Last week I circulated a piece discusing an eight page advertising special in The Washington Post, paid for by Lockheed-Martin and Boeing (and a credit union).  The huge ad commemorated the 100th anniversary of Marine Corps aviation.  (My piece with a link to the advertisement is at the end of this message.)  In the special advertising section the Marine Corps' Commandant and Deputy Commandant for Aviation, among others, proclaimed that Marine air was wholly focused on supporting “ground troops,” especially while engaged in combat–thereby demonstrating the Marines' warrior ethic and devotion to one of its proudest traditions.  Unsurprisingly, the ad also loudly touted Boeing's V-22 and Lockheed's F-35B as the contemporary embodiment of the Marine air tradition.<

David Evans is a retired Marine.  He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel, after which he worked as a widely respected journalist for the Chicago Tribune.  When I sent him my piece on the Marines' self praise, paid for by Lockheed and Boeing, he immediately responded that the proclamation of a focus only on air support for troops in combat rang hollow.  I asked him to write up his concerns; the following 1,500 word analysis was the result.  It makes important and informative reading.  It exposes the sophistry of the ad's assertions, and it is an excellent explanation of how technology proclaimed to be a leap ahead can in reality be a step backwards–at great additional cost.  The discussion of the V-22 and F-35 compared to cheaper, more effective systems–available earlier–is very instructive.

David's essay is also here as a Word document:  David Evans on F-35 and V-22

Vow to ‘Support Ground Troops' Rings Hollow

For sheer sophistry, deception and delusion, it is hard to top the status report “100 Years of Marine Corps Aviation” that appeared as an advertising supplement arriving in this former Marine's Washington Post newspaper on 2 May 2012 (located at http://issuu.com/wpcustomcontent/docs/usmc). My view is that Marine aviation is now broken, riven by exploding costs, starkly troubled development programs and, above all, the triumph of technical wants over tactical needs.

The Marine Corps could have had superior flying machines at dramatically less cost to acquire and maintain. There is an old aphorism about “pride goeth before the fall” that certainly applies. The country cannot afford these habits and the junior Marines at the “pointy end” deserve better for tactical support.

The eight-page supplement was dominated by breathless paeans to the Marines' two dominant aircraft modernization programs, the V-22 tilt-rotor, a troop hauler which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a turboprop airliner, and the F-35B, a jet that will similarly be capable of short take-offs and vertical landings but fly to the battlefield at supersonic speed.

Neither machine will deliver on its heady promises.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Marine Aviation in the Toilet (Ethically, Technically, & Financially)”