Okinawa Prefectural Assembly Adopts Resolution Against US Osprey Helicopters

Kyodo News says the Okinawa prefectural assembly adopted a resolution Thursday to demand Tokyo and Washington cancel the planned deployment of MV-22 Osprey vertical takeoff and landing aircraft at the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in October next year:

While raising concerns over possible intensification of noise pollution around the base in Ginowan, the assembly also referred to risks surrounding the aircraft’s operation, saying it had resulted in “many casualties in repeated crashes at its development stage” and that its deployment would go “against efforts to eliminate the dangers” of the base.

The assembly also strongly criticized the Japanese government's claim that the plan is merely a change of aircraft model to be deployed at the Futenma base, saying Tokyo "is ignoring the human rights and the lives of the Okinawa people."

Looks like the debate that was stymied last summer - when PM Hatoyama suddenly quit after signing a controversial agreement with the US - might start all over again. SIgh. Why politicians never learn...?

I blogged about the Bell-Boeing Osprey last year:

Massive Okinawa "13 Kilometer Human Chain" Protest Announced For May 16
(...)

Truthout
A Simple Way to End This Recession...Forever
May 9, 2010
http://www.truthout.org/a-simple-way-end-this-recession-forever59282 (link no longer working, sorry)

I hate the Osprey, and have ever since they were introduced by Bell-Boeing and started killing Marines, who, by the way, call the thing "the widowmaker." Local reporters who were allowed to take a flight in the things had to sign all manner of releases before they took off, just in case one of them crashed again. An Osprey crash in Afghanistan killed four people just last month, in fact. The things don't work, and watching them skim the roofs in my neighborhood made me want to run and hide. I half expected one of them to go sideways and crash into the Hancock building. It really wouldn't have surprised me.

V-22 Osprey: Wonder Weapon or Widow Maker: Full Report.
Center for Defense Information (pdf report)

The V-22 Osprey is unfit for combat and needs to be scrapped altogether, according to a new report from a defense think tank.

The Center for Defense Information report, titled "V-22 Osprey: Wonder Weapon or Widow Maker? They warned us. But no one is listening," includes nearly 50 pages of text sharply criticizing the tilt rotor's combat capability and lack of testing.