Ospreys won’t return to full flight operations until 2026
The program office expects upgraded gearboxes to begin arriving in January.
Audrey Decker | April 30, 2025 05:30 PM ET
Marine Corps Air Force Navy
The U.S. military’s fleet of V-22 Ospreys won’t be able to fly without restrictions until 2026—about a year later than originally planned—as officials work to upgrade flawed gearboxes that have caused several mishaps.
The military put limitations on Osprey flights after a crash killed eight airmen off the coast of Japan in December 2023. An investigation into the crash found that the aircraft's prop-rotor gearbox, which allows the aircraft to shift between helicopter and airplane mode, failed due to metal weakness.
The V-22 program office plans to start upgrading gearbox components with a stronger, triple-melted steel, a process that “bakes out impurities,” Col. Robert Hurst, V-22 program manager, said Wednesday during the Modern Day Marine conference. The triple-melt steel will reduce inclusions—an impurity that weakens the steel—by about 90%, Hurst said.
Deliveries of the new gearboxes will begin around January, and the service will start resuming full flights operations in the spring, with a goal of fully returning to unrestricted flights for operational aircraft by end of next year, Hurst said.
https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2025/04/ospreys-wont-return-full-flight-operations-until-2026/404966/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
