On Jun. 14, a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey made a landing aboard a Japanese ship near U.S. West Coast.
The Osprey landed on a Japanese heli-carrier-destroyer Hyūga, during a 18-day exercise.
Taking into the consideration the unfavourable opinion of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in Japan, stemming from the crashes involving CV-22s in Florida and Morocco this is an important step forward, possibly a part of a Public Relations campaign aimed at advertising the Osprey as a safe aircraft.
A campaign that has achieved some important results, at least domestically, as Boeing has recently been awarded a $6.5 Billion Order for 99 more Ospreys: 92 MV-22s and 7 CV-22s.
The PR campaign carried out since last year included showing off M/CV-22’s capabilities in many combat scenarios (and airshows).
It was after additional warranties were given that Japanese government accepted the fact that 12 Ospreys are to be stationed in Okinawa.
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Deploying the Ospreys to Okinawa resulted in a large social protest in that region, as people were afraid one of the planes might crash in some of the densely populated areas over there.
Image credit: US Navy
Jacek Siminski for TheAviationist
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