V-22 Osprey Mission Designations

Greetings all! Can anyone out there explain what’s up with the V-22 Osprey’s military designation? The Marine Corps’ version is always referred to in the press as the MV-22 and the Air Force’s version as the CV-22. Going by the current U.S. designation system, if the USAF plans to use the Osprey in the Special Ops mission, then shouldn’t it carry the ‘M’ prefix to denote it’s role (i.e., the MH-53J Pave Low III, MH-60G Pavehawk, etc.)? Seems to me that the designations should be reversed, as I’ve never heard of a Marine helo specified for the Special Ops mission. Any ideas on this??

Best Regards.

Ray Robb 🙂