Washington: The troubled V-22 Osprey will not resume full flight operations until 2026, according to the aircraft’s program manager, as officials roll out an upgrade to the tiltrotor’s gearbox that they hope will address safety concerns.
In a briefing held at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, Marine Corps Col Robert Hurst said an effort to upgrade the tri-variant V-22’s proprotor gearbox — consisting of internal components made with triple-melted steel — should start delivering in January. Following the fix, officials can then gradually implement the aircraft’s full mission profile, with the goal of having an “unrestricted” operational fleet by the end of next year, Hurst said.
The new timeline marks a setback for the Osprey program, as officials projected last year that the tiltrotor would resume its full mission profile around this summer.
Following a crash of an Air Force CV-22 Osprey off the coast in Japan in November 2023, the Pentagon grounded Ospreys for about three months. Since the return to flight, the aircraft has had to operate under limitations requiring pilots to maintain certain distance from land when flying in case of an emergency. The Osprey is operated by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy as well as the Japanese military and is jointly manufactured by Bell and Boeing.
“We had some learning in the middle,” Hurst said, “and that learning in the middle took us from the summer of ‘25 to start in the spring of ‘26.” He declined to specify exactly what program officials discovered, but said the delay stems from wanting to incorporate the triple-melting process into a greater number of gears.
“The generic form of that is we had certain gears we were targeting,” he said. “And then we said ‘Hey you know what, why just a few? Let’s just do them all.’”
Bell said in a statement that the company is “working in lockstep with the V-22 Joint Program Office to enhance Osprey safety and reliability. We fully support the program office’s diligent approach, ensuring these solutions are implemented correctly for the long-term health and safety of the fleet.”
A representative for Boeing did not respond to a request for comment.
