The Air Force’s second CV-22 Osprey has arrived at Edwards AFB, Calif., two months earlier than the contract due date. A third Osprey will join No. 2 and No. 1—now undergoing electromagnetic testing at NAS Patuxent River, Md.,—at Edwards in February. The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center unit at Edwards plans to use the first three Ospreys to conduct operational utility evaluations next summer. If the Ospreys check out OK, USAF officials said they would send them to Kirtland AFB, N.M., to begin training operations next fall. They expect the initial operational test and evaluation phase to commence in fall 2007.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…