I'm really starting to believe you might not be a Marine, or at least not a very bright one. An Osprey will NEVER operate in a vacuum. If there are surface-to-air threats that might endanger it, those threats will be attacked by Hornets, by Harriers, and by SuperCobras, probably in that order. If the threat on the ground is still significant enough to endanger a trooplifter coming in to land, then you really don't want to be dumping out squads of Marines, no matter how gung-ho they are. You'll keep pounding the target zone from the air or you'll run in a platoon of tanks or LAVs to provide some heavier ground forces, and if you're doing that, then your troops can ride in on the LCACs with the armor. You don't expose your cargo assets to hostile fire EVER if you can avoid it, and if you have to, you don't send them in naked and dumb.
But that seems to be just what you think is going to happen. Am I mistaken?
