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Conway: Osprey to Afghanistan by end of year

The MV-22 Osprey will head to Afghanistan by the end of the year, after it tests its sea legs on the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the Corps’ top officer said Wednesday during a briefing with reporters.

Commandant Gen. James Conway also said the aircraft likely will stay in theater for the remainder of the Corps’ role in Operation Enduring Freedom.

“I can assure you that the next squadron after the fourth one is going to Afghanistan, and in all probability we will retain an Osprey capability there for as long as we have Marines there,” he said.

When the Corps sent the first MV-22 squadron to Iraq in September 2007, no one was certain how the aircraft would stand up in the harsh environment. To find out, the Corps kept the same aircraft in theater while rotating in three different squadrons over 19 months, allowing maintenance crews to determine which parts would wear quicker.

Conway said the Corps made a “conscious decision” to put the aircraft in a combat situation as quickly as possible, rather than sending it to Djibouti or aboard a ship.

The Osprey, he said, did exactly what it was supposed to in Iraq.

“The way it was able to shrink the battle space was especially impressive,” he said. “One of my commanders over there compared it to being able to shrink Texas into some place the size of Rhode Island.”

The next move, he said, will be to see how the aircraft works in a maritime environment.

The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit is slated for deployment in May aboard the Bataan. It will be the fourth deployment for an Osprey squadron and the first aboard a ship.

“We’ve got to answer some questions for ourself about the seaworthiness, the effects of salt air and conditions aboard ship and those types of things where the Osprey will have a great future,” Conway said. “By the way, that MEU will be going to the Central [Command] region, so in a very real way the Osprey is once again going back to the fight.”

But he also reiterated the need for the aircraft in Afghanistan.

“We think it’s going to be a wonderful machine in that environment. We’ve had issues with our medium-lift capability. The old CH-46 is up against age, altitude and environment and is not doing the job we need for our medium-lift squadrons to do,” he said.