{"id":17440,"date":"2023-08-27T00:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T21:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=17440"},"modified":"2023-08-25T21:58:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T18:58:10","slug":"us-navy-awards-contract-to-build-35-ch-53k-helicopters-for-2-7-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/us-navy-awards-contract-to-build-35-ch-53k-helicopters-for-2-7-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy awards contract to build 35 CH-53K helicopters for $2.7 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin\u2019s 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Lockheed Martin statement, this was the largest procurement to date for the CH-53K<\/span><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President of Sikorsky<\/span><\/a>, Paul Lemmo said, “This contract award for 35 CH-53K helicopters stabilizes Sikorsky\u2019s 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lockheed Martin<\/span><\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a>
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)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The United States is pacing efforts to accelerate the production<\/span><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CH\u201153K 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a>
A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53K King Stallion with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461, Marine Aircraft Group 29, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, during a training exercise on April 13, 2023. (Image Credit: U.S. Marine Corps\/Lance Corporal Gideon M. Schippers)<\/em><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,125],"tags":[752,6,295,324,5,90,350,235,7],"class_list":["post-17440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-ch-53k","tag-defense","tag-helicopter","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-sikorsky","tag-technology","tag-u-s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/US-CH-53K-King-Stallion-helicopters.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-4xi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17440"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17451,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440\/revisions\/17451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}