Note: This photographer watermarked his pics. Do not remove them. Respect his art so he keeps posting. Next, its interesting that the Germans along with EADS were able to take CH-53D's and massively upgrade them to serve even longer. It makes me question whether our own CH-53D's were actually too old to upgrade or whether they had to be retired to justify additional purchases of MV-22's.
About 40 CH-53G will receive an upgrade to GS standard and the aircraft cell will be refurbished so that the life time could be enhanced from 6,000 hours up to 10,000 hours. Designation for these helicopters is CH-53GA (Advanced). GS didn't receive a life time extensions. They just received better engines (TG-GE-100 - 3,229 kW up from original 2,890 kW), guns and armour to operate better in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteThe GA is supposed to operate until 2030 and will be replace by the so called Future Transport Helicopter. It looks again like cooperation by Eurocopter (ex VFW, MBB, HFW) and Sikorsky: CH-53K