The U.S. military will allow its fleet of V-22 Ospreys to fly again, three months after it grounded all the inventory of greater than 400 aircraft following a fatal crash off the coast of Japan in November.
The Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy will immediately start refreshing troops’ training and changing maintenance procedures as prerequisites for resuming normal operations, leaders from each of the services told reporters Wednesday.
But they acknowledged it can be months before the tiltrotor aircraft are fully back to flying real-world missions.
The Ospreys will receive no equipment modifications before they return to the air.
Marine Corps Col. Brian Taylor, the V-22 joint program manager, told reporters his office and the services “have high confidence that we understand what component failed and the way it failed.” It’s still unclear why the part in query didn’t perform as intended.
Taylor and other service officials declined to say which component’s failure caused an Air Force Special Operations Command Osprey to crash into the ocean during a training mission Nov. 29, killing all eight airmen aboard. In addition they declined to reply whether the aircraft can be restricted from flying under certain conditions or in certain areas as a result of the danger of a repeat problem.
The accident continues to be under investigation. The Air Force has shared its findings with the joint program office — which manages V-22 acquisition and maintenance for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — and the opposite services to raised understand the fabric failure that led to the crash.
Since the wreckage of the Osprey sat under the Pacific Ocean for a couple of month before being recovered, the drive system is corroded such that engineers may never understand why the unnamed component failed, Taylor said. But investigators created a “fault tree” to map out potential causes, that are addressed within the services’ mitigation plan.
The most important change will increase the frequency of an inspection that’s already done on the aircraft — like upping the variety of oil changes on a automobile, Taylor said. He said the change gives the component a greater “perimeter of safety” during operations.
Though Taylor repeatedly declined to supply information concerning the component, he said it isn’t the input quill assembly that attaches the Osprey’s engine to its proprotor gear box — the component that began wearing out early and caused a series of clutch malfunctions for Marine Corps and Air Force pilots in 2022. A portion of the Air Force and Marine Corps fleets were grounded in 2023 as those services studied the best way to mitigate the danger of so-called “hard clutch engagements” and when to switch worn-out parts.
NBC reported Feb. 19 the November crash could have involved “chipping,” where tiny pieces of metal wear off during use and might damage the engine. Taylor didn’t specify whether chipping played a task within the crash, but characterised it as a traditional phenomenon for a mechanical system and said the V-22 has a complicated monitoring system that appears for small metal bits and alerts the pilot if any are detected.
Taylor made clear the November crash was unrelated to other previous V-22 mishaps.
“That is the primary time that we’ve seen this particular component fail in this manner, and so that is unprecedented” within the 750,000 flight hours amassed over the lifetime of the V-22 program, he said.
Because of that long track record, Taylor said: “We’re confident within the system.”
The ‘Gundam 22′ crash
The Nov. 29 accident was the deadliest Air Force mishap since 2018, and the fourth fatal Osprey crash in a two-year span. Twenty U.S. troops have died in Osprey incidents since March 2022.
The downed crew of “Gundam 22″ included Osprey pilots Maj. Jeff Hoernemann, Maj. Luke Unrath and Capt. Terry Brayman; medical personnel Maj. Eric Spendlove and Tech. Sgt. Zach Lavoy; flight engineers Staff Sgt. Jake Turnage and Senior Airman Kody Johnson; and airborne linguist Staff Sgt. Jake Galliher.
Six were stationed at Japan’s Yokota Air Base; two worked at Kadena Air Base. All were assigned to the Air Force’s 353rd Special Operations Wing.
The weeks-long, multinational search effort successfully recovered the bodies of all but Spendlove.
The U.S. military now flies lots of of V-22s, largely operated by the Marines. The tiltrotor aircraft is thought for its towering nacelles that allow it to launch and land like a helicopter, and speed forward like a fixed-wing plane. Troops use the unique aircraft to slide out and in of areas without established runways, where fixed-wing planes may not have the opportunity to land with troops and supplies.
The Marine Corps owns nearly 350 Ospreys; the Air Force and Navy operate smaller fleets at around 50 and 30 aircraft, respectively.
Beyond the protection and accident investigation boards studying probably the most recent crash, Air Force Special Operations Command can also be conducting a deep-dive into its CV-22 Osprey program to find out whether it provides adequate training, resources and other aspects to make sure airmen’s safety.
The Government Accountability Office and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability have also launched their very own probes into the V-22. On Wednesday, Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the House oversight committee, said it had not yet received information from the military because it looks into the aircraft’s safety and performance.
“Serious concerns remain, reminiscent of accountability measures put in place to forestall crashes, a general lack of transparency, how maintenance and operational upkeep is prioritized, and the way DOD assesses risks,” Comer said in a press release. “We’ll proceed to scrupulously investigate the DOD’s Osprey program to achieve answers to our questions on behalf of American taxpayers and protect U.S. service members defending our nation.”
Marines prepare
As the most important user of the V-22 platform by far, the Marine Corps has been most affected by the monthslong grounding. It relies on the Osprey to maneuver people, supplies and weapons, and operates from ship decks and from ground bases.
