The Marine Corps has pushed back its first planned deployment of the Sikorsky [LMT]-built CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter to 2026, a lead program official confirmed on Tuesday.
Col. Kate Fleeger, Marine Corps’ program manager for H-53 heavy lift helicopters, told reporters the decision to delay CH-53K deployment from the earlier 2025 goal was to ensure the service had the necessary supply and repair parts in place for the new aircraft.
“So [we’re] making sure we have the appropriate supply support foundation, the appropriate manpower foundation, everything like that. That’s kind of the foundation for why we’ve adjusted the timeline in conjunction with the Marine Corps,” Fleeger said during a briefing at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space Conference in National Harbor, Md.
Fleeger added the new deployment goal for 2026 out of the East Coast ensures the Marine Corps approaches the milestone in a “deliberate manner” and can avoid having to revert back to the older CH-53E helicopter, which the CH-53K is replacing.
“It’s more of making sure we have the full supply support package and the necessary support in [the continental U.S.], so back home, right, in order to send the aircraft out. What we don’t want to do is we don’t want to send aircraft forward and then have a deficit at home. So we need to make sure that we’re fully supportable both ashore and deployed,” Fleeger said.
The Marine Corps announced in April 2022 the CH-53K had achieved Initial Operational Capability, with Fleeger noting Sikorsky has delivered 14 of the aircraft to date (Defense Daily, April 25, 2022).
A full-rate production for CH-53K was made in December 2022 and last August the Marine Corps awarded Sikorsky a $2.8 billion contract modification to procure another 35 aircraft (Defense Daily, Aug. 24).
Fleeger said on Tuesday the Marine Corps is aiming to achieve full operational capability with the CH-53K in 2029.
“That’s based on the active duty squadrons as it stands today with the plan being fully-fielded with their CH-53Ks and the [CH-53Es] being fully replaced,” Fleeger told reporters.
As of the latest contract modification, Sikorsky is on contract now for 79 more CH-53Ks, to include 12 aircraft for Israel being procured via the U.S. foreign military sales process.
The State Department in 2021 approved a potential $3.4 billion deal with Israel to buy up to 18 CH-53Ks to replace their legacy CH-53D Yasur helicopters (Defense Daily, July 30, 2021).