Is Problem-Plagued Osprey Circling Over White House?
http://www.aolnews.com/nati...-house-lawn/19474261AOL News WASHINGTON (May 12) -- It's just 11 miles as the crow flies between the White House and Andrews Air Force Base, but if an Osprey ever replaces the presidential helicopter, would it be worth charging taxpayers more than $10 million a mile to transport their commander in chief to his waiting jet?
That's a question Defense Secretary Robert Gates or his successor will have to weigh as the Pentagon restarts the process of replacing the aging fleet of 19 helicopters that are known as Marine One when the president is on board.
Last year, Gates canceled a nearly $13 billion contract for a new presidential helicopter, citing cost overruns and delays. The decision came less than two months after President Barack Obama joked about the gold-plated project: "The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me. Of course, I've never had a helicopter before -- maybe I've been deprived and I didn't know it."
While the president and his defense secretary are still on the lookout for big-ticket spending items to chop, the Navy recently reopened the process for finding a replacement for Marine One. Contractors have until June 17 to answer.
The initial request for information sent to potential contractors said the aircraft should have a "cabin design to provide a suitable executive ergonomic working environment that supports Presidential duties at all times, including first-response medical support, and passenger seating for 10-14." It also required that the aircraft be able to land safely if one engine failed, fit inside a C-17 cargo plane and operate in "a dense urban environment."
And Bell-Boeing, the consortium that produces the Osprey, says it's on board with that.
"Our Marine and Air Force customers are very happy with the V-22, and we believe it would be a strong candidate for the presidential helicopter," said Sean McCormack, Boeing's vice president of communications and a former State Department spokesman.
But critics say such confidence in the controversial hybrid tilt-rotor Osprey, which takes off like a helicopter and transitions to fly like a plane, isn't warranted by its track record. "I'm sure they think it's a serious bid, but the V-22 has had an unhappy history," said Winslow Wheeler, who heads a military reform project at the Center for Defense Information. "The issue is safety and reliability."
Wheeler was quoted in a tongue-in-cheek article in The Washington Post today making fun of the aircraft's impact on White House departure ceremonies, and told AOL News that it would send "clods of earth" flying from the South Lawn. "The press corps should be happy the White House backyard is no longer a cow pasture," he said.
'Dream Machine' -- or Nightmare?
The aircraft's long and checkered history is chronicled in a new book, "The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey," by veteran Pentagon correspondent Richard Whittle. In it, he tells the tale of a program that has cost $30 billion so far and survived groundings, rejection by the Army and an effort to kill it by none other than Dick Cheney, as secretary of defense. Thirty lives were lost during testing, and four other people died last month when an Air Force Osprey crashed in Afghanistan.
Still, speaking on "The Daily Show," Whittle said the aircraft that has been flown more than 70,000 hours by Marines in Afghanistan has been much improved in recent years. Bell-Boeing agrees.
"It's a much more mature platform," said Bob Carrese, executive director of business development for Bell-Boeing's V-22 program. He said the company stayed out of the last bidding competition, in 2005, because the aircraft wasn't ready. But after deploying Ospreys to Iraq and Afghanistan and operating them in combat for two years, he said, "it is appropriate to put this aircraft forth for this mission."
Mark Thompson, a Time magazine writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on fatal flaws in Army helicopters, is less positive. In his review of Whittle's book, he described the Osprey as so unreliable it's "barely fit for combat." And at $120 million, it's far more expensive than a conventional helicopter.
But there are other considerations. Like, can it even land on the White House lawn?
Marine Col. Greg Masiello, the Osprey program manager, was recently asked that question. His reply: "It fits, by the way."
Masiello didn't take a tape measure to the White House -- instead, Bell-Boeing hired a landscaping company in 2003 to scope out the South Lawn. "We know where every tree is and every bush is," boasted Carrese, a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot who flew Marine One for President Ronald Reagan. "We've done the study."
There may be enough room for the Osprey, but "it's not going to be easy to fit in," said aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia. "The main rotor diameter is significantly larger that the current machine. You'd have to make way for a much bigger footprint."
Then there is the downwash, which is much stronger on the Osprey than a helicopter, and the exhaust from the tilting nacelles, which has scorched the decks of Navy ships, so the impact on White House grass can't be discounted.
Once in the air, though, the president might prefer the Osprey, Whittle said. "It's a lot more pleasant. ... When it's in airplane mode, you don't have the shaking and vibration you have in helicopters," he said.
'Get-Out-of-Dodge Vehicle'
Carrese said that while the president's short hops to Andrews are Marine One's most visible mission, the Osprey can tackle longer-range flights with "a level of effectiveness and security that no helicopter can match." That's why, he said, that when presidential candidate Barack Obama and his entourage took a whirlwind tour of Iraq in 2008, they flew on Ospreys.
The Bell-Boeing executive said the Osprey's ability to fly 1,000 miles without refueling would allow President Obama to keep Air Force One parked more often. A day trip to New York, for instance, could be done nonstop from the White House to a heliport in Manhattan, saving money and disruptions in civilian air traffic.
But it's unclear whether such benefits will be enough to put the Osprey over the top, in this case.
Noting that the consortium has "done an awful lot to work out the [Osprey's] kinks," Aboulafia said it is "improbable but not impossible that it will get the contract." Beyond the technical issues, though, "the message it sends in these relatively frugal times" just won't fly when less costly alternatives are available, he said.
Even Whittle, who despite documenting the Osprey's decades-long problems has called it a "real-life transformer," doesn't think tilt-rotors should replace all the president's helicopters. While it can fly twice as fast as a helicopter when flying as an airplane, he suggests it might be overkill for running errands around town.
"For short hops, routine kind of things -- clearly a helicopter would make as much sense," he said. "In an emergency, in a crisis as a get-out-of-Dodge vehicle if you wanted to get the president out of the city fast, the Osprey is good for that."
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Personally, I like the idea. Heck if the Osprey had been an option, I'd have stayed in the Army but it wasn't to be.
I also think President Obama should get some of the older less modifide Osprey for his personal site seeing tours.
Might be a little riskier but, save the modified one for our troops.
Ron
Well, that might give him less time to spend our money.
