GERMANY TO RETIRE CH-53G HELICOPTERS EARLY, KICK-START REPLACEMENT PROCESS IN 2016
DONAUWORTH, Germany - The German Air Force is readying for a new replacement to its fleet of 1970s-legacy VFW-Sikorsky CH-53G/GS/GA Stallions. The German Air Force' (GAF) aging medium/heavy-lift helicopters currently numbers around 84 active units with that total soon to be winnowed to 66.
Airbus Helicopters is currently undertaking an upgrade of 40 of these units to CH-53GA standard (36 of these have already completed the process). The GA variant is an enhanced version of the CH-53G/GS replete with improved avionics, communications, electronic warfare systems and integration of a forward looking infrared (FLIR) sensor turret. The remaining 26 will be of the G/GS variety and Germany had planned to retain these 66 helicopters out to 2030.
In the interim Germany hoped to develop a replacement in tandem with France, focusing on a heavy-lift concept first broached with Paris in 2004 under the name Heavy Transport Helicopter (HTH). That project - referred to as the Future Transport Helicopter program by Germany - would involve the pooling of resources in order to defray costs and involve a purchase of around 100 new helicopters. That project, for which Airbus Helicopters (then as Eurocopter) and Boeing signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the initiative, has remained a drawing-board concept. Sikorsky, in the meantime, proposed a CH-53K variant as an alternative to meet the Future Transport Helicopter requirement.
Now the German Air Force has concluded that it must replace its 40+-year helicopters with an entirely new type during the 2020-2025 period, thus expediting the earlier timetable by a minimum of five years. The German military is reportedly in the early stages of defining specifications for a future requirement. Germany's Defense Ministry is expected requests for information in 2016 for the future platform, the procurement of which will almost certainly number at least 50 units.
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