US Navy awards contract to build 35 CH-53K helicopters for $2.7 billion

News, US August 27, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The United States Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin’s subsidiary firm Sikorsky a $2.7 billion contract to build and deliver 35 additional CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. Sikorsky will begin delivering the helicopters in 2026.

According to the Lockheed Martin statement, this was the largest procurement to date for the CH-53K multi-mission aircraft. “The agreement includes 12 U.S. Marine Corps Lot 7 aircraft, 15 U.S. Marine Corps Lot 8 aircraft, and eight aircraft for Israel,” the statement highlighted.

President of Sikorsky, Paul Lemmo said, “This contract award for 35 CH-53K helicopters stabilizes Sikorsky’s nationwide supply base, creates additional production efficiencies, and provides the U.S. Marine Corps with transformative 21st-century technologies.” He added, “Our long-standing partnership led to this best value contract award providing the capability and readiness the Marines need.”

The company statement further added that the contract includes “eight additional CH-53K helicopters for the Israeli Air Force and follows the initial production announcement in 2022 for the first four aircraft under a U.S. Navy Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement.”

The Lockheed Martin statement highlighted that the CH-53K helicopters will support Israeli special operations programs, and provide the country’s defense forces with a platform that has “the speed, safety, survivability, and gross weight capability to support all of its missions, including troop and cargo transport, and search and rescue.”

U.S. CH-53K King Stallion helicopter — *^{U.S. Marines with Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron transit to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, (Image Credit: U.S. Marines/Lance Cpl. Elias E. Pimente)}*

The United States is pacing efforts to accelerate the production of one of its most advanced helicopters, the CH-53K King Stallion, after the Navy declared full-rate production of the aircraft in December 2022. To meet the U.S. military’s demands, Sikorsky is increasing the production of CH-53K to more than 20 helicopters annually in the coming years.

The CH‑53K King Stallion is a multi-mission helicopter with heavy-lift capabilities that exceed all other U.S. military rotary wing aircraft and is the only heavy-lift helicopter in its arsenal. It can carry a 27,000-pound external load over 110 nautical miles in high/hot conditions, which is more than triple the external load-carrying capacity of the legacy CH-53E aircraft.

The helicopter has a wider cabin and can transport more troops or military cargo with fewer trips. The CH-53K can conduct a range of operations such as humanitarian relief, firefighting, and search and rescue. It can carry heavy armored vehicles (such as high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles), military equipment, and personnel as well as support distributed operations deep inland from a sea-based center of operations

The U.S. Navy received the first CH-53K training helicopter from Lockheed Martin in April 2020. In May, the helicopter successfully completed an air-to-air refueling test with the help of a Lockheed Martin KC-130J aerial refueling tanker. The CH-53K is expected to remain in production through 2032 and beyond.