It’s Good to Be King…
Sikorsky Aircraft—the Lockheed Martin subsidiary and iconic helicopter manufacturer—has delivered the seventh of its new, CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter to the U.S. Marine Corps. The newly delivered aircraft joins the six existing CH-53K King Stallions assigned to Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Sikorsky delivered the helicopter ahead of the stipulated contract schedule—an exquisite rarity in the realm of defense contracting.
Sikorsky manufactures the CH-53K at its Stratford, Connecticut headquarters using advanced technology and digital processes. Currently, an additional seven aircraft are nearing completion on the state-of-the-art production line.
Sikorsky CH-53K program director Bill Falk states: “This Connecticut-built CH-53K is a credit to our employees and their skills embracing digital tools and other advanced technologies to continue Sikorsky’s legacy of building modern, safe, reliable rotorcraft."
In April 2022, the USMC declared initial operational capability for the CH-53K helicopter. The model is the only American heavy-lift helicopter scheduled to remain in production through and possibly beyond 2032.
The Heavy Lift designation isn’t wasted on the CH-53K. The helicopter is a brutish, behemoth of a machine hauled aloft by a trio of 7,500-horsepower, General Electric, T-408 (GE38-1B), turboshaft engines. Such power makes for dazzling, scarcely-believable numbers like the helicopter’s 35,000-pound maximum payload, and its 88,000-pound maximum gross takeoff weight. Comparatively, road-going semi-trucks are restricted to 80,000-pounds gross vehicular weight.
All told, the CH-53K King Stallion’s lift capacity is three times greater than that of its CH-53 Super Stallion predecessor.
Heedful of popular folk-wisdom pertaining to power and control, Sikorsky wisely framed the CH-35K’s bestial might in refined touches the likes of a digital glass-cockpit; fly-by-wire flight-controls; and a rotor-system comprising the company’s new, elsastomeric hub, composite blades, and a split-torque gearbox that weighs 2,750 fewer pounds than the gearbox with which Russia’s Mil Mi-26 heavy-lift helicopter is burdened.
The first CH-53K embarked on its maiden flight in 2015. First delivery of the type was made to the U.S. Marine Corps in 2018. Over the coming years, the USMC is slated to receive two-hundred King Stallions at a combined cost of $25-billion.
In addition to its domestic delivery commitments, Sikorsky—as part of the U.S. Navy’s foreign military sales agreement—is under contract to build a dozen CH-53Ks for the Israeli Defense Forces. Germany and Japan are believed to also have interest in acquiring King Stallions of their own.
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