The first CH-53K King Stallion was delivered to Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, N.C. This was another on-time milestone for the U.S. Marine Corps’ future heavy-lift helicopter program.
The helicopter’s arrival to New River enters it into the Supportability Test Plan where U.S. Marines will conduct a logistics assessment on the maintenance, sustainment and overall aviation logistics support of the King Stallion.
The CH-53K is a new build aircraft with the same logistical footprint as the current CH-53E Super Stallion, but is fly-by-wire, software driven and it can lift three times more. Modernization is already built into the aircraft.