US Marine Corps retires CH-53D
24 February 2012 - 13:24 by
Tony Osborne in London
The US Marine Corps has retired the CH-53D Sea Stallion after 40 years of service in a 'sunset ceremony' held on 10 February at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The aircraft continue to operate with the HMH-363 squadron currently supporting marines working in Helmand Province as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. When the unit returns, one of the helicopters will be flown from Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay to its final destination at the Pacific Aviation Museum, where it will be displayed.
Some 124 CH-53Ds were built in total. The aircraft have operated with the USMC in a range of conflicts from Vietnam and Iraq and finally in Afghanistan. However the hot and high climate in Helmand has tested the type to its limits, restricting summer operations to the cool of night, with the MV-22 Osprey and the three-engined CH-53E Super Stallion taking the bulk of operations.
'Now that the Sea Stallion has retired, the Marine Corps has begun the transition to CH-53E Super Stallions, which will soon be joined by the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and H-1 Huey and Cobra helicopters in Hawaii,' said Col Robert Pridgen, programme manager for the H-53 Heavy Lift Helicopters Program Office.
'This transition will ensure our fleet is equipped with an aviation capability that is flexible and ready today to complete missions as assigned.'