Center Roundtable on Tiltrotor Technology Resonates With Members of Congress, Senior Military and Industry

(Washington, D.C.): On 9 April 1997,
the Center for Security Policy convened
the latest in its series of high-level
Roundtable Discussions addressing
critical and emerging security policy
issues. This Roundtable, held at the ANA
Hotel in Washington, focused on one of
the most revolutionary dual-use
technologies to have emerged from the
Pentagon in the past two decades: the
Tiltrotor aircraft, a system capable of
taking-off and landing vertically and
converting in flight to cruise at speeds
comparable to conventional turboprop
aircraft.

So dramatic were the presentations
made by past and present senior military
officials and leading Members of Congress
that the Roundtable engendered a
widely shared determination to
reinvigorate one of the most successful
public and congressional educational
initiatives in recent memory — the
Tiltrotor Coalition. This
informal coalition of public policy
organizations like the Center for
Security Policy, industry, legislators
and others interested in the national
security and advanced technology was, to
a considerable extent, responsible for
ensuring that the Marine Corps’ V-22
Osprey survived determined efforts by the
Bush Administration to terminate this
leading edge program.

It seems clear in light of the
information presented at the Roundtable
that a similar effort is required if the
Osprey program is to achieve stable rates
of production commensurate with the needs
of the Marines, Special Operations
Command and other military users, as well
as to realize the full promise of this
technology for U.S. commercial aviation.

The Center’s Roundtable, entitled
“Technology and ‘Joint Vision 2010’:
A New Way to Fly and to Fight,”
involved more than eighty current and
former policy-makers in the legislative
and executive branches, members of the
armed services, representatives of
industry and the media. The half-day
conference held at the ANA Hotel in
Washington, D.C. featured remarks by: General
Carl E. Mundy, Jr., USMC (Ret.),
who until 1995 was the Commandant of the
U.S. Marine Corps; Major General
Maxwell C. Bailey, USAF, the
Director of Operations for U.S. Special
Operations Command; and Deputy Assistant
Secretary of the Navy for Expeditionary
Forces Programs, Brigadier
General Michael A. Hough, USMC.

The Roundtable also heard from three
of the legislators who will play key
roles in determining whether the full
promise of the Tiltrotor technology is
realized: Senate Appropriations Committee
and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee
Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK);
Senator Bob Smith
(R-NH), Chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee’s Strategic Forces
Subcommittee; and Representative
Curt Weldon (R-PA), Chairman of
the House National Security Committee’s
Military Research and Development
Subcommittee.

Virtually every aspect of the V-22’s
remarkable technology and development
were explored during the course of the
symposium. Gen. Mundy reviewed
“Tiltrotors and the Marine Corps’
Vision of 21st Century Warfare.”
Gen. Bailey explained “Tiltrotor
Capabilities for the Special Operations
Command.” And Gen. Hough addressed
“Tiltrotors’ Potential for Joint
Service Applications.”

Rep. Weldon closed the morning session
with an inspiring analysis of the support
the tiltrotor technology enjoys on
Capitol Hill — as well as a warning
about the dangers associated with
preventing the V-22 program from ramping
up to efficient and sustainable rates of
production. Congressman Weldon, a founder
and driving force behind the
Congressional Tiltrotor Caucus emphasized
that this was sure to prove a temporary
challenge; once the benefits of this
technology for civil applications have
been demonstrated, Rep. Weldon observed
that demand for such aircraft will be
immense.

Among the other distinguished
participants were senior members of
industry, the military and congressional
offices, including: Lieutenant
General Terrence Dake, USMC, the
Deputy Chief of Staff for Aviation; two
of Gen. Dake’s predecessors Lieutenant
Generals Thomas H. Miller, USMC
(Ret.) and Keith Smith,
USMC (Ret.); Vice Admiral William
D. Houser, USN (Ret.), the
former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations
for Aviation; Major General Hugh
L. Cox III, USAF (Ret.), former
Deputy Commander-in-Chief, U.S. SOCOM; Major
General Richard Scholtes, USA
(Ret.), former Commander Joint Special
Operations Command; and senior personnel
from Bell Boeing, AlliedSignal, McDonnell
Douglas Corporation, Lockheed Martin
Corporation and Textron, Inc.

The Roundtable Discussion was followed
by a luncheon in the course of which
Senator Stevens and Senator Smith echoed
the thrust of Rep. Weldon’s comments
about: the imperative of fully exploiting
the tiltrotor technology; the need to
bring it into the U.S. military’s
inventory promptly and efficiently; and
the immense commercial opportunities
afforded by translating this technology’s
promise to the civil sector as quickly as
possible.

Sen. Stevens noted his long-standing
support for the V-22, support that was
essential at several junctures to keeping
the Osprey program alive. He also
signaled his determination to increase
the rate at which this V-22 is purchased
by the Pentagon — the next major test
for this aircraft and its supporters.

Sen. Smith concluded the Roundtable’s
proceedings with the following, visionary
declaration:

“The V-22 will truly
revolutionize the conduct of
military operations….This is an
evolutionary concept in the minds
of some people, and that’s the
way it is being presented. It’s
not evolutionary, it’s
revolutionary. It is
evolutionary in the sense that it
moves from the CH-46 [aircraft]
to the new technology, but it
also is revolutionary in terms of
that technology. I think the
Pentagon has frankly missed that
point, and I think industry has
missed that point.

“If we can make that leap
from what is evolutionary to
revolutionary, we save money in
the long run and save a heck of a
lot of lives on the battlefield.
I think the key is revolutionary
technology versus evolutionary
weapons systems.”

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