About a year ago, IOC was projected at 2018, first flight 2013. (Av week article.
That still on track?
EDIT:
U.S. GAO - Defense Acquisitions: CH-53K Helicopter Program Has Addressed Early Difficulties and Adopted Strategies to Address Future Risks
GAO report on CH-53K program progress, dated April 2011. IOC 2018 looks pretty firm.
A few tidbits from the report:
- Because of a nearly 3-year delay in initial delivery of the CH-53K, program officials estimated that it will cost approximately $927 million more to continue to maintain the CH-53E legacy system.
- In another example, the program has a requirement that the CH-53K be transportable by C-5 aircraft. As with the CH-53E, because of its size, the CH-53K’s rotor and main gearbox will be removed from the aircraft’s body in order to fit within the height requirements of a C-5. The program office interpreted this as requiring that each CH-53K be shipped in its entirety on a single C-5 aircraft, including the removed rotor and gearbox. However, the contractor interpreted the requirement differently and proposed shipping all rotors and main gearboxes in another C-5 separate from the CH-53K body. Program officials did not accept this interpretation of the requirement and required the contractor to propose a solution in which each CH-53K aircraft would be shipped and arrive in its entirety in a single C-5 aircraft. Marine Corps officials commented that even though this requirement was interpreted differently, it was identified early in the systems engineering process and addressed.
- As part of that review, the program office identified several areas where costs could be deferred without decreasing capability, including three communications-related performance capabilities—Link-16, Variable Message Format, and Mode V software—that constituted part of the Net-Ready key performance parameter. Program officials estimated that this will result in over $100 million in cost deferral. Program officials explained that these software capabilities were not removed from the program’s road map, but rather have been deferred until after IOC. Originally, the program’s Operational Requirements Document called for all three capabilities to be fully integrated in fiscal year 2015.
- In July 2010, the program completed system integration—a period when individual components of a system are brought together—culminating with the program’s CDR. With completion of CDR, the program has demonstrated that the CH-53K design is stable—an indication that it is appropriate to proceed into fabrication, demonstration, and testing and that it is expected that the program can meet stated performance requirements within cost and schedule. At the time CDR was held, the program had released 93 percent of its engineering drawings, exceeding the best practice standard for the completion of system integration.