{"id":183260,"date":"2015-01-14T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/01\/14\/when-given-a-choice-the-pentagon-pulls-the-wicked-stupid-lever\/"},"modified":"2015-01-14T19:20:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T00:20:00","slug":"when-given-a-choice-the-pentagon-pulls-the-wicked-stupid-lever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/01\/14\/when-given-a-choice-the-pentagon-pulls-the-wicked-stupid-lever\/","title":{"rendered":"When Given a Choice, the Pentagon Pulls the “Wicked Stupid” Lever"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little bit over a year ago, I wrote about how the Marine Corps was lobbying for the C-2 Greyhound with the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor in an attempt to lower the unit cost of theier purchase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The V-22 is more expensive to buy and to operate, it is slower than the C-2, it must fly at lower altitudes because it lacks pressurization, and its internal volume (7.6 m3<\/sup>) is far less than that of the Greyhound (24 m3<\/sup>).<\/p>\n

I called it “Wicked Stupid.<\/p>\n

Well, it appears that the Marines have managed to bamboozle the Navy into replacing hte C-2 with the V-22<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Navy will buy V-22 Osprey tiltrotors to replace its aging C-2A Greyhound turboprop aircraft in flying carrier on board delivery (COD) missions. Breaking Defense obtained a Jan. 5 memo, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford. It stipulates that the Navy will buy four V-22s each year from fiscal 2018 to 2020.<\/span>

<\/span> The MOU marks a major triumph for the Naval Air Systems Command V-22 program office, the Marine Corps and other Osprey advocates, who have argued for years that the Navy should replace its aging conventional take off C-2As with vertical take off and landing V-22s.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cThe Navy is responsible for modifying these V-22s into an HV-22 configuration for the COD mission,\u201d the MOU states. \u201cThe parties agree that subsequent documents will provide details on the concept of operations and milestones. A memorandum of agreement will detail reimbursable Marine Corps support for the Navy\u2019s HV-22 transition, which includes training and potential deployment of Marine MV-22 aircraft and personnel to support COD requirements.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> The Navy-Marine Corps agreement must be ratified in the next defense budget and by Congress. It also depends in part on a prospective third V-22 multiyear procurement contract that would begin in fiscal year 2018. C-2A maker Northrop Grumman has proposed building a modernized version incorporating features of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye tactical early warning aircraft.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess that a bunch of admirals concluded that there was better opportunity for them to score lucrative post-security jobs with defense contractors with the ruinously expensive Osprey than there would be with the cheaper Greyhound.<\/p>\n

Seriously, our military-industry complex is circling the drain.<\/p>\n

It’s really beginning to evoke the Arthur C. Clark story Superiority<\/a><\/i>, which describes how military superiority is sacrificed at the alter of technological whiz-bang:<\/p>\n

But I cannot be held responsible for my future actions if I am compelled any longer to share my cell with Professor Norden, late Chief of the Research Staff of my armed forces.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little bit over a year ago, I wrote about how the Marine Corps was lobbying for the C-2 Greyhound with the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor in an attempt to lower the unit cost of theier purchase. The V-22 is more expensive to buy and to operate, it is slower than the C-2, it must fly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1008,1161,982,1035],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-procurement","category-naval","category-stupid","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}