V-22 Tiltrotor in Deep Blue Group of Company Tokyo Networks

V-22 Tiltrotor Could Revolutionize Naval Logistics in the Pacific

If you spin a globe to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you will discover that almost no land is visible in any direction.  That’s because the Pacific covers nearly a third of the Earth’s surface.  The good news is that all that water protects America from potential enemies in Asia.  The not-so-good news is that the Western Pacific has become the industrial heartland of the new global economy, so it is also becoming the main focus of U.S. military strategy.  That means America’s joint force will be spending more time in the vast expanses of the Pacific Basin. Read More

It’s pretty clear that any pivot to the Pacific will have to be led by the sea services — the Navy and the Marine Corps – because land bases are few and far between in the region.  The handful, to which the U.S. has assured access, such as on Guam, could be destroyed by adversaries during the early days of a future conflict.  So America’s military presence in the Pacific will consist mainly of floating sea bases such as carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups. Related Site

Those warships, their air wings and their expeditionary units will have to be supplied with food, fuel, ammunition and other essentials from somewhere on land, because that’s where such supplies are produced and stored.  Most of the supplies will come on the logistics ships that shadow the movement of the Navy’s fleet wherever it goes.  But what about spare parts for fighter engines, emergency medical supplies, and other items needed right away that might not be carried on the logistics ships?  And how are injured or infirm warfighters supposed to be transported quickly to hospitals ashore when their lives are at risk?

For fifty years, the Navy’s answer to such questions has been a propeller-driven aircraft called the C-2A Greyhound that flies between aircraft carriers and shore bases.  The C-2A brings supplies to an aircraft carrier, and then the supplies are distributed to other warships nearby using the carrier’s helicopters in a hub-and-spoke arrangement similar to that once favored by airlines.  It also carries people back and forth – sometimes thousands in the course of a six-month sea deployment.  The mission is called “carrier onboard delivery,” and it evolved at a time when the main focus on naval operations was the smaller maritime expanses of the North Atlantic.

As chance would have it, the shift of strategic focus to the Pacific comes just as the Navy was starting to think about how it should conduct airborne resupply in the future, because the current fleet of 35 C-2As — all of which were built in the 1980s — will reach the end of their useful lifetime towards the end of the next decade unless they get costly upgrades.  Northrop Grumman NOC -2.04%, the builder of the C-2A, has proposed modifying the planes with new wings, engines and other features that would extend their service life beyond 2040.  However, a recent analysis of alternatives by the Navy gave high marks to a different approach: replacing C-2As with the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor already operated by the Marine Corps.

The V-22 Osprey is a genuinely revolutionary airframe because the large rotors at the tips of its wings can pivot 90 degrees in flight.  What that means in practical terms is that it can take off and land likes a helicopter, but once in the air it can achieve the high speed and long range of a fixed-wing turboprop airplane.  Its unrefueled range of about a thousand statute miles is similar to that of the C-2A, as is its 277 miles-per-hour cruising speed.  But unlike the C-2A, Osprey can be refueled in the air to extend its range and it can land pretty much anywhere.  It doesn’t require the kind of landing strip that fixed-wings planes like the C-2A must have to land and take off.

The Osprey’s unique combination of speed, range and vertical agility creates interesting possibilities for transforming the way that carrier onboard delivery is accomplished in the Pacific — and elsewhere.  Because V-22s can land on or hover over pretty much every warship in the fleet, they have the potential to fly people and supplies directly to their intended destination at sea, eliminating the bottleneck that results when items have to be moved from C-2As to helicopters on carrier decks.  That would greatly increase the volume and velocity of the resupply mission.  It would also speed the movement of people in medical evacuations and other passenger trips.

An Osprey can carry about twice as much cargo internally as a C-2A (ten tons versus five) and also has the option of transporting oversized cargo in an external sling.  Because it is not tethered to runways ashore, the V-22 would greatly expand the range of options for moving people and supplies needed at sea.  Not only would fewer airframes be required to accomplish the resupply mission — freeing up helicopters for other activities — but the warships in a carrier strike group could be better dispersed for operational effectiveness.  Right now, surface combatants receiving essential supplies from the carrier must stay within the relatively small operating radius of helicopters, which means expending extra fuel and potentially making the whole strike group less survivable against well-equipped adversaries like China.

Although modifications to the C-2A could extend its unrefueled range by several hundred miles, it can never match the reach of a V-22 which can be refueled in the air or can land on a combat logistics ship for refueling en route to remote destinations.    The relevance of these capabilities to Pacific operations was demonstrated last August when two Marine V-22s flew all the way from Okinawa to Australia via Clark Air Base in the Philippines, supported in the air by fixed-wing refueling tankers.  Tiltrotor technology is so versatile that some V-22 proponents have proposed using Osprey to refuel carrier-based fighters in flight.

Upgrading the C-2A for three more decades of service might be less expensive up front than purchasing V-22s, but over time the complexity and limitations of the way the carrier onboard delivery mission is accomplished today would cost the Navy more — not just in fuel and personnel costs, but in the reduced volume and velocity of logistics operations in circumstances where timing is crucial.  And given the scarcity of suitable land bases for fixed-wing operations in some parts of the Pacific, the Navy might find its current approach to airborne resupply sometimes isn’t workable at all.  That would be especially likely if runways ashore were destroyed by enemies in a war.

As the Marines have already discovered in their own operations, the flexibility of the Osprey enables missions that previously would not have been possible.  A C-2A is basically good for one thing — flying between an aircraft carrier and land bases — but a V-22 can be used for a wide array of missions such as combat search and rescue or reconnaissance even if it was bought mainly to support logistics functions.  At a time when the Navy is facing more overseas challenges with less money, it makes sense to support the fleet with aircraft that are versatile, rather than limited to a single mission.  The inherent flexibility of tiltrotor technology will become increasingly appealing as America’s pivot to the Pacific progresses.

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