By Robbin Laird

V-22 modernization efforts are essential to enable the Osprey to remain in service for the next thirty years.

One important ongoing effort is the Nacelle Improvement Program. In an earlier interview with David Albin, the Nacelle Readiness Program Manager at Bell, we discussed the key aspects of the program. The focus of the engineering redesign effort is to improve the operational characteristics of the Osprey’s nacelle.

Albin underscored: “The redesign focused both on service components to reduce the need for in-service repairs, like cracked frame stations, cracked baffles, the hinges and latches were all improved, so that maintainers would have to spend less time dealing with these components and their follow-on effects on the aircraft – such as vibration in flight, which could cause the doors to open and potentially depart the aircraft, for example.”

He continued: “The Bell Reliability & Maintainability Team used the data which had been accumulated from the operational fleet to determine what components or areas on the aircraft would benefit most from redesign. Based on this analysis, the engineers completed the redesign, and the NI program has subsequently delivered reduced maintenance man-hour rates and enhanced reliability.”

I also had a chance to talk more about V-22 modernization priorities with Chris Seymour and Kurt Fuller of Bell during Navy League meetings held the first week of April 2025.

I first met Seymour at MCAS New River during his last week of active-duty service in the USMC in the summer of 2013. He is now Vice President of Strategic Pursuits at Bell.

Kurt Fuller currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Military Fielded Programs. Kurt has been the program director of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey since April 2020 and the H-1 since August 2024.

Fuller underscored that the nacelle improvement program was the result of the engagement of many USMC and USAF maintainers who identified that for them the redesign and rebuild of the nacelle was the number one change in the aircraft which would significantly increase aircraft availability.

USAF maintainers, as the first service to receive the new design, have validated this in terms of their operational experience with the improved nacelle and its impact on the readiness of the aircraft.

Fuller recounted a conversation he had with USAF maintainers at Cannon Air Force Base that validated the positive impact of the new nacelles on aircraft availability. They told him if an Osprey with the new nacelle posts a fault as the aircraft is being powered up, they tell the pilots they will need about an hour to have the aircraft ready to go. If they experience a similar fault working with a legacy nacelle, the maintainers pull the aircraft from the flight schedule and typically end up troubleshooting for the rest of the day.

Nacelle improvement is a great example of a small but impactful upgrade to the aircraft. But other mid-life improvements are also being considered. Among the potential upgrades being discussed, the following stand out: power generation, nacelle wiring, infrared suppression, engine air intake, ice protection systems, improved blade performance, oil cooling, aircraft structures, passive thermal, acoustic, and vibratory management (TAV). While not a comprehensive list, these items are similar in scope to what has been required to keep other extremely important aircraft like the B-52 and CH-47 viable and relevant for decades.

One interesting upgrade that is being carefully examined would lay the foundation for a whole new way to incorporate rapid improvements onto the Osprey at a cost the program can afford.

This change involves digital interoperability, and it requires building a digital backbone into the aircraft. Called modular open systems approach, or MOSA, the new approach refers to the way the U.S. Army and Bell are tackling the challenge of keeping pace with technology over the entire life cycle of the Army’s new future long range assault aircraft (FLRAA).

A MOSA digital backbone for the Osprey would make upgrades and obsolescence management much cheaper and faster than the current aircraft systems allow. As Seymour explained: “If you have an open system approach you can download a software capability to the mission computer and run it resident on the hardware that is already on the aircraft.”

Seymour underscored that with the Army leading the way with MOSA on FLRAA, and with the USMC interested in replacing its H-1s down the road with an advanced tiltrotor variant of FLRAA, having MOSA on the V-22 would mean that the Marines could manage both aircraft in similar ways in terms of upgrade design.

Legacy aircraft are typically designed with tightly coupled proprietary processing system and architecture. These legacy aircraft operate with a combination of many individual systems with an array of black boxes and associated hardware and software. When one item is changed to the aircraft flight control or mission control system, it is often necessary to rework the integration on another or even several other systems on the aircraft.

The demand for faster data rates and new capabilities is pushing advancements in technology, such as high-performance versions. MOSA will decouple applications so one can change systems, qualify them, and field them much more rapidly. A MOSA digital backbone will allow the aircraft to shed some black boxes and host new capabilities via cards on the backbone. The result will be a lighter aircraft with more rapid upgrades at lower cost.

