Months after the Defense Ministry announced that the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion had been selected as the IDF's next-generation heavy-lift attack-support helicopter, an official agreement has yet to be signed and sealed. Nevertheless, the manufacturer Lockheed Martin is determined to meet the schedule stated in the announcement and supply the first of the new fleet of rotorcraft by 2025.
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Israel Hayom has been granted an exclusive look at the new-generation helicopter, dubbed in Hebrew as the "Super Yasur," at a special simulator located at Lockheed Martin's Tel Aviv office, giving it a glimpse into how the future of the Israeli Air Force will look.
"The CH-53K is a helicopter that flies at very fast speeds, with a lift capacity that is double that of the old Yasur [the Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion]. It carries sophisticated autonomous systems and can fly great distances and penetrate [enemy territory] and land without being identified," says Brig. Gen. (res.) Joshua Shani, CEO of Lockheed Martin Israel. "Our goal is for the first helicopters to arrive in Israel and be available to the IDF in the course of 2025."
Video: Moshe Ben Simhon
Tim Cahill, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, at Lockheed Martin, is currently in Israel on his first visit outside of the United States after working via video-conferencing due to the coronavirus pandemic throughout the year-and-a-half that has passed since his appointment to the position. The choice of Israel for his first physical overseas visit is not coincidental: Israel is the first country outside of the US that will receive the CH-53K, and the company is also working intensively on supplying the IAF with a third squadron of its F-35 stealth fighter jet.
"I cannot describe how important this is to us," he says in response to a question on what it means to the company to sell the chopper to Israel. "The Israeli Air Force has very strict requirements, and justifiably so, because you are located in a very tough environment and you have to fly in extreme conditions. The IAF will make very substantial use of the helicopter's systems, and it will push those systems to the edge, which is great. When the Israeli Air Force selects your aircraft, then that gives the world the confidence that the product is truly ready for operation, and we are very happy to be part of this project."
The CH-53K has recently begun to enter use with the US Marine Corp and Lockheed Martin is already drawing initial conclusions on the assimilation of the helicopter into actual use in a fighting force. "This is a 21st-century aircraft designed for the 21st century," says Cahill. "If you are a young and ambitious pilot, this is the helicopter you want to be piloting. This is the kind of aircraft that these young warriors deserve to be defending their country and it's very gratifying the feedback we get ... We live in an age of iPhones and sophisticated gaming systems and if you sit at home or you go to work, you see all these systems … when you give them something to defend your country with you expect to see those kinds of capabilities and that kind of information and that kind of graphical display. That's what they see with the F-35, the ability to see all around you even though you have aircraft structure below you and around you. Your helmet gives you that view; it's what you would expect from something built and designed in this decade. The future is here."
Negotiating teams from the IAF and Lockheed Martin are currently working on the issue of what Israeli technological systems will be added to the aircraft, with everything of course boiling down to a question of money. The Super Yasur is a very expensive aircraft, and every additional technology added comes with a cost that Israel may not necessarily want or is able to fund. The final result will be what Lockheed Martin calls the "Blue Helicopter - its name for the product adapted to Israel's needs. "The IAF has never compromised on the quality and it hasn't done so here. In the short-term perspective, this helicopter may be more expensive, but in Israel we buy helicopters for a 50-year span and while buying an older model of helicopter may be cheaper in the short run, the cost graph will soon catch up because of the spare parts we will need to purchase," says Shani.
Lockheed Martin's interest is to replace the IAF's older generation helicopters as soon as possible. The company was willing to close a deal two years ago and to supply the aircraft in 2023, but Israel's political deadlock and multiple elections delayed the transaction. Meanwhile, the CH-53 Yasur currently in use with the IDF, which was supposed to have been retired years ago, is aging at a worrying pace. In November 2019, a Yasur carrying soldiers from the IAF's Shaldag special forces unit was forced to make an emergency landing near Kibbutz Beit Kama in the northern Negev desert - seconds after the soldiers disembarked the helicopter caught fire. "These choppers are 50 years old. They are ancient and that's why we want to accelerate the deal and give the IAF a worthy replacement," says Shani.
The flight on the simulator is smooth. We cruise over Masada, pass over the Dome of the Rock and fly in between Tel Aviv's skyscrapers. With the press of a button, we can hear the whirr of the chopper's rotor blades, but flying silently is somehow incredibly tranquil. It feels very much like being in a computer game, tying in with what Cahill said about the world of gaming. Lior Peleg, head of Israel Hayom's social media department, uses his Sony PlayStation 5 experience to be able to adroitly use the simulator. We get a VIP briefing from Brig. Gen. (res.) Itay Reiss, a former commander of the Palmachim Airbase and today VP business development at Lockheed Martin Israel.
"Since the 1960s there have been no new generations of helicopters. Technologies have remained basically unchanged," he explains. "This helicopter brings a dramatic development. What makes it a new generation aircraft is its "Fly-by-Wire" flight control system. Instead of the movement coming through the stick going to the helicopter's rotor blades as we have been used to with regular helicopters, here it goes via the onboard computer system which transmits the movements to the rotor blades in order to achieve the desired targets."
"The things the pilot is busy with are dramatically different. The pilot no longer has to struggle with the sticks in order to achieve a certain flight angle, but is freed up to concentrate a lot more on mission management and the aircraft has more or less autonomous cruise capabilities that support the pilot. Of course, this also has a great impact on many aspects of safety. In the future it will also be possible to add all sorts of developments to the system that will be able to prevent accidents, coming too close to ground and other elements."
The aircraft is also significantly faster than the Yasur," adds Reiss. "The helicopters currently in use with the IAF fly at 120 knots (138 miles per hour). The CH-53K cruises at a speed of 170 knots (195.6 mph) and flies at a speed of over 200 knots (230 mph). That is a dramatically faster flight time."
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