While CH-53 helicopters were unloading Marines from Kilo Co., 3rd Btn., 4th Marine Regt. in the Now Zad valley in Afghanistan's Helmand Province during the early morning of Dec. 4, history was being made a short distance away. Two MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft were disgorging Marines from the reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider in three landing zones at the opposite end of the valley, kicking off an assault on the Now Zad area to eliminate Taliban influence by first driving Taliban insurgents out, then establishing a permanent Marine/Afghan security force there.

Dubbed Operation Cobra's Anger, it was the first test of International Security Assistance Force commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal's ambitious plan to conduct a robust population-centric counterinsurgency, which will be bolstered by the 30,000 troops President Barack Obama is sending to the theater. It also marked the first time the controversial V-22 Osprey was used in a major combat action.

But before the 1,000 Marines who eventually took part in the operation could be put in place, the Osprey had to do its part. After the initial drop, during which no shots were fired at the Marines and the 150 Afghan soldiers with them, the tiltrotor continued to participate in the mission by flying general support operations throughout the area. "Just like any other support squadron out here, we're fulfilling many of the same missions they're fulfilling. . . . We're able to fly some of the longer legs, but we're fulfilling our role as a medium-lift, sole-support squadron," Lt. Col. Ivan Thomas, executive officer of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (VMM-261), told DTI in a telephone interview from Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province.

In November, 10 Ospreys from VMM-261, based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., deployed to Afghanistan for the first time. Osprey units completed four deployments to Iraq from 2007-09. Cobra's Anger "was a nice initial start for the V-22s in Afghanistan," Thomas said. "It was a straightforward mission that was flown under ideal conditions."

Those familiar with the rocky history of the V-22 know how significant a successful deployment to Afghanistan is for the corps. After more than 25 years of engineering problems and $16.4 billion in development costs, and with the legacy of four major crashes that cost 30 lives, the Osprey has generated its share of doubters -- and the aircraft's $120-million price tag doesn't endear it to critics. Though the aircraft performed well in Iraq -- where it arrived too late to take part in any of the combat the Marines experienced in Al Anbar Province -- the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in July 2009 cautioned Congress that the aircraft "has yet to fully demonstrate that it can achieve the original required level of versatility. . . ." The GAO added that "Based on the Iraq experience, the cost per flight hour is more than double the target estimate," and noted that the Defense Dept. "is therefore faced with the prospect of directing more money to a program, the military utility of which in some areas remains unproven."

Assessments like that make the deployment to Afghanistan, where it will be in the thick of the fight in volatile Helmand Province, crucial to the program's future.

So far "they're handling quite well" in the harsh climate and high altitudes, Thomas said. He concedes that while there may have been "some expectations and concerns" about the aircraft, "very quickly people here saw that we operate just fine, and right now we've gotten to the point where we're just another assault support platform out here -- but we've got longer legs and can fly faster."

In general, the Osprey has been plagued with mission-readiness rates hovering at 62%, but operations in Afghanistan have seen those rates rise steadily through the 80% range, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway told reporters in December. Conway said he would like to see the tiltrotor "climb the ladder to the 90%" range. "It's on that trajectory," he remarked, adding that any problems that have arisen so far do not involve the aircraft's major systems. "This isn't just a replacement for the CH-46 [Sea Knight helicopter]. . . . We're using [V-22s] in some of our operations to land troops deep and to very quickly build up troop numbers on deck."

But the Osprey wasn't the only Marine technology rolled out for the first time during Cobra's Anger. The corps also introduced an intimidating-looking ground combatant, the 62-ton Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV), a tracked, armored behemoth that clears a 14-meter (46-ft.)-wide lane through minefields, exposes and detonates roadside bombs and plows a path though obstacles. How does it do this? It either blows obstacles to bits or digs them up with brute force.

The Marines developed the ABV for threats that the Army's Grizzly program, canceled in 2001, was meant to defeat. When the Grizzly was consigned to the dustbin of history, the Marines set to work on a new mine-clearing vehicle by taking the chassis of an M1A1 Abrams, lopping off the turret, replacing it with a line-charge device and adding a plow to the front that churns the ground, exposing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) buried in its path. But the vehicle's primary calling card is the Mine Clearing Line Charge (Miclic), which carries 1,750 lb. of C4 explosive that can be fired 100 meters and detonated remotely to destroy IEDs.

During the assault on Now Zad, "we did six different breaches, with a total of 11,500 meters of cleared breach lane, and shot 24 Miclic line charges," said 1st Lt. Jody Stelly of the Marines' 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion. They plowed up two IEDs and confirmed five more blown up.

Stelly said the Mic­lics were also used to "shoot into compounds where the enemy was suspected to have strongholds, to reduce the walls and any resistance the assault force may encounter." Holes at least 8 ft. wide were punched into the perimeter walls of the compounds. "The good thing about that is the collateral damage outside the blast area was minimal. However, the blast incapacitated any enemy in that area."

Any insurgents near the blast "would be real gooey inside," said Lt. Col. Kirk Cordova. "But the shock-and-awe effect of nearly a ton of C4 detonating, I'm sure, scared the tar out of them. It's an awesome sight."

There are five ABVs in Afghanistan, and the Marines plan to field 52 by 2012, of which 34 have been produced. In a twist on the normal development process, the Army is clamoring for what the Marines are building. "The Army loves them. They're buying 187," says J.F. Augustine of Marine Corps Systems Command. "They've already started their buy," with seven built for the Army already.

The Marines first came up with the idea to modify the M1A1 chassis in 2002, and "instead of doing some of the fancy stuff they were doing with the Grizzly, we went with a straight-up mine plow," Augustine says, "which is commercial off-the-shelf, and integrated our own linear demolition charges that we already had in the system, put a lane-marking system on the back, and that's basically it." The turret has been redesigned, using a concept the Marines developed in 2002 that put a "beaver tail" on the back with two line charges side by side on it.

After the initial idea was accepted, testing and development occurred quickly. The corps began development testing in 2002, operational testing ended in February 2007, full-rate production began that May and fielding was in July 2009.

As with any new technology, the ABV isn't without faults. Stelly said there were occasional problems with the Miclic detonating remotely -- it is designed to go off when an operator in the vehicle detonates it -- giving rise to a few harrowing instances where a Marine had to leave the vehicle, walk through an uncleared area and manually prime the C4 line.

Now that the ABV is at the tip of the spear on Marine operations in southern Afghanistan, Augustine says they want to tweak and improve the system. "We're looking at our first after-action reports from the last operation and may be able to glean a couple of things from that."

With Bettina H. Chavanne in Washington.

Photo: USMC