Military Spending: Add Cash Woes to Osprey's Crash Woes

Add Cash Woes to Osprey's Crash Woes

The recent crash of a Marine V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor is raising questions about the corps's need for the hybrid aircraft. New cost figures for the fledgling program will raise even more. Following the tragic Arizona crash, which killed 19 Marines during a mock nighttime rescue mission, Marine officers pegged the cost of a V-22 at about $40 million. Lieut. General Fred McCorkle, the Marine aviation chief, bristled at the suggestion that the airplane's price tag was really twice that, calling it "an inaccurate representation of what they cost."

But late last week Pentagon bean counters released the latest cost figures for...

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