Helicopter-plane Osprey fares well as ferry in Iraq

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By Bradley S. Klapper ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq | After a troubled history, the V-22 Osprey - half-helicopter, half-plane - has been ferrying troops and equipment across Iraq for a little more than a year without a major incident.

Critics say the Osprey, which was designed to replace transport helicopters, lacks firepower for defense in heavy combat.

However, pilots say the Osprey makes up for that in speed, which one of them says can take the plane "like a bat out of hell" to altitudes safe from small-arms fire.

Since arriving at this sprawling desert base in western Iraq, a dozen Ospreys have been ferrying troops and equipment at forward operating bases. One even carried Sen. Barack Obama during his tour of Iraq earlier this year.

Only on a handful of occasions has the aircraft faced any serious enemy fire.

Military officials say this is partly a result of the changing nature of the war in Iraq as well as the advantages the high-flying Osprey has over the Vietnam-era Sea Knight helicopter it eventually will replace. The Osprey also avoids day flights into Baghdad or other tasks that entail excessive risk.

"It's not the same World War II tactics that we used to deal with, or even Vietnam tactics," said Maj. Paul Kopacz, who led two Ospreys on a recent mission to Fallujah. "We have not been battle-tested because we aren't going guns blazing into hot zones. Our nation is now too sensitive to the loss of soldiers to let that happen."

The military calls the Osprey a "tilt-rotor" aircraft because it takes off with its rotors set vertically like a helicopter and glides in the air with them thrust forward as on an airplane. The shift requires just a pull of the lever by the pilot.

The aircraft, which took more than two decades to develop, has been plagued by a series of technical failures and deadly crashes - including a pair in quick succession in 2000 that killed 23 Marines and nearly scuttled the entire project.

Some skeptics have attacked the design of the plane because they think it is too slow in descent, lacks maneuverability, kicks up too much dust and should have been delayed until designers mastered the idea of "autorotation" - which would keep the rotors spinning even if both engines were taken out.