Marine Corps takes delivery of final MV-22B Osprey

The Marine Corps has taken delivery of the last of 359 MV-22B Ospreys that it has procured over the past two decades, Corps officials announced on Tuesday.

The tiltrotor MV-22B Osprey is the primary aircraft that takes Marines to and from Navy ships, remote bases and battlefields. The Osprey’s unique rotating engines allow it to fly long-range missions like an airplane while also being able to hover and make vertical takeoffs and landings, similar to a helicopter. The Marines started to use the aircraft as part of operations in 2007, and the MV-22B went on to replace the Corps’ CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

The military’s Ospreys typically cost between $75 million and $90 million per aircraft. The Air Force flies about 50 Ospreys in its special operations fleet, and the Navy has a handful on full-time ship-to-shore ferry duty. But in the Marines, the MV-22B is the “backbone” of the aviation component within the Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Force, or MAGTAF, the primary formation in which Marines fight.

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Over the past 20 years, the MV-22B Osprey transformed Marine aviation, Lt. Gen. William Swan, deputy commandant for aviation, said at a ceremony on Tuesday marking the delivery of the final aircraft.

“Before the Osprey, distance imposed a very different decision calculus for our Marine commanders,” Swan said during a speech in Amarillo, Texas. “The V-22 connected ships, expeditionary bases, forward positions, and distributed forces in ways previous generations could only imagine.”

By doing so, the MV-22B Osprey has given commanders options to take the initiative and cause problems for the enemy that they did not have in the past, Swan said.

“The MV-22 didn’t simply replace the CH-46,” Swan said. “It fundamentally changed the way the MAGTF generates combat power. For nearly 20 years, the Osprey has helped Marine Aviation respond to crises, support combat operations, conduct humanitarian assistance, and deliver Marines wherever our nation and joint force needed them to be.”

The Osprey, Swan said, accounts for approximately 75% of the Corps’ rotary-wing assault support capability, and has logged more than 686,500 flight hours across 114 operational deployments.

But the MV-22B has also proven to be susceptible to a type of mechanical failure called a hard clutch engagement that can lead to loss of control of the aircraft. Investigators found that one such failure caused an MV-22B Osprey crash in June 2022 that killed five Marines. The entire Osprey fleet for all three services was temporarily grounded over the issue in 2023.

The Marines have taken steps to address the issue, and no hard clutch engagements have been reported since February 2023, said Capt. Jacob Sugg, a Marine Corps spokesman.

As a result of the issue, MV-22B Ospreys continue to be restricted on how far they can fly based on a key component known as a Proprotor Gearbox, which transfers power from the aircraft’s engines to its propellers, according to Naval Air Systems Command. The restrictions vary depending on the type of gearbox that each Osprey has.

With the last MV-22B now delivered, the Marines will shift from fielding the aircraft to sustaining and modernizing their fleet. The Ospreys are expected to keep flying through 2055, a Marine Corps news release says.

“We cannot assume that because the MV-22B transformed Marine aviation once, its evolution is complete,” Swan said in the news release. “It is our responsibility to carry this legacy forward and ensure this aircraft remains ready, relevant, safe, and lethal for the fight ahead.”