The military grounded Ospreys after a fatal crash in November 2023, and Air Force Special Operations Command is gradually returning them to the air.

Air Force Special Operations Command says it is weeks from deploying its fleet of CV-22B Osprey aircraft for counter terror operations, after grounding its crews in the wake of a fatal crash last November in Japan.

The news comes less than a year after a deadly November CV-22 Osprey crash in Japan that claimed the lives of eight airmen.

The Air Force is gearing up to bring back the historically troubled Osprey aircraft for fleet-wide deployment, despite ongoing concerns over safety and reliability, Military.com reported Wednesday. The Osprey — an aircraft that can take off vertically like a helicopter and fly horizontally like a plane using tiltrotor propellers — was grounded in December following a string of deadly crashes as a result of mechanical failures.

The Air Force is weeks away from sending its V-22 Ospreys back to combatant commands after the Pentagon lifted a monthslong grounding on the tiltrotor fleet earlier this year. “We will deploy out here in the coming weeks,