After a year in Iraq, it seems to be doing well in that environment:
After a troubled history, the V-22 Osprey — half-helicopter, half-plane — has been ferrying troops and equipment across Iraq for just over a year without a major incident.
Critics say the Osprey, which was designed to replace transport helicopters, lacks firepower for defense in heavy combat.
But pilots say the Osprey makes up for that in speed, which one of them says can take the plane "like a bat out of hell" to altitudes safe from small-arms fire.
Since arriving at this sprawling desert base in western Iraq, a dozen Ospreys have been ferrying troops and equipment at forward operating bases. One even took around Barack Obama during his tour of Iraq earlier this year.
But on only a handful of occasions has the aircraft faced any serious enemy fire.
Still, without actual shooting enemies, this is more of a very demanding test environment rather than combat testing. Lack of weaponry could be a problem in combat. Being hit could reveal more problems than mere wear and tear reveal. And saying that we don't plan to put the aircraft into situations where it could get hit can be said for our transport helicopters, too. But enemies like to shoot at our aircraft anyway. We can't assume we can avoid all enemy fire.
Just doing well in real world situations is a major test. But without accomplishing missions against an enemy that can shoot at it, this is still just a very rigorous peacetime test, in my opinion.
