More Kilo Gouge
"Approved by the Pentagon Dec. 22, 2005, development of the Heavy Lift Replacement successor to the CH-53E aims to produce an aircraft with roughly half the maintenance costs of the Super Stallion and more than twice the payload (27,000 lb. vs. 12,100 at a mission radius of about 200 nm.) under Navy "hot and high" conditions--91.5F at 3,000 ft. Dubbed the CH-53K, the all-new helicopter is intended to have the same footprint as the -53E on board ships but offer greater visibility from the cockpit and a wider cabin capable of carrying U.S. Air Force-standard loads.
The CH-53K is to have fly-by-wire flight controls, a glass cockpit, fifth-generation main rotor blades, a low-maintenance elastomeric rotorhead, a new main gearbox and new engines. It also is to offer improved survivability and ballistic protection for occupants and key systems, something that "came into play in the last six months," said USMC Col. Paul Croisetiere, the Naval Air Systems Command's Heavy Lift Replacement program manager. As part of that effort, a CH-53E is undergoing live-fire testing at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.
The program calls for initial operating capability--a detachment of four CH-53Ks, with combat-ready crews, ready to deploy--by 2015, which is actually four years too late for the Marines. Their current 150 -53Es face a 6,120-flight-hour, fatigue-life limit on the transition bulkhead section (at the tailboom's fold point), and the service projects it will lose about a dozen aircraft a year starting in 2011. So NavAir and Sikorsky are working to have a plan within a year for modifications to keep those aircraft flying--a fix that should bring Sikorsky another $4.2 billion of work.
The sole-source CH-53K contracts to Sikorsky--NavAir officials said competitive bidding would have produced a more costly aircraft at a later date--include an $8.8-million initial system development and demonstration contract, an unspecified follow-on to that due within weeks and a $2.9-billion system development and demonstration contract expected in March. The plan is to acquire 156 CH-53Ks plus five test aircraft, with an average flyaway unit cost of $56.6 million. Total program costs are estimated at $18.8 billion.
For that money, Sikorsky will select suppliers of the CH-53K's subsystems, a task on which it is focused now. "
+10,000 cross-thread points.