MV-22 Osprey, Taiwan ASW Concept, and Civilian Version

The MV-22 Osprey (as seen above) was deployed to Iraq by the USMC months ago. Our Marines seem to like its speed and payload advantages.

Galrahn posted an interesting piece about an alternative use of the MV-22 Osprey by the UK.

Although Galrahn raises engine questions M.E. believes will be short-lived, it got me wondering what use Taiwan could make of these fabulous aircraft for ASW purposes. For example, if you were a PLAN submarine CO, wouldn't you be slightly concerned about your sonarmen's hearing and detection capability with this thing overhead? What about Hugo Chavez?

For those not familiar with the Osprey or its civilian counterpart, the former utilizes two Rolls-Royce engines, while the BA-609 uses twin PT6C-67A turboshaft engines from Pratt & Whitney of Canada. Bell/Agusta has already booked 83 advance orders for the BA609 tiltrotor from 44 customers in 23 different countries. As of February, Bell/Agusta Aerospace engineers working on the BA609 Tiltrotor have stepped up certification efforts and now plan more than 100 hours of flight testing this year, which represents a major acceleration over only 300 hours logged since 2003.

Pessimism over the MV-22's prospects have been consistently overblown by many political critics of the military (most notably, John Murtha).

Here is the BA-609 in a test flight YouTube:

Flight Demonstration... Video taken of the BA-609 civil tiltrotor at Bell Helicopter's XworX in Arlington Texas during the HAI Expo that was held in Dallas in early 2006.