"V-22 Osprey Could Get Some Serious Firepower" Topic

"The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey has been deployed globally since 2007 with only one major offensive weapon: a machine gun pointed out the back of the aircraft.

Besides that, the tiltrotor aircraft – which takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter, but can pivot its engines and rotors forward to fly long distances at a higher speed like a fixed-wing plane – has relied on its speed and agility to protect itself from ground fire. But that could change soon.

Bell-Boeing announced on Monday that it had successfully fired rockets from a V-22 test aircraft…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

"The Osprey currently has limited firepower from the machine gun and an optional small, remote controlled gun that can be installed on the bottom of the aircraft. A Marine in an Osprey's cargo bay could fire the 360-degree belly-mounted gun from a control station …"

"In 2010, Marine Corps Times reported that the gun controllers often experienced nausea after becoming disoriented from staring at the screen."

es. This is a well-known problem. The YAH-56 Cheyenne went to extreme measures to deal with this, making the entire gunner station rotate with the underbelly turret!

"In 2010, Marine Corps Times reported that the gun controllers often experienced nausea after becoming disoriented from staring at the screen."

I guess the Air Force's AC-130 gunship sensor operators are just made of tougher stuff! These are the crewman that stare at a screen and control the TV and IR cameras.

AC-130 Spooky---my favorite of the series

Difference is that the AC-130s guns don't rotate/pivot and the plane flies a long slow orbit around a fixed center point, whereas the V-22s has a full 360 degree rotation and the aircraft is being flown by a pilot whos mission is to deliver a payload of Marines or Operators without getting shot down.

Apparently this goes back to WW2 when aircraft designers were trying to develop a remote belly turret for bombers--disorientation and motion sickness resulted. That's why the "ball turret" was developed--to keep the gunner and the guns in the same plane of rotation.