US Marine Corps Debuts Beastly CH-53K External Hauler Helicopter 

Earlier last month in Idaho, home of the spud, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Heavy Helicopter Squadron 461 conducted tests by exercising a CH-53K King Stallion helicopter, straight from the stables of Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky subsidiary.

The test site, Mountain Home Air Force Base (KMUO) is home to the 336 Gunfighters Fighter Wing and was the perfect place to conduct the nearly 3-week exercise of 3 of these heavy haulers in varied terrain and over great distances.  The CH-53K King Stallion helicopter can haul an externally attached load of up to 27,000 over 110nm, and is considered an ‘upgrade’ over its older sibling, the CH-53E.

The King Stallion was initially ordered in 2008, with the first unit delivered to the USMC ten years later, and it was expected that the USMC would have a ready fleet by 2019, however, it was fraught with a litany of mechanical and system issues, such as recirculation of dirty exhaust gases, engine overheating.

By late 2021, the USMC Air Wing had a real-life test case for the CH-53K when a US Navy MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter was recovered from Mt. Hogue in California following a hard landing during a Search and Rescue (SAR) mission. 

The USMC’s “Ironhorse” squadron that trains with the CH-53K sees almost endless possibilities in its mission capability and having recently concluded a deployment to KMUO for training and experience operating these haulers, they seem confident in their ability to execute on future missions. They see “the ability to carry heavy loads across long stretches of sea” as an “asset against a Chinese threat towards the islands of the pacific”.  

FMI: https://marines.com, https://lockheedmartin.com