US military helicopter fleets in bad shape

Recently, I had a thread titled Marine CH-53 report shows staggering results, about a report that the Marine CH-53 fleet had a mission capable rate as low as 23%, and pilots that were getting less than 30 hours on six month deployments. Now, the US Air Force is seeing issues with the HH-60G fleet. They're preparing to convert 21 second hand L model UH-60s, that had been Army aircraft into the HH-60G.

Part of the reason for this is that they have dropped from a high of 112 aircraft, to 97. Of those 97 aircraft, 50 have received various amounts of battle damage doing rescue missions over the last 15 years. During that time they have rescued 5,400 coalition, and allied soldiers and airmen. But due to that high tempo, and the age of the aircraft, 38% of the fleet, 37 aircraft, had to undergo unscheduled depot level maintenance last year.

www.flightglobal.com...

Separately, the Air Force is looking at buying 41 UH-60Ms to replace the 25 UH-1Ns currently used for missile security. They would need a total of 72 aircraft to replace all the UH-1s currently flying, and are going to have a fight in Congress if they want to just go straight to replacement without a competition.

www.flightglobal.com...

The -K can't hit IOC soon enough, though I'm guessing that its delays (as well as the headaches of the VH-3 replacement) put a big dent in the USMC's fleet as well as their funding for new aircraft.

The blackhawk drama scares me more, since regardless of if it's replaced by the V-280 or by an X-2 derivative, either of those options will probably take at least a decade to hit IOC.

I wonder if they might consider buying COTS H-92s, Merlins, or NH90s to fill the Stallion gap, or something similar to get some more Blackhawk-sized aircraft.

with all the money the u.s spends on its military you'd think it would better.

a reply to: Zaphod58

They are buying a Blackhawk then , Zaphod slow down a sec..

Like I should talk, thought some of the Marines were going with a European puma.. it's st. Paddy's day.

"Separately, the air force will put Bell-Boeing on contract in June to build a single CV-22B Osprey that Congress funded as an attrition reserve. It will be delivered “in the first quarter of fiscal 2020”.

a reply to: theboarman

Helicopters are notoriously hard to maintain. There's a t-shirt I've seen that sums it up pretty well.

"Helicopter: A Million parts spinning around an oil leak"

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'm not sure where I heard this but somebody was hitching a ride one a chopper one day when they saw some hydraulic fluid leaking. Panicked they notified the crew chief who calmly said, that's nothing to worry about but let me know asap if it stops leaking cause then we are in trouble.

a reply to: Zaphod58

👍That sums it up perfectly.

The meltdown continues:

alert5.com...

We knew that, but cannibalizing *3* to keep one going is...geez.

I know they have started 3d printing some of the parts they can, but the electronics can't be done that way. o.O