Marine Corps mulling over options for heavy lift helos.

• Author: Colucci, Frank

The U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion is among a handful of military helicopters available today that can move and re-supply forces high in the mountains of Afghanistan. Like the lighter Army Chinook, the three-engine, seven-blade 53E never was designed as an air-assault platform, but its payload and range have made it an asset in the Central Asian conflict.

The CH-53E is flying 20 percent more than a year ago, officials said. This has accelerated the need for a service life extension program (SLEP). A Marine Corps/Navy ream currently is formulating a CH-53E SLEP operational requirements document. Depending on the outcome of the ORD, the services may decide to procure new aircraft or begin the SLEP program as early as fiscal 2004. The remanufactured or new-production helicopters would enter the fleet in 2012.

Sikorsky Aircraft delivered 180 CH-53Es to the Marines between 1981 and 1999. The service now has about 165 aircraft in active and reserve squadrons. While the helicopters average 13 years old, the earliest Super Stallions are passing 20 years in service. One was retired early this year.

The current cost of operating the CH-53E is about $10,000 per flight hour. The Marines expect that a new or remanufactured helicopter would be less costly. Meanwhile, the heavy lift requirements of the Marine air-ground task force have grown. The CH-53E was designed to lug howitzers, light armored vehicles, or 16 tons of external cargo from assault ships to the beach over a 50 nautical-mile radius at sea level. But the new Marine Corps doctrine sets a 200 nautical-mile radius. Afghan landing zones at 10,000 feet elevations show that nor all wars are fought under sea-level standard-day conditions.

The CH-53E SLEP (at various times called the CH-53Xor CH-53 modernization) could cur the operations and support costs of the CH-53E by about 25 percent, Marine officials estimated.

Main transmission beams, bulkheads, and vertical pylon components give the existing CH-53E airframe a design life of about 6,000 flight hours. Replacing those items to restore airframe life and increase gross weight effectively would build a new helicopter. The ultimate number of CH-53Es in the SLEP--whether they are remanufactured or new production--is still to be determined.

Should a SLEP contract begin design work in 2004, the first remanufactured CH-53E could fly by 2009. To avert an inventory shortfall before SLEP deliveries build up, improvements may come in stages. The first stage would give the CH-53E structural life improvements, an integrated cockpit and an improved cargo handling system. The second would permit a gross weight increase with more powerful engines and a new main rotor system.

To sustain Marine squadrons, the SLEP could be preceded by new aircraft--equipped with T64-GE-19 engines, a glass cockpit, and a health-and-usage monitoring system.

The design of a new or rebuilt Super Stallion will be determined by trade studies. Several improvements already were requested by former Deputy Commandant for Marine Corps Aviation Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle. These include a new center fuselage, transition section and tail-boom with structural enhancements that could increase gross weight from 73,500 to 78,500 pounds. The CH-53E never was hardened ballistically for air assaults in "hot" landing zones. A new structure could incorporate armor protection around...