Germany sends Letter of Request for pricing and availability of CH-53K

Germany has sent the US a request for pricing and availability of 41 CH-53K heavy lift helicopters to start to replace their existing 80 CH-53Gs. They're looking at both the CH-47, and CH-53K. If they were to order 41 aircraft, it would provide a 25% savings to the US order. Five aircraft are currently in testing, two are currently flying, and eight are in various stages of production.

The US government is preparing a response to Germany’s letter of request for pricing and availability of 41 heavy-lift Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopters to begin replacing the 80 G-models the country currently operates.

Berlin is considering both the CH-53K and the Boeing CH-47 Chinook to meet its heavy vertical lift requirement, and the US Marine Corps is keen to take advantage of the better pricing that could be achieved by adding a sizable King Stallion order at the front-end of the production ramp.

The new model, which first flew in October, has twice the max gross take-off weight of the legacy CH-53G operated by the Luftwaffe at 40t (88,000lb) with external loads compared to 19t (42,000lb).

www.flightglobal.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Cool.

Aren't they still restricted militarily by the agreements with the United States?

I say cut them loose, personally I think they as a country are more grown up than the United States.

Hey zaph,

Thats a great thing for the US if they order that many. It will solidify the production line and make things easier on the usa to puchase too for our own forces.

The sea stallion is already a beast with 42k lift capacity. To double it is pretty sweet.

But I gotta question why do you feel Germany has gone this direction to want such a powerful lift capacity?

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's good news to many machinists. Thanks.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Because it's a brand new aircraft, which means reliability significantly higher than anything else they have, the ability to lift almost anything they have in their inventory short of armored vehicles (and even some of them), lower fuel burn so lower operating costs, lower life cycle costs....

a reply to: Zaphod58

I gotcha. Makes sense. I guess the analogy is that although a '04 Toyota carolla works great its never bad to change it in for a '16 model.

I was just wondering if it marked a change in direction the german military could be taking from less of a front line force to a logistical support element to other militaries like the usa if they were allies in a future conflict. From your response it seems like they are inply just trading in for a newer more economical and efficient model and nothing more.

I thought the stallions were having transmission problems..

a reply to: Blackfinger

They cleared that up pretty quickly.