I saw the
Time Magazine with the Osprey on the cover a while back and meant to read it. I happened to see the same issue on a friend's recycle pile recently so I grabbed it.
What a strange story. Dick Cheney himself tried to cancel it 4 times but couldn't. It strikes me as one of those projects that we humans simply cannot accept the impracticality of.
As the story points out, it doesn't even have a forward mounted gun. The 50 cal. Gatling gun proved to be too heavy and costly. It has one 30 cal. machine gun but it only shoots backwards and only with the tailgate lowered.
So far, some $20 billion and the lives of 30 men have been invested in this thing and it was recently shipped off to do duty in Iraq. One wonders what twists and turns this story will take.