Camp Bastion, the british headquarters in Helmand state in the south of Afghanistan, is built in the middle of the desert for a reason. There are no villages nearby. An enemy would have to walk through miles of outdoors and two-dimensional desert to attack .
It ’ s a tent city, four miles long and two miles across-the-board, with a field hospital and an airstrip. The track is short, barely long enough to handle the C-17 cargo aircraft that roar in and out of the basal each day. The camp sits adjacent to Camp Leatherneck, headquarters of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade .
Helicopters crowd Bastion ’ s airfield : CH-53D Sea Stallions, CH-53E Super Stallions, Bell UH-1Y Venoms, and AH-1W Super Cobras. In the roughly terrain and pathless expanses of Afghanistan—and over roads hiding improvise explosive devices—helicopters are often the only practical means of transportation for U.S. Marines. Until last November, that is. That ’ sulfur when Camp Bastion became home plate to the tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey and Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 ( VMM-261 ), the first Osprey squadron deployed to Afghanistan.
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equitable four weeks after arriving, the Ospreys went on the offensive. On December 4, 2009, the MV-22s inserted an 80-person reconnaissance push near the town of immediately Zad in northern Helmand. Operation Cobra ’ s Anger was meant to shut down the Taliban ’ randomness line of communications, and the routes through which their fighters and weapons move .
The Osprey ’ s elementary function in Cobra ’ s Anger was insertion : carrying 24 Marines like a bat out of hell to combat. Although it did the job in now Zad and, more recently, Marja, the MV-22 ’ randomness independent work in Afghanistan thus far has been assault support, transporting personnel and supplies of all types—from mail to bullets to diesel-engine parts—to a series of ascetic combat outposts throughout Helmand. That mission had been the tax of the CH-53 helicopter. ( The Marine Corps is replacing the august CH-46 Sea Knight, which doesn ’ triiodothyronine do well in Afghanistan ’ second gamey elevations, with the MV-22. )
The Osprey is not fair a newly fielded aircraft but an wholly new type of aircraft, the first conveyance in operation that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter, but that offers the rush and stove of many fixed-wing aircraft. “ When you ’ re going to a stead without a runway, you need a rotorcraft. When you ’ re going a long direction to a identify without a runway, you need a tiltrotor, ” says Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Bianca, VMM-261 ’ s commanding officer .
This is entirely the fifth battle deployment for the Osprey ( including three tours in Iraq, and a shipboard deployment ), a platform that was certified functional fair four years anterior to its arrival in Afghanistan. The Osprey is enduring more scrutiny than most new aircraft types, because during its development, four Ospreys had high-profile crashes, including one during an operational evaluation in 2000 in which all four crew members and 15 passengers were killed. Major Timothy Miller, -261 ’ south operations policeman, says, “ For a batch of people, the V-22 is an unknown. There are misconceptions, so you have to do some education up front, and attempt to allay people ’ s concerns. ”
From his camp office on the flightline at Bastion ’ s airfield, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Thomas, administrator officer of VMM-261, summarizes the Osprey ’ south advantages. It ’ south doubly angstrom fast as a CH-46 and can carry double the warhead. The Osprey can fly above the ground threats posed by the enemy in Afghanistan, including firearm fire and shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles .
For extra auspices, the Osprey ’ s mighty engines allow pilots to launch the aircraft vertically and “ corkscrew ” to altitude directly above the safety of a base .
