US MARINES PATCH HMM-466 CH-53E SUPER STALLION MCAS MIRAMAR ''WOLFPACK''

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Israel steps back from V-22 purchase

The Israeli air force has frozen its evaluation of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, with a senior defence source indicating that the tiltrotor is unable to perform some missions currently conducted using its Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopters.
In January 2014, the US Department of Defense notified Congress about its intention to sell six V-22s to Israel. This followed an evaluation conducted by air force personnel, which led to the service seeking a rapid acquisition to support special operations. The proposed purchase met with opposition from elsewhere within Israel's defence ministry, however.
Other potential candidates to replace the Israeli air force's aged CH-53s by around 2025 include Sikorsky's new CH-53K and the Boeing CH-47 Chinook.
Some of the service's current CH-53s have amassed more than 10,000 flying hours, and it expects to continue operating updated examples until 2028.
flightglobal

More than half of all US Marines aircraft unflyable in December

More than half of all Marine Corps fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft were unable to fly at the end of 2016, officials said on Wednesday.
The Marines are struggling to keep aging aircraft flying amid budget cuts, delayed spending bills and more than 15 years of wartime wear-and-tear.
Out of 1,065 Marine Corps aircraft, 439 were flyable as of Dec. 31, said Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation. That represents roughly 41 percent of the service’s fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.
“My target should be 589 [flyable aircraft]; so I am 150 airplanes shy of what I need to make my flight-hour goal,” Davis told reporters on Wednesday. “In order to meet my operational commitments, I need a little bit more than that.”
Since taking the job in June 2014, Davis has been working furiously to get enough Marine Corps planes and helicopters flyable until the service can receive new aircraft, such as the F-35.
While the number of aircraft ready to fly on any given day fluctuates, overall the number of flyable aircraft has been improving, Davis said.
But only 72 of the Marine Corps’ 280 F/A-18 Hornets were flyable as of Dec. 31, officials said. This is just a quarter of the Corps' Hornets, and down from September, when 90 Hornets could fly.
Davis explained that readiness declined at the end of 2016 due to holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Marine Corps Birthday Ball.
“November and December every year are low productivity months,” said Davis, who noted that 473 Marine aircraft were flyable at the beginning of October.
Of the Marine Corps’ 280 F/A-18 Hornets, 109 were either at or headed to depot in December, Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns explained. Because the Navy runs the depots, those aircraft do not fall under the Marine Corps, she said. The service tracks the 171 Hornets that are under its direct control, of which about 42 percent are flyable.
It should be noted that depot-level maintenance is deliberately planned and scheduled with few exceptions,” Burns said in an email. “We expect and plan for a certain percentage of our aircraft to be in the depot at any given time. It is through depot-level maintenance that we ensure the Marine Corps maintains a ready and balanced fleet while we transition F-35.”
In addition to the 72 Hornets that were flyable in December, another 26 needed repairs that were expected to be completed in less than 120 days, Burns said.
The Marine Corps can only repair so many aircraft at any given time, Davis said.
“I can’t collapse that gap any faster than I am right now with the funding restrictions we’ve been under in the past,” he said. “We are funded to the max. I can only reset a CH-53E so fast. I’ve got seven on the East Coast; eight on the West Coast and one in Hawaii — 16 airplanes in reset right now. I can only get so many of those into reset at any given time.”
marinecorpstimes

The Marines Corps' CH-53E Super Stallion Fleet Is In Inexcusably Horrible Disrepair

The Marine Corps faces serious challenges with its aging CH-53E Super Stallion fleet. The huge and complex aircraft are decades old and tired from 15 years of war. A replacement is on the way, the CH-53K King Stallion, although it is behind schedule and still years away from becoming operational.
foxtrotalpha

Germany to choose between Chinook and CH-53K for heavy-lift successor

Germany is moving ahead with an acquisition programme to replace its air force's Sikorsky CH-53 heavy-lift helicopters, with the choice narrowed to two types.
One key driver for Berlin's effort under the fledgling heavy transport helicopter project is the need to purchase a rotorcraft already in production, rather than launching a clean-sheet development programme.
Luftwaffe capability manager in charge of the programme, says only two heavy-lift helicopters effectively meet that requirement: the Boeing CH-47F Chinook and Sikorsky's CH-53K King Stallion – being developed for the US Marine Corps.
As the helicopter will be used to support special forces operations and combat search and rescue tasks, an aerial refuelling capability is required, he says. However, Germany presently has no tankers suitable for the role. Although it is a customer of the Airbus Defence & Space A400M, the tactical airlifter is unable to perform in-flight refuelling of rotorcraft.
flightglobal

Marine Corps CH-53K King Stallion Heavy-Lift Helicopter Finishes First Flight

The CH-53K King Stallion, the Marine Corps' next-generation heavy-lift helicopter, took its first flight Tuesday at Sikorsky's test facility.
The entire flight test lasted about 55 minutes including taxiing on the runway, but the helicopter was in the air for about 30 minutes.
defensenews

