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MY LAI VET SAYS: HERE IT
COMES AGAIN IN IRAQ
Tony Swindell
recalls "Butcher's Brigade" in '69; says "gooks"
have now become "ragheads", every adult male is an
"insurgent" ... atrocities against Iraqi civilians
are soon going to explode in America's face; US Government's courtroom jihads against terror
stumble. Alexander Cockburn on Lodi case where Feds paid $250,000
to man who "saw" world's three top terrorists at mosque.
As neocons
and Israel lobby howl for US to bomb Teheran, an Iranian outlines
simple path to peace. CounterPunch
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The
Scandal of the V-22: It Kills, It Crashes, But It Won't Die...
The Franken Plane
By ROBERT BRYCE
It's the Franken plane. No matter how
many times the V-22 crashes, no matter how many people it kills,
no matter how much it costs, the tiltrotor aircraft known as
the Osprey just keeps on sucking down taxpayer dollars. The tab
thus far: a staggering $18 billion.
The V-22 mess would be safely
flying under the radar if not for three recent events: the March
27 crash of yet another V-22, an early April report by the Government
Accountability Office that points out the aircraft's myriad problems,
and the most scandalous bit of all -- an emergency spending bill
now pending before Congress that provides an additional $230
million for the aircraft at the expense of more pedestrian items
like night vision goggles that might help save the lives of soldiers
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There may be no single weapon
in the U.S. military's arsenal that has a worse record of safety,
performance, cost inflation and just plain uselessness than the
V-22. And yet the program continues to garner billions of dollars.
The March accident happened
at Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina. A V-22
was warming its engines when, without warning, the machine jumped
several feet into the air and slammed to the ground on its right
wing. No one was injured in the accident, which the Marines are
blaming on "uncommanded engine acceleration." Sources
close to the situation tell me that the $110 million aircraft
was a complete loss. So far, neither Bell Helicopter, nor Boeing,
the two companies who make the V-22, have bothered to offer a
good explanation for the accident.
Thus far, about six dozen copies
of the V-22 have been produced. Of that number, five V-22s and
one prototype have crashed. Those accidents have killed 26 Marines
and four civilians.
The V-22 could easily be replaced
by standard helicopters like Sikorsky's new S-92 model, which
costs about one-fourth that of a V-22. But the Marine Corps
which has enormous political clout in Congress -- loves fancy
gadgets like the V-22. In particular, the Marines
like horsepower and the speed that comes with it. And the V-22
has 12,300 horsepower nearly four times as much as that
of the CH-46, the Vietnam-era helicopter it is supposed to replace.
The V-22 also weighs twice as much and uses about three times
more fuel than the CH-46. But all of those numbers may be irrelevant.
Here's the most important one: although plants in Texas and Pennsylvania
build most of the V-22, the parts for the aircraft come from
manufacturers in 43 states.
The GAO, in its typical bloodless
language, said that "emergency dual engine failures in the
conversion/vertical take-off landing mode below 1,600 feet above
the ground are unlikely to be survivable." In plain English,
that means that if the V-22 gets into serious trouble, like say,
its engines get shot out, anywhere between the ground and 1,600
feet of altitude the zone which just happens to be where
helicopters spend much of their time -- all of the people on
board will be riding home in body bags.
That's a stunning evaluation
particularly given the U.S. military's stated goals. In January,
the U.S. Army's aviation chief, Paul Bogosian, while discussing
the many helicopters that have been lost in Iraq, announced that
helicopter survivability "has become a top priority"
for the military.
So just how survivable is the
V-22? This is where it gets really good. The GAO report flatly
states that the V-22, despite more than two decades of funding
from the Pentagon still doesn't have any way to protect itself
from bad guys on the ground with guns. The GAO said, that "Survivability
recommendations included the need to install and test a defensive
weapon."
There you have it: despite
billions of dollars in taxpayer investment, Bell and Boeing can't
be bothered with trying to figure out how to install a gun
any kind of gun onboard their fancy tiltrotor flying (or
rather, crashing) machine. Thus, the aircraft -- which must fly
slowly and carefully when landing and taking off due to its inherent
instability -- becomes an easy target for insurgents on the ground.
And they don't have to worry about anybody onboard the V-22 shooting
back at them.
Finally, there's the April
21 story by the AP's Andrew Taylor, who reports that the Senate
Appropriations Committee is planning an emergency spending bill
that will provide more funding for the V-22 even though it means
cutting funding for items like goggles, and more important reduce
the availability of equipment needed "for destroying mines
and explosives."
Roadside bombs are the single
biggest threat to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They account for about 60 percent of all combat deaths and about
half of all nonfatal injuries to U.S. troops in Iraq. And yet,
in order to keep the money flowing to Bell, which will likely
go bankrupt if the V-22 program is cancelled, the roadside bomb
problem is being ignored.
As scandalous as all of the
above sounds, here's the real scandal: Next year, the Marines
are going to deploy a few V-22s to Iraq. That's when the costs
will really add up. And those bills will be paid for with the
lives of American soldiers.
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