The Marines are aiming to make their MV-22 Ospreys more lethal helicopter more deadly and faster fast, the service's top aviator said Monday.
The Marine Corps is testing its tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey with a variety of weapons aand sensors on its tiltrotor aircraft in order to get the most out of the platform, said Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation.
"We're looking at the same kinds of systems as you'd find in the UH-1Y [Venom and AH-1] Cobras," he Davis said during a panel discussion at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space conference outside Washington, D.C.
Those helicopters are often equipped with mounted guns and missile launchers.
The Hellfire missile — the mainstay missile of the Navy's SH-60 Seahawk and Knighthawk helicopters — is being looked at for the Osprey, Davis said. Additionally, he said the laser-guided GBU-44/B Viper Strike bomb and the lightweight AGM-176 Griffin, which can be fired as a missile or deployed as a guided bomb, are also being consideredbeing looked at for integration into.
So far, Davis said they've tested Davis said the Marines have tested a laser-guided ance designator in the Osprey's nose and different munitions that can be loaded onto the aircraft. and said the service is testing different munitions on the aircraft that to load into the helo
The Marine Corps' 2015 aviation plan called for outfitting Ospreys with "enhanced weapon systems" to increase standoff and precision capabilities. The plan stated that Marine crisis response units, like the land-based forces that respond to emergencies in Africa and the Middle East, would use the armed V-22s. Those units have provided security support and evacuation assistance at embassies in Iraq, South Sudan and Libya.
The aircraft, that can take off and land like a helicopter and flies fly like a plane, is one of the busiest in the service.
Davis, speaking during a panel discussion at the Navy League's SeaAirSpace conference, acknowledged that getting the air crew to run a weapons systems while flying the aircraft could be and fly the helo was an added burden, but added that Marines would y'd be able to adapt quickly.
Another panelist, Navy Staff director Vice Adm. Robert Thomas, said the Navy was getting after the added burden that the Osprey and the F-35 was placing on the Navy's decks by doing maintenance more often.
"We're refining our maintenance and adjusting our periodicity," he said.
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