The upfront investment in rebuilding the Osprey around a digital backbone will ultimately pay for itself by facilitating a much more rapid implementation process as new technologies evolve. With MOSA, the V-22 will be able to rapidly incorporate systems and payloads that would otherwise be beyond the program’s reach.

And, with the proliferation of new and exciting payloads being developed, with weapons being integrated using apps, and a robust autonomous revolution underway, it makes a great deal of sense to empower this flexible aircraft to expand its multi-mission, “everything” capabilities by increasing its ability to embrace new technologies going forward.

The Deputy Commandant of Aviation Down Under: Plan Jericho Marine Corps Style

By Robbin Laird

At the recent Navy League meetings held during the first week of April, I had a chance to talk with several companies and analysts about the evolution of maritime capabilities and what the U.S. and allies could do to ramp up the capabilities of the “fight tonight force.”

While the Trump Administration has rightfully turned its attention to finding ways to enhance the ability of the United States to expand the size of the capital fleet, the surest way to enhance near to mid-term capabilities is by focusing on ways to expand systems that can deliver enhanced distributed maritime effects to the force.

A key element of being able to do so is the ramp up of the payloads which can deliver data to inform decision making for the fleet, and to distribute such payloads on air systems or on maritime autonomous systems.

One company that is clearly doing this is ThayerMahan. I had the opportunity to with Dr. Kevin Lopes, Vice President for marketing with the company.  Dr. Lopes spent many years with the U.S. Coast Guard and based on his experience he focused in his professional development on organizational design and change. Indeed, he received his PhD in this subject area.

And, frankly, I believe that organizational design of maritime forces facing the new technologies of autonomous systems, the payload revolution in delivering both kinetic and non-kinetic effects, and the much more innovative use of air systems by the fleet is crucial to mission success in the period ahead.

We explored the revolutionary potential of distributed maritime effects and autonomous systems in transforming naval operations. Our conversation highlighted how data-centric approaches on distributed autonomous maritime autonomous systems or on various types and kinds of air systems is a key to the future of maritime security and defense.

Dr. Lopes shared how ThayerMahan, named after naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, takes a fundamentally different approach. Founded by former Submarine Force Commander Mike Connor, ThayerMahan was created with the recognition Navy would “never have the capacity that he needed” through traditional capital ship acquisition.

According to Lopes, “Admiral Connor envisioned many distributable, perhaps attritable or not, unmanned or autonomous assets, working together in networks that could be severed or connected, and that could be applied to different mission sets.”

We discussed the conceptual shift from platform-centric to payload-centric thinking. Dr. Lopes described their partnership with Australian company OCIUS and their Blue Bottle platform, noting: “It’s the payload that matters. But for right now, what we found is the Blue Bottle platform is one of the better ones out there for what we need to do.”

In other words, one is focused on the product that you want, the deliverable that you want. One is focused on the payload that can deliver it. One is simply looking for something that can carry that payload without undercutting the performance of that payload.

We focused on the concept of selling data rather than platforms. Dr. Lopes shared their success working with NOAA on fishing law enforcement, where “NOAA doesn’t care about anything except the data.”

A “data as a service” model allows for greater flexibility, faster adaptation, and reduced acquisition challenges for naval and maritime organizations. This approach allows customers to ease the acquisition transition to autonomous AI systems and lowers their risk. Rather than the government agency taking the platform or AI development risk. It is the company that works the platforms and the AI. They deliver a data product to the customer.

In other words, rather than the customer sorting out which maritime platform to acquire and maintain, or which AI system to use and upgrade to process data acquired by the payloads on the platforms, the customer can just focus on the data and its use in making smart decisions.

Drawing on his experience with command-and-control structures, Dr. Lopes suggested reframing the challenge for deployed forces as one “going from a single decision loop to a continuous organizational learning loop.”

The challenge, particularly for established naval forces, includes overcoming entrenched organizational structures and career paths built around traditional platforms and systems.

In my view, the market for ramping up the delivery of distributed maritime effects is going to outpace the capital ship market tremendously, even if the capital ship market gets more money from governments, given the costly nature of a shipbuilding enterprise.

Nonetheless, as navies worldwide grapple with limited budgets and expanding threats, the paradigm shift toward data-centric, autonomous systems may well represent the future of maritime operations.

Featured image: Credit:Dreamstime.