WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US military's long-gestating V-22 Osprey, built to fly both like a helicopter and an airplane, performed well in Iraq its first official field deployment, the Marine Corps announced Friday.
"I am proud of the aircraft performance. It is very satisfying to see how well it performed," Lieutenant Colonel Paul Rock, commanding officer of the first squadron of Ospreys deployed in Iraq, said in a Pentagon press conference.
Rock said the Marine squadron of Ospreys, deployed in Al-Assad, al-Anbar province, undertook 2,500 transport and evacuation missions over the seven month deployment between September 2007 and April 2008.
The hybrid transport, which can take-off and land vertically like a helicopter, then tilt horizontally its two wingtip turboprop rotors to propel it as a long-distance airplane, was developed with the aim of replacing the marines' Vietnam War-era Ch-46 transport helicopters.
But its development, dating back to 1981, was marred by delays, cost overruns and then safety concerns for its revolutionary technology.
The worries were heightened by two in-flight accidents in 2000 that killed more than 20 soldiers.
The V-22 Osprey is produced by Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing, and 59 are now in operation, 30 with the marines.
It can carry 24 soldiers into the field, its tilt-rotor engines allowing it to land where there is little room but also carrying it to high altitudes where it is safe from ground attack.
Other than Iraq, the V-22s, which cost 70 million dollars a piece, would be useful in the US fight in Afghanistan, said Lieutenant General George Trautman, vice-commandant for marine aviation.
"It would be a very effective airplane in that environment," Trautman said.
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