is going to the Marine airbase at New River soon to find out what’s happening. He’s a former Marine who says the military always lies about problems. However, he is a politician and big spender, so I suspect this is a common ruse. Major contractors have one of their Congressmen act angry and promise to find out what’s really happening, only discover some minor problems, and assert there is nothing really wrong.

My art director partner walked to the far corner of the hangar and there was a V-22 parked with the nacelles pointed upwards and the engine shroud on the port engine open. He took out his camera and started taking pictures.

Two guards asked him to stop. One said, “I need the film, sir.”

My partner turned over his film. I was furious because I knew this would bite me in the butt. It never did.

But it was interesting to note that the other guard said “I don’t know why he can’t shoot photos, I’ve seen picture of the inside of this thing in books. This aircraft ain’t no secret. If only they could keep them out of the maintenance bays.”

At the end of the shoot day, my crew walked past another hangar that was open and sitting there was a Y-version F-35. This was before the contract had been awarded. Behind the F-35 was a row of V-22s in repair.

After that comment, and the rows of V-22s, I knew this was might end up as another albatross. Yes, it may do its job very well, if we stop considering the costs. Which we shouldn’t.

Daniel
civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com