Brig. Gen. Richard Joyce, the assistant deputy commandant for aviation, told reporters the Marine Corps has focused on maintaining troops’ proficiency on the Osprey for the reason that grounding began in early December so the service could resume flights as quickly as possible.
“Our simulator utilization has been maximized to maintain proficiency as much as possible within the virtual environment,” he said.
The service has gone so far as sending MV-22 pilots in Djibouti hundreds of miles away to make use of simulators in Japan, and shipping MV-22 pilots who’re deployed to the Middle East with the twenty sixth Marine Expeditionary Unit back home to North Carolina for simulator training.
Now that this system office has cleared the aircraft to fly, the Corps’ most experienced pilots and aircrew will begin maintenance-check flights to get the Ospreys up within the air, then retrain on “core and basic skills,” Joyce said. Once those top personnel have brushed up on the basics, they’ll pair with junior pilots and crew for added basic training.
Joyce said it will take a couple of month for a squadron to get everyone back in control basic skills.
Nonetheless, it can take more time for the personnel to retrain on more advanced skills and mission-specific tasks for combat assaults, transport flights and other missions.
The final said it will take until late spring or early summer to get back to pre-grounding readiness levels.
V-22 squadrons will undergo more consumable parts, like filters, as they tackle additional inspections and maintenance, he said. Those parts and training support will first go to deployed units, followed by squadrons with upcoming deployments, squadrons participating in key exercises or service-level training events, and eventually to test-and-evaluation units and people farthest from a future deployment.
The amphibious assault ship Boxer and the fifteenth MEU are set to deploy from California this spring, and Joyce said it’s not clear yet in the event that they’ll be able to bring the V-22 along. It’s probably the most pressing decisions related to resuming V-22 flight operations, he said.
Air Force’s ongoing studies
Airmen have done the work required to maintain the Air Force’s Osprey fleet healthy through the three-month standdown, but “there’s only a lot they’ll do with aircraft that aren’t flying,” Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind told reporters Wednesday.
He described a 12-week road map to getting the Ospreys back within the air that adds latest maintenance requirements and allows experienced airmen to paved the way. The service will deviate from that plan as needed if work isn’t progressing on schedule.
Returning the aircraft to service begins with ground and simulator training that can include latest safety controls and briefings, a review of aircraft maintenance records and refining squadron-level training plans to implement the brand new safety protocols, Bauernfeind said.
The Air Force didn’t elaborate on what latest safety protocols shall be introduced. AFSOC held an all-hands for Osprey crews Feb. 22-23 at Hurlburt Field, Florida, to elucidate the brand new safety protocols.
“We received very positive feedback that it was very useful to the crews,” Bauernfeind said.
The second phase will concentrate on returning air crews and maintainers to basic proficiency, initially targeted at senior aviators, instructors, evaluators and weapons officers. Simulator training has helped keep skills sharp through the standdown.
The phased approach gives the service time to soak up findings from the service’s initial safety investigation, an internal report meant to root out the explanation for a mishap and stop future occurrences. Bauernfeind received and accepted the findings of the protection board March 1.
He expects it can take the service greater than three months to succeed in the extent of proficiency it had on the Osprey before the Nov. 29 crash.
Bauernfeind said he’s confident within the service’s ability to soundly resume Osprey operations before wrapping up two ongoing investigations. The Air Force has kept the families of the downed crew informed concerning the process, but has not told them the outcomes of the recently accomplished safety investigation board.
“I believe that we all know enough now to return to fly,” he said.
Navy’s path to at-sea missions
The Navy will take a similarly cautious approach to resuming its flights, putting only its most experienced personnel within the air first for basic flights in daytime-only conditions, Commander of Naval Air Forces Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever told reporters.
Those top personnel will then pair with junior sailors and eventually resume night operations and other, more complex training. The Navy will lastly resume training latest pilots and aircrew on the fleet alternative squadrons.
But Cheever warned that returning to flight wasn’t the identical as returning to mission: It might be several more months until the Navy sees its CMV-22Bs flying operational missions to haul cargo and folks to aircraft carriers at sea.
Cheever said the Navy would avoid long, over-ocean flights until all personnel had built up sufficient proficiency. But when asked about any restrictions on the aircraft regarding duration of over-water flights, he deferred to NAVAIR. Taylor, from the V-22 program office under NAVAIR, declined to say whether there have been or weren’t any operational limitations for the planes under the brand new return-to-flight plan.
Cheever highlighted the Navy’s flexibility and said all carriers at sea had fared well through the V-22 grounding. The Navy relied on its C-2A Greyhound, which is about to sundown in 2026 because it’s replaced by the CMV-22B, to resupply carriers at sea, including the Theodore Roosevelt deployed within the Indo-Pacific today.
He said the Navy also relied more heavily on its replenishment ship fleet and looked to load more goods onto carriers once they were in port.
But he noted the importance of getting the CMV-22 back to its mission, saying it could possibly conduct medical evacuations and haul large F-35C engine components — unlike its aging predecessor.
Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a concentrate on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from 4 geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.
Courtney Mabeus-Brown is the senior reporter at Air Force Times. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered the military for Navy Times and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where she first set foot on an aircraft carrier. Her work has also appeared in The Latest York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and more.
Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared within the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.