The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has ordered the suspension of V-22 Osprey aircraft in service with the Navy, Air Force and Marines. The grounding of the convertiplanes is the result of preliminary investigations into a fatal accident with a USAF CV-22 Osprey off the coast of Japan. Six soldiers died and two are still missing.
According to the investigators' initial findings, “material failure” may have been one of the key causes of the aircraft crash. This led to a halt in the activities of all V-22 variants in the US.
The Japanese military, the Osprey's only export customer, had already grounded its own V-22 and was still officially asked the US to do the same with aircraft based in the country.
“Information from the preliminary investigation indicates that a potential material failure caused the accident, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time. The suspension will provide time and space for a thorough investigation to determine causal factors and recommendations to ensure the Air Force CV-22 fleet returns to flight operations." ), published last Wednesday (06).
Following AFSOC's decision, the US Navy's Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) also ordered the grounding of the MV-22 and CVM-22.
In production since 1988, the Osprey is operated by the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. Around 400 units have already been manufactured.
Although versatile, the V-22 is also recognized for its high number of accidents and problematic maintenance. This is the third time that the US has grounded Osprey flights as a security measure. The last time was in 2022 after a transmission system failure, which led to the forced landing of a CV-22 on an island in Norway.
Furthermore, this is the second fatal accident involving the model in 2023 alone: in August, the crash of a Marine Corps MV-22 killed three soldiers, out of the 23 who were on board during an exercise in Australia. In June last year, five other Marines lost their lives in an Osprey accident in California.
In Japan, CV-22s are operated by the USAF's 21st Special Operations Squadron from Yokota Air Base. The unit specializes in infiltration and exfiltration missions of special troops in enemy terrain, day or night, as well as transport, rescue, resupply and air .