The launch is unlike anything else. “ It felt like getting inject to the moon, ” recalls Gunnery Sergeant Steve Morris, who was on the original reconnaissance team inserted into now Zad. “ Your abdomen goes to your ankles ; it ’ s a truly heavy feel. ”
This good morning I get to feel that sensation for myself, as I ride along on a resupply mission. once besotted and fueled, two MV-22s taxi onto the independent runway. With all diagnostic indicators on the aircraft ’ s multi-function displays in the OK, and with clearance from the tugboat, our Osprey lifts into the air from a dead deadlock, the early from a dense roll. As the aircraft begins its placid bow forward, one of the pilots asks the crew foreman, “ Ready to go fast ? ”
“ Roger. ”
lieutenant Colonel Bianca, one of the program ’ s longest-serving Osprey pilots ( he has 1,600 hours as an MV-22 pilot ), says of passengers at this point in their first flight : “ Open up the throttles and pull the nose back, and you should see the look of incredulity on their faces. ” With one hand on the thrust restraint lever and another on the control stick ( which in helicopter mode works like a cyclic and in airplane mode like a regular airplane manipulate stick ), the original rotates the two nacelles forward toward airplane mode, and the aircraft ’ s smooth up arc is replaced by flimsy buffet. With the airspeed indicator parked at 180 knots ( the top speeds of the fastest production military helicopters range between 150 and 170 knots ), the pilot pulls back on the cling, making a hard-right bank and corkscrewing the Osprey steeply up. “ You can tell when a grunt has flown on the MV-22 before by the way he cinches down the straps and holds on to the shoulder strap that ’ south towards the movement of the aircraft, ” says Bianca. “ He knows what kind of acceleration is coming. ”
And accelerate it does, its powerful engines enabling it to climb at thousands of feet per moment. once at altitude, the speed index pushes up to about 230 knots, although the Osprey can go much faster. After fair a few minutes of flying, we corkscrew back down, and with a rattle evocative of a forte lawnmower engine, the nacelles transition back into helicopter mode, and the craft drops onto a landing zone at a combat frontier settlement near the Helmand River .
As the aircraft approaches the grind, stacks of large container boxes rise into view, then dust flies up. Another container box, this one just eight feet in front man of the nose, emerges from the dust. The Osprey smoothly touches down. Marines crammed in the back file out a slope door as a forklift pulls out two “ tri-walls ” —large lug boxes made of triple-layer paperboard—full of supplies. At many outposts, the Osprey ’ s knock-down engines create a blackout, a blind overcharge of scatter. On this land, the publicize is relatively clear. Pointing to river rocks that Marines have taken from the Helmand and ranch over the landing partition, Major Will Grant explains that the improvised surface has created better visibility for landing here .
once all passengers and their gear have been stowed, the Osprey again rises straight up into the sky .
The Marines of VMM-261 understand their place in V-22 history. The squadron ’ sulfur experiences, peculiarly combat deployments, will have far-reaching consequences, and the squadron ’ south suggestions will help determine not only what hardware gets used, but besides potential software upgrades .
“ We are going to write a solid new chapter in Osprey employment out here, ” says Colonel George Amland, deputy commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. He acknowledges the bang-up strides made by the three MV-22 deployments to Iraq, but notes that the two theaters have many differences. As planners at VMM-261 develop a mission that will take the Osprey from Bastion to the Pakistani frame, 850 miles round tripper, Amland comments on the Osprey ’ s benefits .
“ The Osprey can collapse the battlespace, and go into areas that are not suitable for landing a [ KC ] -130J, ” he says. And because helicopters are transported to Afghanistan as cargo on a C-5, and the Osprey arrives there under its own world power, it can free “ a fantastic total of strategic lift by self-deploying, ” says Amland.
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The squadron has 10 Ospreys, and missions normally run four to six hours, with some lasting equally long as eight. Both aviators and reason crew serve either day or night shifts, but as missions change, flights are much extended, and day pilots often “ hot seat ” with night pilots, meaning the pilots and crew just barter places while the MV-22 refuels, and the aircraft never shuts depressed. The squadron is preparing for the coming troop billow, and that, along with the even daily resupply and delivery operations, keeps the Ospreys running round the clock, 18 or 20 hours straight, requiring care crews to perform basic fixes in between “ hops ” with the proprotors spinning above them .
