CH-53K Super Stallion Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR)
The CH-53K Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR), previously known as the CH-53X Super Stallion, is the planned follow on to the Marine Corps CH-53E Heavy Lift Helicopter. The CH-53K will maintain virtually the same footprint as the CH-53E, but will nearly double the payload to 27,000 pounds over 110 nautical miles under “high/hot” ambient conditions. The CH-53K’s maximum gross weight will increase to 84,700 pounds versus 73,000 pounds for the CH-53E. One of the more appealing capabilities of the CH-53K will be its performance in mountainous areas in hot day conditions. The CH-53K is being designed to deliver 27,000 pounds out to a distance of 110 nautical miles, to an altitude of 3,000 feet at an ambient temperature of 91.5 degrees F. Additionally, the CH-53K will be capable of carrying a normal load of 32 combat loaded troops, with a maximum capacity of 48 troops.
Making maximum use of proven and mature technologies available today, the CH-53K will have five times the capability at half of the operational cost of the aircraft it’s replacing. It will be the most capable helicopter ever produced. With more than twice the combat radius of the CH-53E, the CH-53K uses mature technology to deliver a fully shipboard compatible platform to meet current and future Marine Corps requirements. Proven technologies to be included in the CH-53K include a Joint Interoperable “glass” cockpit; high-efficiency rotor blades with anhedral tips; low-maintenance elastomeric rotorhead; three larger and more capable 6,000 shp class engines; cargo rail locking system; external cargo improvements; 10,000 hour metal/composite fuselage; and survivability enhancements.
And while heavy lift pilots are sure to like the expanded performance of the new “Big Iron,” they aren’t the only oness the Marines are building the aircraft for. Given the CH-53E’s operational costs and maintenance demands, heavy lift has built its reputation for excellence on the backs of maintainers. The technology are incorporating into this aircraft, such as the latest generation elastomeric rotor head, integrated diagnostics, digital common avionics and new engines, will dramatically reduce the required maintenance at the operator level.
The Sikorsky CH-53K helicopter will be the world's premier heavy lift helicopter. It is a derivative design leveraging the lessons learned from almost half a century of manufacturing and operating the CH53A/D/E models of heavy lift helicopters. Built to thrive in the modern battle space, the CH-53K design is focused on five main areas: internal and external cargo capability, joint information exchange requirements compliance, high reliability, low maintenance, and survivability across the full spectrum of operation conditions.
Expeditionary in nature, the CH-53K will be fully shipboard compatible (capable of landing and operating for extended periods on all current and planned CH-53D/E capable ships) and operating from austere and remote forward operating bases. The CH-53K is the Marine Corps' critical land and sea based logistics connector which makes Sea Basing Possible.
The CH-53K supports the Joint Operations Concept of Full Spectrum Dominance, and Sea Power 21 by enabling rapid, decisive operations and the early termination of conflict by projecting and sustaining forces to distant anti-access, area-denial environments. Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare (EMW) establishes the basis for the organization, deployment, and employment of the Marine Corps to conduct maneuver warfare and provides the doctrine to make Joint and Multinational operations possible. EMW operational concepts include Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS), Forcible Entry Operations, Sustained Operations Ashore (SOA), and Other Expeditionary Operations (OEO). Under these supporting concepts, there is a continuing need for a heavy-lift capability to support sea-based expeditionary operations.
The current Marine Corps heavy-lift aircraft, the CH-53E (designed in the 1960s and introduced in 1980 as an engineering change proposal to the CH-53D), has subsequently developed significant fatigue life, interoperability, maintenance supportability, and performance degradation concerns. In order to support the MAGTF and the JTF in the 21st Century Joint environment, an improved CH-53 is required to maintain the Marine Corps’ heavy-lift capability through the year 2025 and beyond. This aircraft must provide improvements in operational capability, interoperability, reliability, and maintainability, while reducing total ownership costs.
Although aging and lacking investment over its lifespan, the currently fielded CH-53E continues to prove the relevance and importance of the heavy lift mission in combat and humanitarian relief operations worldwide. Since the first Gulf War, Marine Corps vertical heavy lift has been getting further and further away from the original requirement it was developed to meet, a behind the lines logistics support aircraf. From the Scott O’Grady rescue mission in the Balkans to delivering critically needed combat support in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, the Marines are wearing out the aircraft because it has been in incredibly high demand since the mid ‘90s. The ship-based CH-53E has proven to be extraordinarily relevant to the execution of the national security strategy, Navy and Marine Corps sea-basing concepts and the associated need for capable marinized heavy lift.
