With Extreme Hauling Capacity, CH-53E Super Stallion Takes Flight

Jennifer Grieves was a longtime Marine Corps pilot who served as both an enlisted member and officer from 1990 to 2018. In addition to providing administrative leadership, Jennifer Grieves piloted Marine and Navy helicopters. She was the first woman in history to serve as the pilot in command of the presidential helicopter Marine One. An honor that lasted 15 years until a second female Marine pilot was assigned to command Marine One in the summer of 2022.

As reported in MarineTimes, the CH-53E was upgraded to the CH-53K, an even more powerful version renamed the King Stallion that made its debut in August 2022, with deployment in a training exercise in the Idaho mountains. Able to haul 27,000 pounds 110 nautical miles, the CH-53K King Stallion will likely be used to transport light armored vehicles to inland positions from offshore vessels. This could be particularly useful in the Asia-Pacific theater, where the US may need to counter a Chinese threat to islands in the Pacific through deployments requiring lengthy air transport of equipment.

The process of getting the King Stallion operational has been lengthy, with the helicopter first ordered by the Marine Corps in 2008 (with a goal of full functionality by 2019). Early 2019 testing revealed hundreds of mechanical issues, including system stalling, overheating, and engines that sucked dirty exhaust back in.

After the issues were resolved by the Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky, an unexpected fleet mission presented itself in September 2021, when the King Stallion was used to recover a Navy helicopter that became lodged in California’s White Mountains. The King Stallion proved to be the only helicopter capable of lifting the Navy aircraft, which weighs 15,200 pounds.