20 Percent of all US Marines Aircraft Are Grounded, F/A-18 Hornets The Most Affected

Nearly one of every five of the Corps' aircraft are unable to fly, making it difficult for Marines to train for deployments.
The shortfall spans across aircraft in the fleet, and it is largely caused by a backlog of aircraft stuck in depots for extensive work and overhauls. The problems date back to the 2013 defense budget cuts.
The problem is most prevalent with F/A-18 Hornets, but also impacts CH-53E, AV-8B Harriers, MV-22B Ospreys, and H-1 Hueys.
The strike-fighter shortfall could reach as high as 134 aircraft. The gap is caused by a service life extension program that has caused a backlog of Hornets in short-staffed maintenance depots.
Legacy Hornets were brought into depots to extend their service life from 6,000 flight hours to as long as 10,000 in order to keep them operational until the F-35B entered the fleet. The Hornets were only designed to last to 6,000 hours, and when engineers opened up the airframe to extend their service life, they found unexpected levels of corrosion that required extensive work.
Sequestration also made it tough to buy spare parts for aircraft, so even aircraft that are in the fleet sometimes can't fly.
marinecorpstimes

CH-53K to Make First Flight Within a Year

The next-generation heavy-lift helicopter for the Marine Corps will make its first flight within the next year.
Sikorsky was planning for the first flight in late 2014, but the testing of the Ground Test Vehicle (GTV), a full-scale CH-53K secured to the ground, has been slower than expected.
The Sikorsky-built CH-53K is slated to be the long-needed recapitalization of the service’s rotary-wing heavy-lift capability, scheduled to reach initial operational capability in 2019.
The CH-53K, named the King Stallion during its roll-out ceremonies, is to be the replacement for the CH-53E Super Stallion. The CH-53K looks similar to the CH-53E, but is an almost total redesign of the older type. It is equipped with new-design engines, rotor system, transmission system and other features, and will have three times the payload capacity of the older helicopter. The Marine Corps plans to procure 200 CH-53Ks to replace its 151 CH-53Es.
seapowermagazine

Presented new helicopter for US Marines, the CH-53K King Stallion

Sikorsky and the US Marine Corps on 5 May formally unveiled and christened the CH-53K as the King Stallion, a replacement name for the CH-53E Super Stallion.
The CH-53K is endowed with many advanced features that push push the King Stallion decades beyond the technology of the CH-53E.
The CH-53K survived the impact of a partial sequestration-imposed budget cut in Fiscal 2015.
The aircraft's increased external load-carrying capacity means it can carry two up-armoured Humvees up to 110nm inland. Unlike the single-load of the CH-53E, the CH-53K also can drop off three loads at different points on the same flight.
flightglobal

Sikorsky awarded $435 million contract for four CH-53K test aircraft

The US Navy is awarding Sikorsky a $435 million contract modification to build four more CH-53K prototype helicopters for operational evaluation purposes.
Instead of awarding a separate contract for the four system demonstration test articles, the Naval Air Systems Command has decided to add the machines to an existing $3.5 billion system development and demonstration contract that was awarded in April 2006.
flightglobal

Sikorsky CH-53K may be operational ahead of schedule

Development of the Sikorsky CH-53K is proceeding so well that the US Navy programme manager says he expects the new heavy-lift helicopter to become operational ahead of schedule.

flightglobal

German Air Force starts operation of CH-53 MTA

The German Air Force (Luftwaffe) has started using the ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-built mission tactical workstation (MTA) on its CH-53SG transport helicopters in Afghanistan.
The pallet-mounted MTA systems were delivered by the company as part of the CH-53 personnel recovery (PR) capability upgrade package in the middle of 2012.
airforce-technology

Israel acquires surplus CH-53 helicopters for spares

The Israeli air force has acquired five decommissioned Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopters from the USA to be used for spares, as part of a continuing effort to keep its aged fleet of the type flying.

Selected by air force experts, the ex-US Marine Corps aircraft were moved by truck from storage in Arizona to Houston, Texas, where they were loaded on to a cargo ship. Following their arrival in Israel in mid-February, they will be taken to the 22 maintenance unit at Tel Nof air base and cannibalised as required.

flightglobal

First upgraded CH-53GA handed over to Germany

Eurocopter has handed over the first modernized CH-53GA transport helicopter to the German armed forces (Bundeswehr).

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Primer vuelo del CH-53E modernizado/ Upgraded CH-53E makes first flight on Marine Corps birthday

El Cuerpo de Marines ha celebrado el primer vuelo del primer helicóptero CH-53E modernizado con un nuevo cockpit con pantallas de cristal.
Las pruebas del helicóptero durarán hasta el verano de 2011.
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The Marine Corps’ 235th birthday, Nov. 10, marked the first flight here of the Marine Corps first CH-53E helicopter equipped with a new glass cockpit and avionics upgrade.
Now that the first flight has been accomplished, the upgraded CH-53E Super Sea Stallion will now begin flight test which is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2011.
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Alemania, Israel y Taiwán interesadas en adquirir helicópteros CH-53K/ Germany, Israel and Taiwan interested in CH-53K

Alemania, Israel y Taiwán están entre los países que han anunciado un fuerte interés en la compra del helicópteroCH-53K. Mientras Alemania e Israel buscan capacidades extra de transporte, a Taiwán le interesa su capacidad de lanzamiento de minas.
aviationweek
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Germany, Israel and Taiwan are among the countries that have voiced strong interest in buying the CH-53K.
While both Germany and Israel are looking at the extra lifting capabilities of the CH-53K. Taiwan hopes to acquire it for its mine sweeping capability.
aviationweek