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A US Marine Corps CH-53K King Stallion helicopter with an F-35C suspended in air refueling from a KC-130T Hercules refueling aircraft is an example of what the Marine Corps' distributed aviation operations could look like in the future.
A CH-53K helicopter with a pilot from the 1st Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron (VMX-1) at the controls recently did all that, helping to transport the remains of the first F-24C test aircraft, also known as the CF-35, from the same base on April 1 to another King Stallion transported "an inoperable airframe that was without powerplants, outboard wings, or additional equipment" from Patuxent River Air Force Station in Maryland to the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aviation Division (NAWCAD) in Lakehurst. NAWCAD Lakehurst is located on the grounds of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. What's left of the CF-1 will be used for "future tests of disaster recovery systems" at a new site in New Jersey, the Navy said.
In fact, this is not the first time the CH-53K has carried just such an airframe suspended underneath. The Marines did this as part of a King Stallion payload demonstration in support of Helicopter Support Group Operations on the Patuxent River in January 2023, which you can read more about here. It was the first time the CH-53K helicopter, which has a maximum payload of 16330 kg, has lifted any variant of the F-35 fighter or part of it, but apparently without mid-air refueling.
During testing, the CH-53K also lifted other large loads. The King Stallion's first official real-world mission also involved picking up the wreckage of a smaller MH-60S Seahawk helicopter that crashed in California in 2021. Another CH-53K helicopter was dispatched to search for another downed Seahawk in California last year.
Self-loading any very large cargo under a helicopter and refueling in the air can be difficult and potentially dangerous tasks. Carrying out these operations simultaneously creates its own challenges. Therefore, the flight from Patuxent River to Lakehurst only provided the Marines, as well as the Navy, with useful additional information about the ability of the King Stallion to carry large loads over longer distances.
Moving damaged or otherwise inoperable aircraft, as well as armored and unarmored vehicles and other bulky cargo, has long been one of the key missions of the CH-53 Marine helicopters, even before the arrival of the new King Stallion variant. However, this capability is taking on new importance with new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations that involve a heavy emphasis on island landings during a potential high-level conflict in the Pacific against China.
The Marine Corps currently plans to purchase 200 CH-53Ks to replace existing CH-53Es. The development of the Royal Stallion suffered significant delays, and the Corps did not declare initial operational capability for the type until 2022. The service also delayed the planned first operational deployment of these helicopters aboard an amphibious assault ship, which is now not expected to happen until 2026 at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps, in cooperation with the Navy, continues to demonstrate the impressive capabilities of the new CH-53K in tests, demonstrations and other operations, such as the recent delivery of the CF-1 to Lakehurst.
