Non-Subscriber Extract
US heavy-lift aircraft will stretch state of the art
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| 24 February 2006 |
By Bill Sweetman, IDR Aerospace & Technology Editor
The US Marine Corps (USMC) has launched development of the most powerful helicopter outside Russia, the CH-53K, to replace the 1970s-era CH-53E.
The USMC needs the CH-53K firstly because the existing CH-53E fleet is wearing out under the stress of sustained operations in the Middle East. A 1999 analysis showed that the existing fleet has a service life of 6,120 flight hours, based on fatigue at the point where the tail folds. Currently, the USMC expects the existing fleet will start to reach this point in 2011, at a rate of 15 aircraft per year.
Second, the USMC needs more heavy-lift capability to support its current doctrine of 'ship-to-objective manoeuvre' or STOM. This calls for a Marine force to launch from the ship and land, ready to fight, at an inland location of its own choice. To insert and resupply that force without a massive numerical increase in aircraft and the ships to carry them, the USMC needs a rotorcraft with approximately double the load-carrying capability of the CH-53E. The CH-53K can deliver two uparmoured High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) rather than one, and can carry a fully equipped Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) to the required range.
The first CH-53K should be flying before the very large Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) aircraft goes into SDD. USMC programme manager Colonel Paul Croisetiere has pointed out that JHL will not arrive in time to replace the CH-53E and has more lift capability than the service needs, and the USMC is not committed to it.
JHL does not replace anything in the current US army or air force inventory; according to a Boeing engineer on the programme "it is a new asset". The role of a 400-aircraft JHL force would be to move fully equipped units based on the Future Combat System (FCS) directly across the battlefield for distances of 300 km or more. The idea is that such a capability allows the army to deal with any situation, at any time, in a deep, fluid battlefield defined by 'islands of conflict' rather than by front lines and rear areas. It also eliminates the need to stretch units out into vulnerable road convoys.
The US Army is the lead service on JHL, which is closely tied to the Future Combat System (FCS) and the interim Stryker armoured vehicle family. So far, the main firm decisions on the JHL are that it should be able to carry FCS and Stryker units - with a nominal 20 t payload - and that it will be a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.
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