US Navy awards contract to build 35 CH-53K helicopters for $2.7 billion
News, US August 27, 2023 No Comments on US Navy awards contract to build 35 CH-53K helicopters for $2.7 billionThe United States Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary firm Sikorsky a $2.7 billion contract to build and deliver 35 additional CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. Sikorsky will begin delivering the helicopters in 2026.
According to the Lockheed Martin statement, this was the largest procurement to date for the CH-53K multi-mission aircraft. “The agreement includes 12 U.S. Marine Corps Lot 7 aircraft, 15 U.S. Marine Corps Lot 8 aircraft, and eight aircraft for Israel,” the statement highlighted.
President of Sikorsky, Paul Lemmo said, “This contract award for 35 CH-53K helicopters stabilizes Sikorsky’s nationwide supply base, creates additional production efficiencies, and provides the U.S. Marine Corps with transformative 21st-century technologies.” He added, “Our long-standing partnership led to this best value contract award providing the capability and readiness the Marines need.”
The company statement further added that the contract includes “eight additional CH-53K helicopters for the Israeli Air Force and follows the initial production announcement in 2022 for the first four aircraft under a U.S. Navy Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement.”
The Lockheed Martin statement highlighted that the CH-53K helicopters will support Israeli special operations programs, and provide the country’s defense forces with a platform that has “the speed, safety, survivability, and gross weight capability to support all of its missions, including troop and cargo transport, and search and rescue.”
The United States is pacing efforts to accelerate the production of one of its most advanced helicopters, the CH-53K King Stallion, after the Navy declared full-rate production of the aircraft in December 2022. To meet the U.S. military’s demands, Sikorsky is increasing the production of CH-53K to more than 20 helicopters annually in the coming years.
The CH‑53K King Stallion is a multi-mission helicopter with heavy-lift capabilities that exceed all other U.S. military rotary wing aircraft and is the only heavy-lift helicopter in its arsenal. It can carry a 27,000-pound external load over 110 nautical miles in high/hot conditions, which is more than triple the external load-carrying capacity of the legacy CH-53E aircraft.
The helicopter has a wider cabin and can transport more troops or military cargo with fewer trips. The CH-53K can conduct a range of operations such as humanitarian relief, firefighting, and search and rescue. It can carry heavy armored vehicles (such as high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles), military equipment, and personnel as well as support distributed operations deep inland from a sea-based center of operations
The U.S. Navy received the first CH-53K training helicopter from Lockheed Martin in April 2020. In May, the helicopter successfully completed an air-to-air refueling test with the help of a Lockheed Martin KC-130J aerial refueling tanker. The CH-53K is expected to remain in production through 2032 and beyond.
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