The U.S. Marine Corps wanted something nobody else has—and after years of waiting, it is about to get a production contract
Share to twitterThe U.S. Marine Corps wants something nobody else has: a helicopter that can lift 18 tons in a single flight. And it wants the helicopter to be capable of carrying most of that weight over a hundred miles between ship and shore, back and forth, day or night.
CH-53K was a big part of the reason for buying Sikorsky when it did, and now that bet is paying off. The company is in final negotiations with the Navy Department for Lots 2 and 3 of “low-rate initial production,” signaling that development challenges have been overcome to a point where the government customer is confident it has the solution it has been seeking.
The Marine Corps has a different take on future lift requirements. As one senior Marine put it to me a while back, “You may be done with the Middle East, but the Middle East may not be done with you.” So the Marines want a helicopter that can lift pretty much anything, even in the “high-hot” conditions that have dogged other rotorcraft operations throughout the global war on terror.
After 1,400 hours of flight tests, it is clear King Stallion can do everything the Marine Corps needs, a point that was stated emphatically before Congress by the service’s aviation chief earlier this month. It is a game-changer that no adversary will be able to match in capability, reliability or survivability.
The way it is being built is different too. Years of investment by Lockheed Martin have transformed the engineering and production process to a point where paper instructions have disappeared. All of the engineering features are maintained in a digital system, production workers follow tasks on computer screens, and maintainers conduct sustainment using tablets for guidance.
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