Navy, Sikorsky announce successful CH-53K air-to-air refueling

The Navy and Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky today announced that the Marine Corps' new heavy-lift helicopter performed an effective air-to-air refueling test.

The CH-53K King Stallion completed the four-and-a-half-hour test refueling with a KC-130J tanker, according to a company press release.

"The aircraft went to the tanker this week and it was very successful, proving it is a long-range vertical logistic workhorse," Marine Corps heavy-lift program manager Col. Jack Perrin said in a statement.

The Marine Corps this spring planned to test probe adjustments made to tackle the airspeed indication anomalies the helicopter faced when refueling behind a C-130 aircraft.

"We knew that we needed to move our indicator, our probes . . . to a new position, or better position to . . . minimize the interaction with that turbulence coming off the C-130 when we were behind, it trying to develop our flight envelope for helicopter aerial refueling," Perrin told Inside Defense in an interview last June.

Sikorsky's CH-53K program director Bill Falk in a statement today said the helicopter will help the Marine Corps conduct expeditionary advanced based operations, which is one of its main operating concepts.

"The successful air-to-air refueling test reinforces the superior capabilities of the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter and its ability to carry more Marines, cargo and equipment over longer ranges and in more challenging environments than any other rotorcraft in the world," Falk said.

While the Navy decreased its buy of CH-53Ks in the fiscal year 2021 budget request so it could address the helicopter's technical deficiencies, service officials last month told Congress the Marine Corps is ready to speed up production.

"As those technical issues now have been solved, I forecast that we will continue to look at ramping up the production of those airplanes to drive the cost down," Navy acquisition chief Hondo Geurts told reporters last month.