Hartford Courant December 23, 2005
A New Super Stallion
Sikorsky To Design Next-Generation Copter For Marine Corps
By John M. Moran
Sikorsky Aircraft is poised to design a next-generation heavy-lift helicopter for the U.S. Marine Corps to replace an aging aircraft now seeing heavy action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The federal defense budget, which Congress approved Thursday, includes $272 million for development of the CH-53X, or "Super Stallion."
The bill now heads to the White House for President Bush's signature before the funding enters the arcane world of the defense procurement process.
Development spending on the CH-53X would mark the start of the program to replace the Marines' fleet of CH-53E heavy-lift choppers, which are also known as Super Stallions.
"This is where we stand up as a program of record and we get to work," said John Milliman, public affairs officer for the Naval Air Systems Command.
The design and development phase for the CH-53X, which is scheduled to continue through 2015, could be worth as much as $3 billion to Stratford-based Sikorsky and its subcontractors, he said.
But the really big money would arrive in the actual production of the new Super Stallions. The Marines ultimately expect to buy 156 of the CH-53X helicopters, each with an estimated "fly away" price of $56 million, Milliman said.
At those prices, the production phase would be worth about $8.7 billion in 2006 dollars - if the company meets all targets and deadlines - on top of the $3 billion for design and development.
Initial deliveries of the new generation of Marine heavy-lift helicopters are expected in 2014, with operations planned for 2015.
The defense budget that passed Thursday also includes $2 billion for Sikorsky to build 83 Black Hawk-class helicopters: 45 for the Army and 38 for the Navy. Sikorsky is a unit of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.
As the manufacturer of the current Marine heavy-lift helicopter, Sikorsky is regarded as the only known qualified source to build the next-generation aircraft, and did not have to compete for the contract.
The Marines have been leaning heavily on the existing generation of heavy-lift helicopters for combat-related missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as for humanitarian missions in disaster zones ravaged by hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
That has resulted in some aircraft being destroyed, and has accelerated wear and tear on the remaining choppers in the fleet, increasing the urgency for a replacement version.
"They've certainly been riding them pretty hard in the last several years," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense-oriented website. "Iraq is one of the things that has really changed the picture."
CH-53Es are no longer in production. Their average age in the Marines' fleet is 16 years, with the oldest aircraft having been delivered in 1980.
"We say the 53-Echoes have the best 1970s technology we could afford in 1980," said Milliman, using Navy slang for the helicopter. He also said some of the existing aircraft are so old that the cockpits have ashtrays.
From the outside, the new helicopters are expected to look very much like the existing aircraft, but they'll be equipped with the latest technological innovations, including a high-tech "glass" cockpit, new engines and a redesigned rotor.
Milliman said the Marine Corps believes the new helicopter will lift more and fly faster and farther than the existing aircraft, while also slashing operating costs.
The current CH-53E costs $17,000 a hour to operate and requires 44 man-hours of maintenance for every hour it spends in the air, he said.
"With all your modern diagnostics in, the expectation is you're going to dramatically reduce maintenance and operation costs," Sikorsky spokesman Ed Steadham said. "That's another reason why the Marines feel they've got to have these."
Because the helicopters frequently operate from ships, they must be specially designed to withstand the cold weather, wind, salt water and other conditions of the shipboard environment.
Sikorsky did not supply an estimate of the number of jobs the program would create.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group, said the CH-53E "could certainly use an upgrade," but he worries that the Marines may have unrealistic expectations about how much improved performance they can expect from a new aircraft.
The design and development process that's about to begin is "precisely where reality will hit the tarmac," he said.
Some early work on the new Super Stallion has already been completed under "risk reduction" contracts the Pentagon previously granted to Sikorsky.
A budget document for the CH-53X program that was prepared earlier this year shows development spending ramping up steadily from a start of $272 million in fiscal 2006 to $370 million by fiscal 2010.
© Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant
