Food for thought.

[LtGen H. Blot]

I congratulate Major Sanders on a thoughtful, well written article. I would like to add two additional thoughts to ponder:
1. The escort on a lengthy mission should have a 1.5 to 1 speed advantage over the aircraft being protected. One must assume that the planes being targeted will push to Vmax when taking fire and if the escort does not have the ability to catch the flight after he has dispatched the threat, he is a onetime protector. Since the V-22 will be somewhere near 250knots, the escort should be capable of at least 375 knots. That describes our present fixed wing air.
2. If we need additional firepower on our flights why not buy a number of CV-22’s rather than modify the MV-22? Mixing the two models in the same unit should not prove to be beyond our maintenance or training ability.

S/F and nice work in Iraq,
H. Blot
LtGen USMC (Ret.)