Sans,
With the advent of the E and now K model 53....the USMC demoted the "D" from the "Heavy Lift" category. That decision relegated the D to Medium lift status as a direct result.
That is why they sold the 22 as being a replacement for the 46 and 53D.
Their end game was to justify greater numbers of the 22 by doing so.
Now they are using the Airframe Life data on the E's to justify more K's.
Nothing wrong with any of that except once the dice are rolled....you have to read the dots as they appear on the table.
Where the knife cut both ways was when they started bringing back D models despite fielding substantial numbers of 22's (in my opinon) which told me things were not going as they had hoped. Otherwise those D models would have stayed at AMARC and the other places they were.
Now that Iraq is "over", operational demands are limited to Afghanistan, in addition to the normal deployments of Afloats and training missions....should we not begin to see the D's and 46's being taken out of the force structure?
Especially since we are seeing the looming money cuts coming! Granted the Commandant announced there would only be Manpower cuts rather than "gear" cuts but still the 22 is to "replace" the 46's for sure...and the 53D's....the measure of success for the 22 program will be the progress in replacing the legacy airframes .
Is anyone tracking the promise versus accomplishment on that?