Services prepare to brief Secretary Austin on a plan to get Ospreys flying again

WASHINGTON (AP) — The military services will take a key step toward getting the V-22 Osprey fleet back in the air as they lay out their plans Friday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for addressing safety concerns stemming from a fatal crash in Japan, three defense officials said.

The U.S. fleet of about 400 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft has been grounded for 83 days following the crash of a U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22B on Nov. 29 in Japan that killed eight service members. It’s unclear how quickly Austin would make any decision on the matter.

The Air Force has said it knows what failed in the Osprey but still does not know why it failed. In the months since, the services have worked on a plan to mitigate the known material failure through additional safety checks and also by establishing a new, more conservative approach to how the Osprey is operated to safely work around the known issue, a fourth official, a senior defense official familiar with the V-22 program, said.

Japan is the only international partner in the Osprey program and also grounded its fleet of 14 V-22s after the November crash. A return to flight is a sensitive topic in the country, where public opinion on the Osprey is mixed. One of the defense officials said none of the U.S. Ospreys would return to flight until Japan has had an opportunity to weigh in on the military’s plan.

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