I’ve been asking that for a while. Given the kind of wars we’re fighting now, blowing up people hiding in caves, the air-superiority mission seems a little over-the-top. Something from the Vietnam era with updated electronics would be more like it, and for that matter, a WWII P-47 could drop a smart bomb as readily as an F22.
Anarchists are mocking the government’s ineptness even in the economizing war technologies department.
How far will the state fall in its competency?
Hey mate have you checked this guy he writes differently: http://www.g2mil.com/V-22-Iraq.htm
Spin #1 - The V-22 proved itself in combat.
The V-22 was stationed at the most secure location in Iraq, a massive Marine airbase in a remote desert. It was never assigned any mission where it might come under fire. which is why it never flew into Baghdad. The squadron members assert that they may have been fired upon twice while flying fast at higher altitude, but no one can really consider that a “combat test.” Since the USA is engaged in a global war on terror, V-22s flying around the USA must be involved in combat ops too.
The Marines invented a new mission for the $100 million V-22 in Iraq – aerial scout. That could done by a $100,000 civilian aircraft, but this allowed V-22s to rack up lots of safe flight hours without straining the aircraft by flying into LZs or carrying cargo. In nearly all missions, V-22s operated as airplanes with rolling take-offs and landings flying between airbases with hard runways. Yet even this light duty caused the V-22s to fail prematurely. This may be why Bell recently gave up on a smaller tiltrotor for the civilian market, turning the long, long delayed BA-609 project over to Augusta.
To the average citizen who is rationally ignorant of military tech, yes they are “high tech”. I have pointed a few people to DARPA’s website that lists the current projects they have in the works, and each time the level of astonishment is amusing.