The V-22 Osprey needs to end production. This aircraft has been involved in numerous accidents, resulting in the tragic loss of many lives. Since its introduction, the V-22 Osprey has faced significant safety concerns and operational challenges. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, as of 2019, there have been over 13 crashes involving this aircraft, leading to more than 50 fatalities (source: Congressional Research Service). These incidents highlight the inherent risks associated with this tiltrotor technology.

The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American military tiltrotor aircraft whose history of accidents have provoked concerns about its safety. The aircraft was developed by Bell Helicopter and Boeing Helicopters; the companies work together to manufacture and support the aircraft.

As of November 2023, 16 V-22 Ospreys have been damaged beyond repair in accidents that have killed a total of 62 people. Four crashes killed a total of 30 people during testing from 1991 to 2000. Since the V-22 became operational in 2007, 12 crashes, including two in combat zones, and several other accidents and incidents have killed a total of 32 people.

Most crashes have been with the most common of the three variants of the tiltrotor, the MV-22B, procured and flown by the US Marine Corps. A handful of crashes have been with the CV-22B, flown by US Air Force Special Operations Command. No crashes have yet occurred with the newest carrier onboard delivery variant, the CMV-22B, flown by the US Navy.

On 11 June 1991, a miswired flight control system led to two minor injuries when the left nacelle struck the ground while the aircraft was hovering 15 feet (4.6 m) in the air, causing it to bounce and catch fire at the New Castle County Airport in Delaware. The pilot, Grady Wilson, suspected that he may have accidentally set the throttle lever the opposite direction to that intended, exacerbating the crash if not causing it.

On 20 July 1992, pre-production V-22 #4's right engine failed and caused the aircraft to drop into the Potomac River by Marine Corps Base Quantico with an audience of Department of Defense and industry officials. Flammable liquids collected in the right nacelle and led to an engine fire and subsequent failure. All seven on board were killed and the V-22 fleet was grounded for 11 months following the accident. A titanium firewall now protects the composite propshaft.

On 8 April 2000, a V-22 Osprey being flown by Major Brooks Gruber, and Lieutenant Colonel John Brow was conducting a nighttime training exercise simulating a combatant evacuation at Marana Northwest Regional Airport in Marana, Arizona about twenty miles northwest of Tucson. The V-22 was carrying 15 passengers, all U.S. Marines, and was flying in a formation of four V-22s when the accident occurred. Two of the V-22s in the formation were actually carrying out the exercise while the other two were observing their performance.

As they approached the landing site, the pilots of the mishap V-22 realized they were 2,000 feet above the required descent altitude and reduced power. As Lt. Colonel Brow maneuvered the aircraft to land, the Osprey entered an erratic roll, turning on its back and slamming into the ground nose first. All 19 Marines aboard the aircraft were killed. The second V-22 also made a hard landing but suffered no fatalities.

On 11 December 2000, a V-22 had a flight control error and crashed near Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four aboard. A vibration-induced chafing from an adjacent wiring bundle caused a leak in the hydraulic line, which fed the primary side of the swashplate actuators to the right side rotor blade controls. The leak caused a Primary Flight Control System (PFCS) alert. A previously-undiscovered error in the aircraft's control software caused it to decelerate in response to each of the pilot's eight attempts to reset the software as a result of the PFCS alert. The uncontrollable aircraft fell 1,600 feet (490 m) and crashed in a forest. The wiring harnesses and hydraulic line routing in the nacelles were subsequently modified. This caused the Marine Corps to ground its fleet of eight V-22s, the second grounding in 2000.

In March 2006 A MV-22B experienced an uncommanded engine acceleration while turning on the ground at Marine Corps Air Station New River, NC. Since the aircraft regulates power turbinespeed with blade pitch, the reaction caused the aircraft to go airborne with the Torque Control Lever (TCL, or throttle) at idle. The aircraft rose 6 to 7 feet (1.8 to 2.1 m) into the air (initial estimates suggested 20 to 30 feet) and then fell to the ground, causing damage to its starboard wing; the damage was valued at approximately US$7 million.[19][20] It was later found that a miswired cannon plug to one of the engine's two Full Authority Digital Engine Controls (FADEC) was the cause. The FADEC software was also modified to decrease the time needed for switching between the redundant FADECs to eliminate the possibility of a similar mishap occurring in the future.[21] The aircraft was found to be damaged beyond repair and stricken from Navy's list in July 2009.

In April 2010, a CV-22 crashed near the city of Qalat in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. Three US service members and one civilian were killed and 16 injured in the crash. Initially, it was unclear if the accident was caused by enemy fire. The loaded CV-22B was at its hovering capability limit, landing at night near Qalat (altitude approx. 5,000 feet) in brownout conditions, in turbulence due to the location in a gully. The USAF investigation ruled out brownout conditions, enemy fire, and vortex ring state as causes. The investigation found several factors that significantly contributed to the crash: these include low visibility, a poorly-executed approach, loss of situational awareness, and a high descent rate.

