New Marine CH-53K King Stallion
The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) approved the Navy’s request for the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter program to enter into the Production and Deployment April 4.
“We have just successfully launched the production of the most powerful helicopter our nation has ever designed. This incredible positive step function in capability is going to revolutionize the way our nation conducts business in the battlespace by ensuring a substantial increase in logistical throughput into that battlespace. I could not be prouder of our government-contractor team for making this happen,” said Col Hank Vanderborght, U.S. Marine Corps program manager for the Naval Air Systems Command’s Heavy Lift Helicopters program, PMA-261.
Production is expected to begin in June 2017 at Sikorsky’s facility in Stratford, Conn. The recurring flyaway cost for the CH-53K is $87.1M. Recurring flyaway costs are the average cost for all production lots of aircraft, engines, contract/government furnished equipment, and engineering change orders.
I started out in Navy helos, and always had soft spot for them. Son #1 is Air Force (said he spent enough time in the Navy growing up) and wrenched on their H-53 Pave Low helos in Iraq and several places whose name ends in -stan. He’s glad to see the big birds are still in production.
Category: Politics
Stolen Valor asshole claiming to be a pilot, crew, or secret test developer pilot on one of these in 3….2……1….
or door gunner…
One of my former Scouts spent some time piloting one of those Stallions in Iraq, I believe it was.
A helicopter that takes several spotters to tell the pilot where his corners are just awes me.
If it’s Heavy Lift, does that put it in the troop carrier section? Just trying to unferstand.
Troops and cargo, Ex. Three times the capacity of the existing CH-53E model. Impressive!
Depending on the assigned mission, it can carry troops and/or materiel.
So then, it should also be carrying defensive armament, right?
If they equip it like its predecessor the CH-53E, it will have Aircraft Survivability Equipment installed (i.e. chaff and flare dispensers, etc.), and the capability to mount machine guns in the side doors/windows and possibly a machine gun mounted on the ramp facing aft when required/desired.
Pave Lows had a Ma-Deuce or a GAU aft. Just to let them now you still care even when leaving. After all, if you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, riddle ’em with bullets.
When my former Scout was in Iraq, they used a pair of ’em, loaded with Marines, as mobile roadblocks.
One would block the road, one would be in the air to cut off any vehicles that decided to take a shortcut around. He said he was in the air once when he had to block a line-jumper. The guy came out with an AK shooting at him. His fellow Marines came out and forced him to change his outlook and living quarters to Hell.
I wondered what the differences were.
Thank you all for your feedback!
Personally, I would prefer someone invent a bird w/o rotors. A steering wheel would be nice, too. Oh, and a stewardess.
A stewardess in a tight sweater and no bra with a nice cold cocktail?
Might I suggest a short skirt to go with that ensemble…
Col. Vanderborght seems to get a bit giddy with that whole “incredible positive step function… in logistical throughput” stuff, but he’s got a point that the new bird is an impressive aircraft from a lift standpoint. By way of comparison, I looked it up, the CH-53K apparently has three times the capacity of the prior variant 53H, which is rated at 20,000 pounds of payload. This is a lift amount equivalent to a Sikorsky Skycrane, and only slightly less than the 24,000 pounds for the Army’s dual-rotor Chinook.
I remember once standing in the rotor wash of a Skycrane, and you had to lean way forward to keep from getting dumped on your butt. It kinda makes you wonder if the Marines are going to have to start issuing personnel tie-downs…
I started out in Helos in HS-3 at NAS Norfolk in 19 dikkety two. Pulled a lot of fuel hoses and pumped a lot of avgas, and washed one hell of a lot of them.
SH-2F, LAMPS* Mk I for me, also in NAS
Norfolk.
*Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System
*Light Airborne Maintenance Problems
*Light Airborne Mail and Passenger Service, my favorite was being the Holy Helo on Sunday, carting the Padre around the battle group for Mass.