Your Money: Osprey Unsuitable for Operations

Dec. 14 -- Sometimes, a widow’s words carry more weight than a general’s. Consider the question of what to do about the V22 Osprey. A fourth V22 crashed this week in North Carolina, killing all four Marines aboard.

Among those who died was the Marine Corps’ most experienced V22 pilot and the man scheduled to take command of the first V22 squadron this coming spring. His family went into seclusion after the crash.

But Stacey Nelson, the widow of an earlier crash victim, told ABCNEWS: “I don’t think it’s ready to be bought in mass production.”

At $80 million apiece, the V22s are a combination Cadillac-Mercedes of a new generation of military aircraft: The hybrid of helicopter and fixed-wing plane for use in combat.

The Marines call it the MV22 because they see it as their premier combat transport in the new century. The crash of a fourth V22 out of 12 production models does not seem to have diminished their appetite for the Osprey.

If the United States can successfully develop the technology of switching from one mode to another in operations, it will lead the world. That’s been the argument of Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, the V22’s most vocal supporter in Congress.

‘Program’s In Trouble’

Nearly eight years ago, when an ABCNEWS Your Money report suggested that the V22 was too costly for what it offered as a replacement for conventional helicopters, Weldon responded with a letter of denunciation signed by no fewer than 18 colleagues.

When some critics downplayed the usefulness of an aircraft plagued with technical problems, Weldon pointed to the Japanese. “If we don’t develop it,” he told ABCNEWS, “they will.” Weldon did not return telephone calls for comment on the latest V22 crash.

So far, the V22 has been struggling for acceptance by Pentagon technical and test officials. Just last week, Philip Coyle, the Department of Defense’s Director of Operational Tests and Evaluation, delivered a black eye.