Alternately celebrated and vilified over its 25-year history, the V-22 Osprey is under attack again from U.S. lawmakers concerned about reports of reliability and maintenance issues. But the U.S. Marine Corps is not going to let its tiltrotor go down without a fight.rnThe Bell-Boeing V-22's return to the doghouse is about more than the Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) recent assessment of the aircraft's "unresolved operational effectiveness and suitability issues," however. The litany of technical problems facing the MV-22-from mission capability rates in thernlow 60% range to engines that cannot endure 500 hr. in the desert sand-is overshadowed by a combination of budget constraints and politics.
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