Successful Integration Design Review For Replacement Marine
Heavy-Lift Chopper
An Integration Design Review (IDR) of the CH-53K Heavy Lift
Helicopter program has charted a course for a successful Critical
Design Review in 2010 Sikorsky announced Thursday.
Sikorsky's CH-53K program team hosted a two-day meeting in
November to bring together the program's key collaborators for an
in-depth discussion on system design compliance and verification,
design integration and cross-discipline system design attributes.
Participating in the meeting were members of the Office of the
Secretary of Defense, NAVAIR Technical Review Board, and the
NAVAIR/Sikorsky CH-53K team.
Sikorsky Aircraft received a $3 billion System Development and
Demonstration contract on April 5, 2006 to develop a replacement
for the U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E heavy lift helicopter. The new
aircraft program is planned to include production of more than 200
new aircraft.
"This IDR meeting reinforced the joint efforts that are
keeping the CH-53K helicopter on track to meet its objectives,
which include design compliance and verification planning," said
Mark Cherry, Sikorsky Vice President, Marine Corps Systems. "We
have identified our 'next steps' as the CH-53K helicopter program
moves with strength toward production."
Mike Torok, Vice-President and Marine Corps Systems Chief
Engineer, added: "These reviews are key steps to ensure the
transition from design to build and test of this aircraft proceeds
at minimum risk. The CH-53K helicopter is no longer just on paper -
we've already started building the aircraft that will fill a
critical need for current and future warfighters."
Its predecessor, the three-engine Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion
helicopter, is the largest, most powerful marinized helicopter in
the world. It is deployed from Marine Corps amphibious assault
ships to transport personnel and equipment and to carry external
(sling) cargo loads.
The CH-53K helicopter will maintain virtually the same footprint
as the CH-53E aircraft, but will nearly triple the payload to
27,000 pounds over 110 nautical miles under "hot high" ambient
conditions. The CH-53K helicopter's maximum gross weight (MGW) with
internal loads is 74,000 pounds compared to 69,750 pounds for the
CH-53E aircraft. The CH-53K's MGW with external loads is 88,000
pounds as compared to 73,500 for the CH-53E helicopter.
Features of the CH-53K helicopter include: a joint
interoperable glass cockpit; fly-by-wire flight controls; fourth
generation rotor blades with anhedral tips; a low-maintenance
elastomeric rotor head; upgraded engines; a locking cargo rail
system; external cargo handling improvements; survivability
enhancements; and reduced operation and support costs.
The CH-53K helicopter team has successfully completed several
risk reduction initiatives on two critical technologies, the split
torque main gear box and the advanced main rotor blade, and is
preparing for Technology Readiness Assessment in early 2010. The
program conducted a successful Preliminary Design Review in
September 2008, and is tracking toward a Critical Design Review in
2010 with an Initial Operational Capability milestone scheduled in
early 2016.