Marinized heavy lift currently comes at a very high price. On average, every hour a CH-53E flies costs the Marine Corps approximately $20,000 and requires 44.1 maintenance man-hours. In the 25 years the CH-53E has been in service there has not been the investment necessary to effectively address obsolescence, reliability and maintainability issues.
The CH-53E won’t meet the heavy lift requirements anticipated in 2015. There is also a significant fatigue life issue looming. A Service Life Assessment Program conducted on the CH-53E determined that the service life is 6,120 flight hours based on the aircraft’s transition bulkhead section (location of the tailboom’s fold point). Based on current and predicted usage rates, it is anticipated that the current fleet will start reaching this fatigue life limit in FY11 at a rate of up to 15 aircraft per year. Not only is this an expensive fix but it will require significantly increased management attention to ensure there are sufficient numbers of aircraft available to meet operational commitments.
An independent analysis of alternatives conducted in 2003 determined that a new-build aircraft sole-sourced to Sikorsky was the most cost effective approach when compared to either a service life extension program or remanufacture alternative. Sikorsky is the only known qualified source capable of delivering an operational modernized CH-53 variant by 2015. Sikorsky has been building CH-53’s for the Marine Corps since the CH-53A was introduced in 1964. Because of this extensive history, the analysis concluded that Sikorsky possesses a singularly unique capability to study and define total CH-53 ownership cost reduction initiatives.
HMWWV's are getting heavier. Seabasing CONOPS are evolving, and MPF(F) ship squadron composition has migrated over the last few years. All of these factors, and others, affect the lift required for conducting STOM from a sea base. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Operations Analysis Division [OAD] Assault Support Capabilities Analysis, tested mixes of MV-22 and CH-53K for their capability to deliver the required MEU(SOC) and MEB loads from the sea base to landing zones ashore. The expected time to complete the assault was used as the key MOE. Temperature, composition of the landing force, air defense threat, and range were critical factors that were varied.
The CH-53K ORD was approved by JROC Memo dated 9 December 2004. Milestone B Defense Acquisition Board was held on 31 October 2005. Program was approved for entry into MS B System Development and Demonstration and has been designated an ACAT 1D. The new heavy lift helicopter was officially in the pipeline for the Marine Corps following a 22 December 2005 decision by the Honorable. Kenneth R. Krieg, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to authorize the Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR/CH-53K) program to begin a $4.4 billion development program for the aircraft.
An Initial System Development and Demonstration contract (worth $8.8 million) to Sikorsky was signed 03 January 2006. A follow-on ISDD contract was expected in several weeks. The ISDD contracts cover continuing risk reduction efforts and sub-system selection (including cockpit, engines, fuselage, etc), while the SDD contract covers most aspects of research, design, test and evaluation efforts performed by Sikorsky for the new helicopter.
On April 5, 2006 Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded a $3,035,000,000 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract (N00019-06-C-0081) for the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) of the CH-53K aircraft, to include four SDD aircraft, one ground test vehicle, and associated program management and test support. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed in December 2015. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. This contract award is part of an overall development program, estimated at $4.2 billion, that will provide the Marine Corps with a fully shipboard-compatible derivative design of the existing CH-53E using mature technology.
The CH-53K System Development and Demonstration phase will be covered by a Cost Plus Award Fee Contract Modification that funds SDD efforts through FY2015 and provides for four test aircraft, 1 ground test vehicle; as well as aircraft development, systems integration, test article production, and test and evaluation activities.
In 2006 Sikorsky was conducting competitions to select suppliers for the CH-53K major sub-systems, including the avionics management system and the engine. Sub-system supplier selection is scheduled to finish later in 2006.
The first CH-53K, a flight test aircraft, is scheduled to make its first flight in FY11. Fleet Marines should start receiving the first of 156 CH-53Ks in 2015. Initial operating capability, or IOC, is scheduled in FY15 and is defined as a detachment of four aircraft, with combat ready crews, logistically prepared to deploy.
Once in full-rate production, the aircraft procurement rate will ramp-up to approximately 24 aircraft per year by FY 2015 The Marine Corps requirement is estimated at 156 aircraft; however, a planned DoN Sea Basing Requirements Study will Subsequently validate the procurement objective.