An MV-22B belonging to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, VMM-261 was participating in Exercise African Lion when it crashed near Tan-Tan and Agadir, Morocco, on 11 April 2012, killing two Marines. Two others were seriously injured, and the aircraft was lost. U.S. investigators found no mechanical flaw with the aircraft, and human error was determined to be the cause.

Even before the entire fleet of V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft was grounded following a fatal crash of an Air Force Osprey off the coast of Japan in November 2023, the Navy’s version was experiencing serious issues that limited its ability to fully perform its assigned missions. Those findings by the Pentagon’s top testing office come even though the Navy's former air boss called the CMV-22B a "game changer" after its first operational deployment in 2022. The Osprey grounding has also forced the Navy to resort to using its dwindling fleet of C-2A Greyhounds to perform essential Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) duties.

Problems with the ice protection system are a significant concern for the CMV-22B, but there have been several potential drawbacks with having the aircraft take over the COD role since the program's inception. Those issues include a lack of cabin pressurization. Unless its passengers and crew are on oxygen, the Osprey has to fly at lower altitudes, through poorer weather, and over long distances, at turboprop-like speeds. Being that its destination can be far out to sea with no nearby divert field, that can include being forced to fly through highly inclement weather. There are other key advantages to having the CMV-22B on the COD mission, which we will discuss in a moment.

The 44% of mission failures due to problems with the ice protection system appears to be a significant increase from what was previously known.
 

As we noted in the past, in February 2023, as the Navy announced the CMV-22B had obtained its Initial Operating Capability (IOC), Bloomberg News reported that the aircraft wasn’t yet "operationally suitable." That was because it had only "partially met reliability requirements," the Pentagon’s testing office said in a non-public assessment. Among the problems was that the CMV-22's ice protection system “accounted for 25% of the operational mission failures, which will result in mission aborts."

The DOT&E report, released last Thursday, showed that the ice protection system failure was responsible for twice the rate of missions being scrubbed compared to the assessment cited by Bloomberg. We’ve reached out to NAVAIR, the Bell-Boeing Joint Office, and the Pentagon to find out more details. The Bell-Boeing joint venture company, which is the prime contractor for the V-22 family, deferred questions to NAVAIR.

The report did not specify which other subsystems were failing or whether they involve issues that led to previous groundings.

The CMV-22B is based on the Marine Corps’ MV- 22B design but with several changes to support the COD mission: increased fuel capacity to extend the range, fuel jettison system, integrated public address system for making announcements in the cabin area, high-frequency radio for over-the-horizon communications, and cabin and cargo lighting to assist with cargo loading.
 
"The Communications Upgrade suite includes a Link-16 tactical datalink and an Iridium satellite phone to enhance capabilities when conducting logistics, search and rescue, and mobility missions as part of a Carrier Strike Group," the report stated.

The Osprey has a controversial history that has included some high-profile mishaps, though it is unknown at this point whether any of its previous problems involve the other subsystems DOT&E said failed.
As we previously reported, the Air Force grounded its CV-22Bs in August 2022 after one of the aircraft made an emergency landing in Norway. There were thankfully no injuries as a result of that mishap, which was traced to an issue with a hard clutch on the Osprey. 
Several months later, the Air Force, as well as the Navy and the Marines, grounded some of their Ospreys again in February 2023 over concerns with aircraft’s hard clutch.
The entire fleet of V-22 was grounded Dec. 6, 2023, after the Nov. 29, 2023 crash off the coast of Japan that killed all eight aboard. 

Ospreys have suffered a number of serious accidents, some of which have been fatal and some that have been linked to other materiel issues, since the aircraft first flew in 1989. There have been three fatal Marine MV-22B crashes just since March 2022. The March 2022 crash was subsequently determined to have been caused by pilot error, while a crash that followed in June of 2022 was attributed to the hard clutch problem. The most recent Marine Osprey mishap, which occurred in Australia in August 2023 remains under investigation. There have been numerous other fatal Osprey mishaps over the years.
It's still unclear what problems led to the current Osprey grounding.
"We don’t believe the most recent problems are related to the hard clutch engagement issue, but we will not know definitely until the investigation is complete," Marcia Hart, NAVAIR director of communications told The War Zone at the time.
That standdown remains in effect, with no date specified about when it might be lifted.
In addition to the problems with the ice protection system, DOT&E found that the maintenance hours per flight hour (MH/FH) “did not meet the requirement, with 45 percent of the total MH/FH attributed to special inspections and scheduled maintenance requirements.”

