The 3-month flight ban of the American V-22 Ospreys and the warning it means for Spain

On November 29, 2023, a US Air Force CV-22B Osprey converter plane suffered a serious accident off the coast of Japan.

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Eight people died in this accident. This was one of the most serious accidents that the V-22 Osprey has suffered since its entry into service in 2007. The investigation carried out by the USAF determined that the accident in Japan was due to "a materiel failure of a V-22 component", so it became necessary to subject these aircraft to an exhaustive review.

The accident led to the grounding of all US V-22 Ospreys

Due to this, the entire V-22 fleet of the United States Armed Forces was grounded. The US V-22 Osprey fleet consists of about 400 aircraft, including the MV-22B of the Marines, the CV-22B of the USAF and the most recent CMV-22B of the Navy, which since 2020 have been in the process of delivering the 44 units acquired.

One of the units affected by this flight ban was Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1), which is the Marine Corps unit that is in charge of transporting the president of the United States over short distances. This unit has a total of 12 MV-22B adapted for VIP transport. Everyone has been left on the ground. Fortunately, the unit also has 8 Sikorsky VH-60N White Hawk, the VIP transport version of the famous UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

Surely, the service branch most affected by this stoppage will have been the Navy, as it is replacing its old Grumman C-2 Greyhounds with the CMV-22B Ospreys in logistical support tasks for aircraft carriers. The withdrawal of the C-2 was scheduled for 2027 but was brought forward to 2024, so this stoppage of the CMV-22B came at a very bad time and could have caused serious problems for the shipment of supplies to aircraft carrier.

Last week, the US Department of Defense (DoD) reported the resumption of flights with the V-22. The worst thing is that the technicians are not even sure what failed in the accident in Japan, as the DoD statement acknowledges: "They would not identify the component that failed, but they said the processes they put in place will allow a safe return to flight."

A problem that could occur in Spain with the Eurofighter

Some of you may wonder why I mention Spain in the title of this article, since the Spanish Armed Forces do not use the V-22. In September 2023 I warned here about a risk with the Eurofighter Typhoon, more specifically with the plans of the Spanish government that tend to replace the entire fleet of EF-18 Hornet fighters with Eurofighters. I then warned that the Air Force is not in favor of operating a single fighter model, because a breakdown in one of the planes could ground the entire fleet and Spain would be left without fighters once they were retired. from service all EF-18s.

As I already warned then, Spain is the only Eurofighter manufacturing country that has not yet decided to buy the F-35 (Italy and the United Kingdom have already received it and Germany has announced its decision to acquire it) . As a result, for the first time the Air Force would operate a single fighter model, without having an alternative model to resort to in case of a stoppage (neither the F-35 nor the JAS-39 Gripen or any other of the currently good fighters available on the market). What happened with the Osprey in the US should serve as a warning.

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Main photo: U.S. Air Force. A CV-22B Osprey of the USAF 352nd Special Operations Wing landing on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) on March 2, 2023.