The Osprey is 100% not sustainable for the current US military. Would it have been sustainable in like, 1972? Probably. But neither the USMC nor the Navy nor even the USAF at this point have enough money to sustain these super expensive airframes. That's the elephant in the room!
That's not a problem with the Osprey *as such*. As an airframe, its problems are not unique but perfectly *ordinary* in 2023.
It's a problem with the entire US doctrine and self-conception as this technologically superior force winning through ever-expanding complexity.
It's a problem with the entire US doctrine and self-conception as this technologically superior force winning through ever-expanding complexity.
The USMC was forced to raid Museum exhibits for spare parts for their F/A-18s during the early years of the Trump admin. Only scrapping a large part of the fleet solved the spare parts issue temporarily. Are F/A-18s sustainable? For America in 2023, the answer is "kinda not".
Any airframe on the table above would be 100% sustainable for Star Trek universe America, (though they might not be very effective weapons of war at that point). But the US in 2023 literally cannot sustain the costs of its fixed capital. More complexity will just make this worse.
America has absolutely no fiscal space by which it can "fix" this massive problem right now. It's running an annual $1.3 TRILLION deficit at this point, with a systemic banking crisis bubbling beneath the surface. There's no more money coming.
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