WASHINGTON: A Marine Corps investigation confirms that, as Breaking Defense reported July 9, the pilot at the controls of an MV-22B Osprey that crashed April 11 in Morocco, killing two crew chiefs aboard, violated flight manual procedures and committed other errors that contributed to the accident. Breaking Defense has obtained a redacted summary of a… Keep reading →

MANASSAS, Va: Buzzing a runway in 200-knot low-level passes and steep, nose-up climbs, Eurocopter’s silver X3 hybrid helicopter looked like something out of a James Bond movie as it performed for the media in late July. The X3 (pronounced “X-cubed”) stopped off at Manassas Regional Airport as part of a U.S. tour that ended last… Keep reading →

Holy #V-22!! The Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto will fly in an Osprey at 4:30 with press filming. Take THAT Okinawa protesters! colinclarkaol

An April 11 MV-22B Osprey crash in Morocco occurred because the pilot committed a fundamental flying error which investigators have found was rendered irreversible by a tailwind neither he nor a second pilot in the cockpit noticed, Breaking Defense has confirmed. The Defense Department announced June 29 that the Marine Corps had ruled out any… Keep reading →

The Pentagon and the Japanese government announced early Friday that a dozen Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys are being shipped to Japan for deployment on Okinawa but the planes won’t fly until investigations into two recent crashes of the tiltrotor troop transport are complete. The announcement – issued the same day four MV-22s were scheduled to… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The pilot in command of the Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22 Osprey that crashed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on June 13 was also the copilot of an AFSOC Osprey that suffered a fatal accident in Afghanistan on April 8, 2010, Breaking Defense has confirmed. Still unclear is whether Maj. Brian… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON [Corrected at 6 pm Friday]: The latest crash of a V-22 tiltrotor may be a black mark on the aircraft’s safety record, but it won’t bring down the program. Despite literally decades of criticism — which is now certain to flare up again — there’s simply too much budgetary momentum, political support, and, yes,… Keep reading →

CV-22 – USAF Special Ops version of Marine V-22 Osprey – crashes in Florida, five injured but, thankfully, no dead: http://bit.ly/LC4pTm SydneyFreedberg

This is the first in a series of commentaries defense consultant and author Robbin Laird, a member of the Breaking Defense Board of Contributors, is penning about how the U.S. can and should shape its forces to perform the Asia strategy pivot. As a key part of that, he’ll be looking closely at what he… Keep reading →