The Marine Corps’ “King Stallion” CH-53K heavy lift helicopter is about to exit the gates and fly for the first time.
The CH-53K will go through its final battery of tests before it officially replaces the CH-53E next year.
The Sikorsky-supplied aircraft can carry 27,000 pounds — more than triple the CH-53E’s capability — for distances up to 110 nautical miles.
“We’re basically putting the aircraft through the flight regimes that the flying aircraft will see and really testing out the transmissions, and the dynamic components on the aircraft, the fuel systems and any subsystem on the aircraft is being put through its paces,” Col. Hank Vanderborght, H-53 helicopters program manager for the Naval Air Systems Command, told Military.com on Tuesday.
Once tests are complete, the aircraft will be used in support of special Marine Air Ground Task Force on combat and humanitarian missions, the defense website reported.
“What the CH-53K represents is not just the continuation of heavy-lift capability but really a transformation of what we are going to be able to do. It is going to ensure that the Marine Corps remains our most ready force,” Maj. Eric Purcell told Military.com.
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• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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