V-22. Long range oversea rescue can finally justify its existence.

The V-22 has been the subject of its share of criticism from this blog with regards to its high costs and my belief that its current mission set can be performed by traditional helicopters at a much lower price.

I feel like it can't be justified when used in traditional missions.

But watching the attempt to locate the missing airliner it dawns that long range over sea rescue might be this planes bread and butter.  A crashed airliner might finally justify its reason for being.

Consider this.  Before the age of the helicopter the US Navy used flying boats to for a variety of missions.  Anti-sub work.  Anti-ship work.  Long range resupply.  Long range amphibious assault.  And finally long range at sea rescue.

As things now stand, if one of those P-8's or P-3's goes down the only airplane capable of mounting a rescue is the Japanese US-1 seen above.

With the US Navy and USAF placing a greater emphasis on operations in the Pacific...with there being more long distance over the water flights about to take place, it only makes sense to have the Navy and Air Force bite the bullet and equip conventional units with V-22's for the sole purpose of rescuing air crews that go in the water at long distance over the water.

Additionally you'll need to co-locate KC-130's to provide refueling support and staff rescue swimmers/corpsmen & medics and proper hoists to the airplanes.

Its these little bits that haven't been considered that actually show how serious we are about operating in the Pacific.  Littoral operations are easy.  Blue water operations can get you killed...and lost forever.