“Analysis is ongoing on the data collected in the second [Follow On Test & Evaluation] FOT&E for reassessing these metrics,” the report stated without saying why. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Jurgensen told The War Zone that the reassessment is based on aircrew familiarity with the Osprey.
“Given that the CMV-22B has been fielded for a period of time and crewmembers have become more familiar and trained on the system FOT&E allows us to reassess metrics with current operational data,“ he said.
Sometime in the next three months, there will be “an assessment of operational suitability, to include suitability of the Communications Upgrade suite and training using the Containerized Flight Training Device and the Virtual Maintenance Trainer,” that will be included in the Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 DOT&E combined FOT&E and Live Fire Test & Evaluation (LFT&E) report.

Testing was still ongoing at the end of the FY2023 reporting period for this Annual Report," Jurgensen explained. "Once the test is completed, and data analyzed, we will submit the appropriate report.  At the time of publication, we anticipated this to be 2QFY24.”
It's unclear if the problems cited in the DOT&E report have since been resolved or improved upon. We've reached out to NAVAIR for details and will provide a response when it comes.
The CMV-22B's first deployment, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, was hailed as a success for what it brought to the table for transport services.
“With distributed maritime ops, longer ranges, distances between multi-carrier operations, distances from land-based areas, and the ability for the CMV-22B to plop down on unimproved spaces, it proved to be a game-changer for us on deployment,” Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, then-commander of Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during a July 2022 Maritime Security Dialogue event hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute.

The ability of the tilt-rotor to use rolling landings and takeoffs when flying with large loads was essential, since the Osprey is tasked to transport particularly bulky and items, including spare F135 engines for the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. The C-2 cannot move the F135 engine. However, the CMV-22B’s ability to do so does come with some caveats, as The War Zone discussed in this previous article.
During the July 2022 event, Whitesell cited several advantages the CMV-22B has over both the Greyhound and the Marine Corps' MV-22 tilt-rotor variant.
Its “increased gas payload” gives it a far greater operating range than MV-22, he said, adding it also has greater range than the Greyhounds.
In April 2023, Whitesell said the CVM-22B could be used for more than COD missions.
"If you look at the CMV-22 is designed with the actual bladders and fuel capability, the weight capability to travel stuff around, because it's meant to be able to support us in the Western Pacific."
The CMV-22's ability to go where the C-2 cannot — specifically to other ships in the Carrier Strike Group and austere bases ashore — is among its biggest advantages. This allows for a more flexible concept of cargo delivery operations, with the CMV-22 being able to deliver its cargo directly to other vessels and small bases ashore. It could also take on other, non-traditional roles.

If [an] E-2D is not available, where can [a] CMV-22 be used as a communications [node]?” Whitesell offered as one additional role that's being looked into now. The E-2D serves as an airborne early warning and control platform but also provides critical advanced networking and data fusion for a carrier strike group and its aircraft. 

Meanwhile, with the Ospreys grounded, the venerable Greyhounds have picked up the slack.
The Carl Vinson and the Theodore Rooseveltstrike groups are now using them for COD, Navy CMDR Beth Teach told The War Zone. Though the Navy is planning to phase out the aging Greyhounds, a twin-engine, propeller-driven airframe that first entered service in the mid-1960s, these changes won’t have any effect on the carrier groups' ability to carry out their missions, Teach said.

The Vinson strike group left on deployment to Japan with the Ospreys, but after they were grounded on Dec. 6, the Vincent group switched to the Greyhounds for delivery services, Teach said. The Roosevelt strike group, which left on deployment last month, departed with the Greyhounds.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, meanwhile, was also supposed to be using the Ospreys for COD, but it is currently training off the coast of southern California, said Teach. That group will wait until the grounding issue is resolved before a determination is made for the Osprey to deploy with it, she added. Currently, COD services for the Lincoln are being provided by helicopters, she added.

While that works for a carrier close to shore, helicopters don't have the range or payload to provide COD missions for far-flung active deployments.

The C-2s are currently scheduled to sundown in August 2026, Navy CMDR Dawn M. Stankus, a spokesperson for Naval Air Force Atlantic told The War Zone. “Fleet Logistics Support (VRC) Squadron 40 located in Norfolk, Virginia is the last C-2 Greyhound squadron in the U.S. Navy. There are a total of 15 C-2 Greyhounds still in service to support logistics and personnel transfers on the East and West Coasts.”
While the Ospreys are "a critical upgrade and component to modernize the carrier air wing and a carrier strike group’s operational effectiveness," Teach said the Navy is making do during the grounding.

We operate with multiple logistic redundancies, and a number of contingency plans remain in place to mitigate the impact to both deployed and underway aircraft carriers while the Naval Air Systems Command V-22 grounding bulletin is in effect," said Teach. "The Navy remains committed to safely flying and operating on the sea, land, and air."
Change.org will have more on how the grounding is effecting COD services as well as the future of the C-2 fleet in the coming days.
 

It is time to prevent further loss of life by ceasing production of the V-22 Osprey. Please sign this petition to urge decision-makers at Bell Textron to take immediate action and halt the manufacturing of this dangerous aircraft.