Good post BTW!

The MV-22 lifts as much or more than most medium lift helos. It doesn’t lift as much as a small set of HEAVY LIFT helos. While its empty weight, admittedly, is about the same as some heavy-lift birds, its asset is that it goes faster, farther, and, if need be, higher than legacy helicopters. And before someone quotes some bogus stats from Carlton Meyer or POGO or some other pseudo-journalist jerkoffs, DON’T.

Whether the speed and range is worth it depends on your view about the nature of war and the tactics thereof. Your mileage may vary.

The 47 is a good aircraft for Afghanistan, no doubt. We aren’t always going to be in Afghanistan. Someday the Marine Corps will have to project power at a distance, from the sea. That’s what the Ospreys are for.

The Osprey is way more “wicked fast” than the 47, by the way!

Lifes are a stake here!

My philosophy — Learn something new, every day!! =D

I could have sworn those cases were shorter, when I was using that weapon; must be an optical illusion resulting from the type of links used in the Russian system. I’ve apparently been fooling myself about the performance comparison to my HBMG also. One always wants to think the home team has better. I have been planning to improve my sniper reloads by using better bullets, and Hi-Lo pressure chemistry with the powders. This has greatly enhance performance in smaller calibers; so now I just have to find the right powder for those huge 100mm +/- cases!

I think you have been misled by units of measurement. the V0 of a .50BMG and a 12.7x108 are almost indentical:

DShK 802 gr 52.0 g API B32 2800 ft/s 860 m/s 19,230 J
Browning: 800 gr 52 g Barnes 2,895 ft/s 882 m/s 20,195 J

I think someone has seen the m/s v0 and thought it might have been a ft/s measurement and then given you the wrong information.

The IPs have numerous hours in everything from 46s, 60s, 53s and 47s. They all have Arseghanistan experience. To a man they say the 47 is the most versatile airframe in DoD inventory. Ok it’s loud. very loud; however, it has the power to reach altitudes with heavy loads. It is wicked fast and can get in and out of hot LZs quickly and absorb huge amounts of combat damage.

These pilots are “plugged in” to the rotorcraft community and according to them, all V-22 should be given to USSOCOM for small, stealthy, rapid insertion/extraction missions. Send the whole lot to Hurlburt. Replace the 46s with 47s and call it a day. The fight is with the Corp who finally have a “flashy” new airframe and need it for pilot recruitment and retention.

While I am a huge fan of the 47 airframe, these are not my opinions. They are the comments by men who know far more about rotorcraft operation then I ever will.

I was not aware that a Russian design was being used by our manufactures, very good post sgtyates!!

I think some are confused, and thinking they are using the original Russian case for this round. But I believe the Wiki on this, it is more likely deployed using the HBMG case.

My TNW M3 HBMG puts lead out at 2900 fps, unless your shooting AA ammunition. The DShK puts out roughly 850 fps, which is a pig compared to the US Browning design!

I’m wondering just what are these people talking about!?