WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will carry the ban on flights by the grounded V-22 Osprey subsequent week, U.S. officers advised The Associated Press on Friday, following a high-level assembly the place Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin endorsed the army companies’ plans for a protected and measured return to operations.

The officers stated that Naval Air Systems Command, which grounded the controversial tilt-rotor plane about three months in the past, will carry it and permit the companies to start implementing their plans to get the Osprey again into the air. Austin met with the highest service leaders, together with for the Navy and Air Force, on Friday morning, based on the officers, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate plans not but made public.

The Osprey has been grounded for nearly three months following a Nov. 29 Air Force Special Operations Command crash in Japan that killed eight service members. The Japan incident and an earlier August Osprey crash in Australia that killed three Marines are each nonetheless underneath investigation. The Air Force has stated that it has recognized what failed within the Japan crash, though it doesn’t know but why it failed.

In the months since, the companies have labored on plans to mitigate the identified materials failure by conducting extra security checks and establishing a brand new, extra conservative method to how the Osprey is operated.

Officials stated the U.S. army may even share its plans with Japan, which is the one worldwide accomplice concerned within the Osprey program. Japan additionally grounded its fleet of 14 V-22s after the November crash. Prior to the grounding the U.S. Marine Corps routinely used Ospreys in that county.

A return to flight is a delicate subject in Japan, the place public opinion on the Osprey is combined. Officials stated the U.S. is dedicated to a protected course of, and the fleet won’t fly once more there till Japan has had a chance to be briefed on the companies’ plan.

The head of Naval Air Systems Command is predicted to fly to Japan subsequent week to transient the Ministry of Defense and Japanese authorities in particular person on the plans, and no Ospreys will fly till that briefing has occurred, based on one other U.S. official who was not licensed to publicly focus on the problem and spoke on the situation of anonymity.

The Osprey is a army plane that may take off like a helicopter and fly like an airplane. A string of accidents over the past two years has renewed questions on whether or not is is protected to fly.

The military-wide grounding has left the deepest influence on the U.S. Marine Corps, which depends on greater than 300 MV-22 Ospreys to conduct a serious a part of its aviation mission. Air Force Special Operations Command has about 50 CV-22B Ospreys. The Navy is planning on changing its C-2 Greyhounds, which transport passengers to plane carriers, with greater than two dozen CMV-22 Ospreys.

The presidential fleet additionally makes use of a restricted variety of Ospreys to ferry White House workers, safety personnel and reporters. Those plane have additionally been grounded.