Chris Seymour: Confidence in the V-22

The V-22, it's the most sought-after capability in the Department of War.

There's nothing else like it. It's like the Swiss army knife you didn't know you needed until you had it in a bind. You got to get 250 miles.

You want to be there as fast as possible because if you're stuck in a helicopter that's going to take you two and a half hours, you could get shot down. And if you do it in 35 minutes, 40 minutes in a V-22, you have less exposure.

Have you ever read about a V-22 getting shot down in combat? Never happened.

Operationalizing the V-22 and tiltrotor technology in combat has literally saved thousands of lives.

The V-22 has the best reputation it's at, and we have the data. We've made magnificent changes to the aircraft. It's kept pace with technology. The ones 26 years later are exponentially better than the V-22s that I flew in the '90s and early 2000s.

I've never been afraid to fly the aircraft. They run fantastic. They perform magnificently. The Marines and the Air Force and all the other services, the joint services, the first thing they look for when there's a crisis in the world, "Where are the V-22s?" Because you can go and you can touch down anywhere in the world without a runway anytime you want to.

You don't need to build a heliport, and you can come off of a ship, and you go thousands of miles and reach out and touch people. And the world knows that. The military knows that. It's a strategic advantage for our country right now.

It's a game changer. It was ahead of its time 30 years ago, and it's still ahead of everybody else.