The V-22 Osprey has had a lot of trouble during development. However, the Marines consider it one of their highest priorities. The Air Force also wants to buy a few dozen of them for special operations/SAR work.

The V-22 is designed to replace CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters, both of which date back to the Vietnam War. Helicopters have a lot of moving parts, so they don't age very gracefully.

The V-22 has a lot more range and speed than conventional helicopters so that makes it easier to deploy forces over long distances. Had the V-22 been debugged and in the inventory, it would've been very useful in Afghanistan since the Marine assault ships were hundreds of miles away from the operations area. My one question about the V-22 in Afghanistan would be how well it operates at high field elevations. HIGE (Hover In Ground Effect) and HOGE (Hover Out of Ground Effect) capabilities are very important factors in high altitude operations. I don't know what these values are for the V-22.

That said, it remains to be seen if the V-22 can be made reliable enough to enter operational service. It's a complicated beast because of its hybrid nature. For example, the V-22 requires drive shafts to crossfeed power from one engine to power both rotors in the event of an engine failure. It's also said to be pretty challenging to fly.