E-Mail IMAGE: U.S. Marines with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 163, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, deploy an oceanographic sensor buoy during the Trident Warrior exercise. view more Credit: (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Juan Anaya) ARLINGTON, Va.--Flying several thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean, an air crew and a scientist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tossed cylindrical floats from a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft. Packed with data-gathering sensors to measure underwater conditions, the floats fell fast before orange parachutes opened to ease splashdown. The action marked the first time such sensor-laden profiling floats, also called buoys, were deployed from a Marine Corps aircraft. This will increase naval knowledge of the ocean battlespace--including the littorals (areas of water close to shoreline), which are crucial to expeditionary and amphibious operations.