The Spanish Navy (Armada Española) has claimed to be the first non-US naval service to embark a squadron of the US Marine Corps' (USMC's) Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft on board one of its ships. The embarkation took place during Exercise 'Trident Juncture 2015'.
The four Osprey transports, are stationed at the Morón de la Frontera Air Base in southern Spain.
For 'Trident Juncture 2015' the aircraft were embarked with six of the Armada's AV-8B Harrier and an AB-212 helicopter from the 27,000-tonne landing helicopter dock (LHD) Juan Carlos I .
The role of the Ospreys during the exercise was to ferry mixed companies of US Marines and their Portuguese and Spanish counterparts, the Fuzileiros and Infantería de Marina respectively.
The Ospreys were escorted during the insertion and extraction of the troops by the Spanish Navy's Harriers. In all 100 US Marines were embarked on the LHD, including support personnel, over a period of three days.
Apart from the tactical missions, some of the US pilots had the opportunity to complete their deck landing qualifications, performing landings and take-off from different spots of the flight deck.
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