CH-53E Super Stallion vs CH-53K King Stallion – You might have heard anything of the CH-53E Super Stallion and CH-53K King Stallion. Both are designed by Lockheed Martin Company and Sikorsky Aircraft as the US Marine Corps’ heavy lift helicopters and are used to transport heavy weapons, equipment, supplies, as well as personnel for combat assaults. Which one, however, is superior?
The CH-53E Super Stallion is capable of swiftly delivering personnel and equipment from ship to shore, allowing amphibious assaults to be launched, logistics and maintenance to be facilitated, sustainment and supplies to be provided, and the warfighter to be equipped for mission accomplishment. For more than 30 years, the Marine Corps’ Super Stallion has been a workhorse across the world, executing a wide spectrum of military combat missions in Beirut, Somalia, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.
138 CH-53E aircraft are currently in service. The CH-53E is now out of production and through a rolling phase of rebuilding, upgrading, and boosting safety, reliability, and capabilities known as a RESET for the Super Stallion. This RESET is to ensure that the CH-53E retains mission capability until it was then replaced by the CH-53K King Stallion.
The CH-53K King Stallion, on the other hand, is essentially a heavy lift replacement version for the CH-53E Super Stallion. It is newly built and is the Department of Defense’s most powerful helicopter that will improve the fleet’s capacity to carry more stuff very quickly throughout the responsibility zone by utilizing proven and modern technology. Four aircraft of the King Stallion are now undergoing Initial Operational Test and Evaluation at the Marine Corps Air Station New River, NC’s Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron, VMX-1, with over 2500 flying test hours.
For comparison, please watch the video below.
