Republican lawmakers say the Defense Department is stonewalling their inquiry into fatal crashes involving the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and are threatening to subpoena Pentagon officials if they don’t provide the necessary information.
On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, who chairs the panel’s national security subcommittee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin again asking for safety and performance documents about the Osprey, which can take off like a helicopter but fly like an airplane.
“Materials [the Department of Defense] has produced to date have been limited to highly redacted documents already made public through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests,” their letter stated. “The Department of Defense has not followed through on promises to provide even these limited documents in unredacted form nor has it accepted the committee’s offer to review materials in camera.”
More than 60 military personnel have died in Osprey-related crashes since 1992, and the program has spent more than $130 billion in taxpayer funds, according to congressional officials.
“The Department of Defense must be transparent with Congress and the American people to show that the Osprey program is safe and that it will bring significant advantages to combat operations,” the letter said.
The most recent fatal crash occurred on Nov. 29, 2023, when an Air Force Special Operations CV-22 went down off the coast of Japan. All eight airmen aboard the helicopter were killed. Authorities believed the accident was caused by a parts failure. The incident led to the temporary grounding of about 400 Osprey military aircraft.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department remains committed to the safety and well-being of all service members. He pushed back against congressional allegations that the Defense Department isn’t being candid with them.
“We have worked very hard to accommodate the House Oversight Committee’s request. We’ve provided more than 3,500 pages of documents,” Gen. Ryder told reporters on Tuesday. “In addition, representatives from the V-22 Joint Program Office and the military departments provided a briefing to committee staff in March.”
Congress wants the Pentagon to produce accident reports about every major Osprey crash since 1991. The Oversight Committee said it will consider “additional measures,” including the use of its legislative subpoena powers, if the Pentagon won’t provide them with the requested documents by the end of July 2024.
“We will continue to work with the committee to accommodate their request,” Maj. Gen. Ryder said.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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