Marine Corps delays 1st deployment of new heavy-lift helicopter to 2026
Apr 9, 02:23 PM
Sikorsky has delivered 14 King Stallions to the Marine Corps and has 79 total on contract. (D.S. Resch)
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Marine Corps plans to deploy its powerful new heavy-lift helicopter for the first time in 2026 — the year after it previously had anticipated.
The CH-53K King Stallion will get deployed from the East Coast sometime in 2026 with a Marine expeditionary unit, said Col. Kate Fleeger, the helicopter’s program manager, on Tuesday at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
At the same conference in 2023, Fleeger said the Corps planned to deploy the King Stallion with a Marine expeditionary unit in 2025.
https://www.defensenews.com/news/your-marine-corps/2024/04/09/marine-corps-delays-1st-deployment-of-new-heavy-lift-helicopter-to-2026/