The history of the V-22 used to bother Staff Sergeant Brian Freeman. He rejoined the Marine Corps after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, hoping to return to a CH-46 squadron, but his only option was an Osprey whole. “ In the begin, cipher wanted to fly on the Osprey, ” Freeman says. The 2000 Osprey crash had killed a ally of his from boot camp. “ I went into the program not trusting the aircraft, and with the brain that the MV-22 was going to have to prove itself to me. And through the years, it did. ” ( To date, Freeman has logged more than 1,300 hours in the Osprey, one of the highest numbers in the V-22 program. )
Freeman is now convinced that the Osprey is safe. “ I like that it tells you what ’ randomness wrong with it, ” he says. “ I like that once you understand how to use the calculator system, the multi-function displays, the aircraft will give you information that as a CH-46 ridicule, you had to know what to smell, what to hear, and in truth have an suggest cognition of the aircraft to diagnose. There ’ mho truly nothing that I dislike about the Osprey. I used to love flying on the CH-46, until I flew the Osprey. There are lots of things I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate miss about the CH-46, because the Osprey ’ s capabilities make that aircraft disused. ”
major Larry Nichols came to the squadron after flying single-seat F/A—18C Hornets. “ It ’ sulfur as if a CH-46 and an F-18 had a baby, ” he says. “ I feel like I ’ megabyte stealing when I fly the Osprey ; it is a fantastic aircraft to fly, taking off like a helicopter and the [ high ] performance of it in aircraft manner. ”
He does think the cockpit design could be improved, and he besides has a minor quibble with the software : “ The count of keystrokes to get to sealed menu is time-consuming and excessive. There are some real long-winded steps to manage certain functions that are significantly simpler and more intuitive in a Hornet, specifically regarding communication and navigation. ”
once -261 ’ s seven-month go is complete, another Osprey unit will take its place—and learn from VMM-261 ’ s
feel. In Afghanistan, for exemplify, Captain Chris Meixell explains, “ Many of us fly the initial branch of the corkscrew approach a little tight, as the forth manoeuver bases here are a little smaller than those in Iraq, where the spiral approach was first used for the Osprey. ”
care crews are besides learning from the new environment. Sergeant Frank Mershon, an avionics technician, typically works 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. ( In addition to his basal job, Mershon is an antenna perceiver, so he often flies to aid a mission. ) “ Every day is different, ” he says. “ We get certain gripes [ problems or parts needing repair ], and once we get our gripes, we go out and trouble-shoot them. ” Mershon moved into -261 from a CH-46 squadron. He seems to thrive on the challenges posed by southern Afghanistan ’ south austerity. “ The V-22 is decidedly more of a challenge, but it decidedly makes you think to the following floor, ” he tells me in the squadron ’ s small zhou hall, filled with cards and letters from squadron members ’ families. “ The -46 was pretty childlike, and the Osprey is brand new…. We ’ rhenium experiencing maintenance issues that the Osprey has never experienced before. ”
possibly the most powerful sanction comes not from the Osprey squadron ’ mho pilots or maintainers, but from one of its passengers. “ The grunts are the proving ground for the Marine Corps. What [ the Osprey ] does for the grunts is what its true capability is, ” says Gunnery Sergeant Morris. “ Something may look good at the Miramar airshow, but what does it do for the infantry Marines ? And that Osprey, in my public opinion, closes the break …. It is a huge push fore for the infantry. ”
At the conclusion of my stay with VMM-261, I asked to visit a distant outpost on the shores of Helmand River. I ’ d be traveling by Osprey, but this prison term as an anonymous passenger, not a media embed given the privilege of sitting in the cockpit jumpseat. With the temperature dipping below freeze, I stood with a little group of Marines and civilians as four CH-53s and two Ospreys idled on the edge of the track .
When given the word, we hustled up the Osprey ’ s rear ramp, and I wrestled my backpacks onto my lick, crammed so tightly into the aircraft that I could hardly find my seat belt. When we were all strapped in, the pilots taxied the aircraft onto the track. By the anticipation on their faces, I could tell that most of the passengers had never flown in an Osprey before. The crew head made surely everyone knew to hold on ; once he ’ five hundred answered the pilot ’ sulfur question— “ Ready to go fast ? ” —we ’ d all shift toward the open rear ramp .
As the Osprey began its spiral ascent, I felt the same herculean G-forces as everyone else, although I had one advantage : My watch had an altimeter, so I knew when the steep climb would stop .
After making two stops, we reached my finish, a small camp dotted with tents, generators, and a few high antennas for communication. I dragged my gear out of the way of the rotor wash, then watched as the Osprey disappeared, the alone visible lights the dim green glow of the navigate ’ s night-vision goggles .
Writer and photographer Ed Darack frequently covers U.S. Marine combat operations.
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I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.