{"id":55127,"date":"2024-03-11T21:49:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T20:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=55127"},"modified":"2024-03-16T22:27:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T21:27:08","slug":"the-3-month-flight-ban-of-the-american-v-22-ospreys-and-the-warning-it-means-for-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/03\/11\/the-3-month-flight-ban-of-the-american-v-22-ospreys-and-the-warning-it-means-for-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3-month flight ban of the American V-22 Ospreys and the warning it means for Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The unusual arrival in Spain of United States special operations Osprey aircraft<\/a><\/rel>
\nBell Textron's HSVTOL, a new concept of military vertical takeoff aircraft <\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

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\"<\/strong>, so it became necessary to subject these aircraft to an exhaustive review.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
A CV-22 Osprey of the USAF 21st Special Operations Squadron taking off from Yokota Air Base, Japan, on August 1, 2021 (Photo: U.S. Air Force<\/a>).<\/div>\n

The accident led to the grounding of all US V-22 Ospreys<\/big><\/p>\n

Due to this, the entire V-22 fleet of the United States Armed Forces was grounded.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
A CV-22B Osprey from the USAF 352nd Special Operations Wing during an inspection at RAF Mildenhall Air Base, United Kingdom, Oct. 20, 2021 (Photo: U.S. Air Force<\/a>).<\/div>\n

One of the units affected by this flight ban was Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1)<\/a>, which is the Marine Corps unit that is in charge of transporting the president of the United States<\/strong> 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<\/strong>, the VIP transport version of the famous UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
An MV-22B Osprey from Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1), the unit in charge of transporting the president of the United States, landing in New York on April 11, 2023 (Photo: U.S. Marine Corps<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Surely, the service branch most affected by this stoppage will have been the Navy<\/strong>, 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<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
A CMV-22B Osprey of the US Navy's Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 50 \"Sunhawks\" on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) on September 11, 2023 (Photo: U.S. Navy<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Last week, the US Department of Defense (DoD) reported the resumption of flights with the V-22<\/a>. 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<\/strong>, but they said the processes they put in place will allow a safe return to flight.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Two Spanish Eurofighters from the 11th Wing (Photo: Estado Mayor de la Defensa).<\/div>\n

A problem that could occur in Spain with the Eurofighter<\/big><\/p>\n

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<\/a>, more specifically with the plans of the Spanish government that tend to replace the entire fleet of EF-18 Hornet fighters with Eurofighters<\/strong>. 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<\/strong> once they were retired. from service all EF-18s.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
An F-35 from the USAF 388th Fighter Wing alongside Spanish Eurofighters at Los Llanos Air Base, in Albacete, Spain, on June 10, 2019, on the occasion of the Tactical Leadership Program (Photo: U.S. Navy).<\/div>\n

As I already warned then, Spain is the only Eurofighter manufacturing country that has not yet decided to buy the F-35<\/strong> (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<\/strong>, 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Main photo: U.S. Air Force<\/a>. 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.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 29, 2023, a US Air Force CV-22B Osprey converter plane suffered a serious accident off the coast of Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[7732,1248,21383,21384,6761,673,319],"class_list":["post-55127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-bell-boeing-v-22-osprey","tag-eurofighter-typhoon","tag-marine-helicopter-squadron-one-hmx-1","tag-sikorsky-vh-60-white-hawk","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf","tag-us-marine-corps","tag-us-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}