The Air Force will continue its competition for a new Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH), while the Navy delays the CH-53K Super Stallion, according to the FY ’15 budget requests released on March 4.
Air Force budget official Maj. Gen. Jim Martins said during a briefing the service decided to move forward with a CRH program, despite no funding being allocated for the program in FY ’15. A contract will be awarded this year, he said. The CRH fleet is designed to replace the service’s rapidly-aging HH-60G Pave Hawk fleet. A team of Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies Corp.
[UTX], and Lockheed Martin [LMT] is believed to be the only bidder in the competition.
The Navy’s five-year budget plan delays production of the Marine Corps’ CH-53K helicopter for one year to FY ’17. Sikorsky said last month that it has conducted ground testing of the engines of the next variant of the heavy lift helicopter. The prototype CH-53K is designed to triple the external payload capacity to more than 27,000 pounds from the preceding CH-53E Super Stallion, the company said.
The Navy also eliminated 29 MH-60R Romeo helicopters in FY ’16–a move that may also reflect the scaling back of the Littoral Combat Ship program.