Military officials remain confident in the CV-22 Osprey aircraft despite deadly crashes, including one last month that resulted in three Marines being killed.
Gen. Eric Smith, the acting Marine Corps commandant and assistant commandant, ordered a servicewide review last month, and it must be completed in the coming days.
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In late August, Marine Corps Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, 21; Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29; and Maj. Tobin J. Lewis, 37, were killed, and 20 others were injured, in an Osprey crash on Melville Island, north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The crash remains under investigation.
"These are fellow crew members that we've trained with in the past, so it always hits home. Our condolences remain with them," Brig. Gen. Michael Conley, the Air Force Special Operations Command director of operations, told Military.com. "We remain confident in the aircraft."
Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, recently noted they are "very confident in the mitigation steps that we've done." He added, "With respect to the CV-22 at large, it is answering a long-held requirement that no other capability can answer in the special operations community as we go forward."
There was another Osprey crash in June 2022 in California that killed five Marines: Cpl. Nathan Carlson, 21; Capt. Nicholas Losapio, 31; Cpl. Seth Rasmuson, 21; Lance Cpl. Evan Strickland, 19; and Capt. John Sax, 33. All were assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
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An investigation found that the June 2022 crash was caused by the dual hard clutch engagement, or HCE, which resulted in a single engine and interconnect drive system failure, and the failure resulted in a catastrophic loss of thrust on the right-hand proprotor. The subsequent degraded drivetrain caused by the dual HCE event and single engine failure "created an unrecoverable departure from controlled flight" that resulted in the crash.
Deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh recently affirmed that the department has "confidence in the Osprey."