Those darn 'we love the troops' RepubliCons are at it, again! Please email your Congresspeople requesting they not support a bill that shortchanges our active duty military. Write here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

Senate Bill Shorts Gear for Troops

WASHINGTON - A Senate measure to fund the war in Iraq would chop money for troops' night vision equipment and new battle vehicles but add $230 million for a tilt-rotor aircraft that has already cost $18 billion and is still facing safety questions.

President Bush's request for the emergency appropriations to cover costs of the continuing war and Hurricane Katrina recovery operations included no money for the troubled V-22 Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a plane.

The Marine Corps, however, followed up with a letter to lawmakers endorsing additional V-22s, noting that it is the only active production line capable of replacing four Vietnam War-era CH-46 choppers lost since Sept. 11, 2001.

Critics maintain that it's still a curious choice to be funded in a bill whose defining purpose is to replace equipment worn out or destroyed in Iraq.

The Osprey, manufactured by Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron Inc., has been in development since the 1980s and has cost the government $18 billion so far. It has suffered numerous setbacks over the years, including two crashes in 2000 that killed 23 people.

The Marine Corps says the program has gotten back on track since then despite an incident last month in which a V-22 momentarily took flight on its own.

To pay for the Ospreys, the Senate Appropriations Committee — guided by the Corps — cut into funding for night vision goggles, equipment for destroying mines and explosives, fire suppression systems for light armored vehicles and new vehicles that can be transported into battle inside the V-22.

The panel insists the equipment cuts won't affect readiness.

Vice President Cheney, as secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, tried to kill the V-22, to no avail. The aircraft is popular with lawmakers, especially those from Pennsylvania and Texas, which host the manufacturing plants.

"They've hijacked the bill to spend money on their toys," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. "You have the V-22, which isn't even ready for fielding and it's getting money in the supplemental."

The V-22 is but one example of the Pentagon and lawmakers using the mammoth bill to skirt limits on the already rapidly growing defense budget.

For example, there's more than $3 billion in funding for an ongoing overhaul of the Army that the Pentagon admits isn't directly related to fighting the war.

Meanwhile, senators have added $228 million to procure seven C-17 Air Force cargo planes that can't be completed until 2008 at the earliest — and would eventually cost a total of almost $2 billion.

The C-17 cargo plane is manufactured in Long Beach, Calif., by Boeing Co. The line there is now slated to close in 2008 with the completion of a 180-plane inventory. Instead, the $228 million would purchase parts as a downpayment for building seven more planes. It would take at least another $1.6 billion to finish the job.

"If it goes through, you basically force the Air Force to buy another seven planes," said a lobbyist for a rival defense contractor.

The Senate will take up the $106.5 billion Iraq funding bill — which includes $27.2 billion for additional hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast — on April 25. The House passed a companion $92 billion measure last month.

Generally speaking, emergency war funding bills get less scrutiny than the Pentagon's regular budget. And since they provide crucial funding for U.S. troops and equipment, most lawmakers are reluctant to criticize the bills.

However, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is taking aim at $3.5 billion the Army requested for creating smaller, independent fighting units. Gregg wants to use some of the money to finance border security initiatives and the Coast Guard's ongoing upgrade of ships, planes and helicopters.

"There's a fair amount of money in this supplemental that is not an emergency. It's essentially an attempt to pick up operational and core needs outside the usual budgeting process," Gregg said. "It's certainly in the multiple billions."

The Pentagon says restructuring the Army belongs in the Iraq spending because it would accelerate transforming 5,000-man brigades into independently functioning units and facilitate troop rotations in and out of Iraq.

But Gregg and others say the Army restructuring should be part of the regular budget and the Pentagon tacitly agrees; next year it will be funded that way.

For now, the inclusion of the expensive restructuring project in the war funding bill is a way to avoid cutting other defense programs.
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There is no doubt in my mind that the Marines need the V-22.

The CH46 is showing it's age, I would dare say most of you would not set foot on one if you knew how old they are. The NEWEST bird on the flightline is over 30 years old. But we still love our Phrogs.

Using old and worn out equipment is nothing new for the Marine Corps, at my very first duty station I was cleaning under the teletype machine and discovered the following sequence of property stickers: "Property of the United States Air Force" who cast it off to the Army when it was obsolete to the Air Force. Then, "Property of the United States Army" who cast it off to the Navy. Followed by "Property of the United States Navy" who cast it off to it's final user, "Property of the United States Marine Corps". This teletype machine had been made during the Korean War and in 1971 the Marine Corps was still putting it to good use.

I guess I shouldn't gripe, that teletype machine was less than 20 years old, up until the late 1970s Marine aviation was flying aircraft which had been out of production since before I was born.

Methinks the Navy too needs to see it go into production and delivered to the fleet. Right now every Frog the Marines break so bad it can't get fixed means the Navy has to replace it with one of the few they've got left. That's really startin' to negatively affect at sea replenishment, which is where the Navy uses the 46 the most. When/if the Marines get their V-22s then Frogs can start goin' back to the Navy.

Methinks the screwed up history of the V-22's directly attributable to the meddlin' and up again, down again fundin' cycles Congress has imposed over the decades since 'twas first proposed. Design problems that led to crashes seemed mainly due to Congress not bein' willin' in 1990 to fund the fixes the Marines proposed way back then, but which've finally been put into place.

'Tis too bad we can't get an aircraft design off the drawin' board and into production in five to seven years the way other countries can. Methinks the F-35, at maybe ten years, will be the shortest span we'll have seen in a long, long time.

Bell has a plant about 40 miles from my farm and I get to see them testing the V-22 almost on a daily basis. I guess they figure if it's going to crash they want it to go down out over farm land so as not to hit someone on the ground.

Did you know, that thing will really fly and hover on just one engine? It's a really impressive piece of machinery to see in flight. When they tilt over those rotors and head for home in strait line flight it goes like a flash, I think it would out pace a AH-1W Super Cobra. Not bad for a transport craft, eh?

With a top speed of about 250 knots methinks 'tis 'bout twice as fast as the fastest helo. I forget what the unrefueled range is ('tis capable of inflight refuelin'), but I know it can go maybe three to four times farther than any helo, eh?

Yeah but I remember when the old single turbine AH-1's came into service the jockies flying them used to wear a patch which read "The 200 Knot Club". I know the official top speed of a twin turbine Cobra is somewhere around 150 knots so either the Cobra performs better than advertised or the jockies flying them like to blow smoke.