According to a 2012 Congressional Research Service Report: “In the fall of 2011, the Obama Administration issued a series of announcements indicating that the United States would be expanding and intensifying its already significant role in the Asia- Pacific, particularly in the southern part of the region. The fundamental goal underpinning the shift is to devote more effort to influencing the development of the Asia-Pacific’s norms and rules, particularly as China emerges as an ever-more influential regional power.”

But given the continued deep involvement in the Middle Eastern land wars, and the stringent defense budgets, how was this going to occur? Part of the answer was provided by new military systems coming to the Pacific, the most notable in the past decade were the coming of a coalition of F-35s and the arrival of the Osprey.

What the Osprey brought to the effort was a unique capability in terms of speed and range and landing flexibility to cover areas of interest for the U.S. military in terms of the insertion of force and of supplies.

With the U.S. Army now acquiring the V-280, there are clearly expanding opportunities for enhancing force distribution. And with the Army’s many working relationships with core allies in the region, the tiltrotor force could expand exponentially and with it the capabilities to operate a distributed force. And when one crosses tiltrotor with the autonomous revolution, there is a capabilities dynamic which can redefine what the multi-domain force can achieve.

It began as a pivot to the Pacific. Now it is becoming a con-ops revolution.

The book begins with a perspective from 2013 of what the tiltrotor capability brought to Pacific defense. And then the focus is upon what has happened since 2019 with the Osprey in the context of the shift of con-ops for the Pacific forces.

In other words, this book takes two snapshots of the tiltrotor revolution in the midst of two strategic shifts: the first being the pivot to the Pacific, and the second being the strategic shift to distributed forces enabled by a kill web eco-system since 2018.

How has the strategic shift for the joint forces evolved and caught up with what the tiltrotor revolution has enabled? And how has the Osprey evolved since the recognition of great power competition by the Trump Administration in 2018?